Attribute extraction to Word or Excel

[KristiS]

I hope I'm in the right area for this....

I am using AutoCAD 2007. I’ve successfully figured out how to extract the attributes to a table and put them on the drawing for a Bill of Material. What I also want to do is link that information (whether it be by the table itself or another type of file) into another format (Word or Excel, etc.) for other people [that don’t have CAD capability] to use, something that can be updated when I update the drawing.

Please help me!! This is driving me crazy!!

[Mamma Jamma]

In 2007 AutoCAD, you can extract to Excel format using Attribute Extraction (page 4, Finalize Output, lower left "External File"), but it won't update when the drawing changes.
I believe that has been fixed in 2009, though I haven't done it yet.

[ameador]

In 07 you should be able to link the excel file w/ the acad table.
However, it will not change the number of items on the dwg....aka if you show in your excel file you have 7 whatchamacallits and you need to change that to 9, you can update the excel file and it will update the acad table, but it will not add 2 new whatchamcallits to your dwg. You could also update the acad table and it will update the excel file as well.

Look up OLE Linking. If you want more info I can paste in an excerpt from my reference guide I wrote up based off of ABS 07....but this is an Acad feature so it should work the same.

[KristiS]

Thanks for the feedback. I'm going to have to play with it and see what I can get it to do.

Ameador - fi you could post that excerpt, that would be wonderful.

Happy New Year all!!

[ameador]

Happy New Year to you all as well!!

All I ask is if you decide to reproduce this information and/or pass it along that you do credit me with it. I also have some information like this on my blog as well.

http://abbie-abs.blogspot.com/

Here are some helpful (hopefully) hints on OLE linking for ABS 07 and Excel/Word and at the end is my write up on Attribute extraction into an ABS Table:

OLE Linking Excel and ABS 2007:
NOTE: The border around cells and the text formatting may not appear exactly the same inside ABS as it appears in Excel.
OLE = object linking and embedding
You must first create your Excel file and save it inside of Excel.
Open ABS 2007, open the drawing you want the Excel file in.
Make sure you are in modelspace.
Set current layer to “0”.
Go to Insert/OLE Object.
Choose “create from file”.
Browse to your Excel file, select it, then click “open”.
If you check the “link” box:
This will link to Excel, therefore, if you make changes in the Excel file it WILL appear in your ABS dwg.
If you Uncheck the “link” box:
Any changes made to the Excel file will NOT appear in the ABS dwg.
When you go to edit, it will look like you are making the changes in Excel, but it will not be editing the actual Excel file.
It just uses the Excel interface for you to edit within.
Click “Ok”.


OLE Editing and Moving:
Editing a linked Excel file in ABS:
Double click on the table and Excel will open.
Edit the table as desired in the Excel pop-up.
Save the Excel file, and exit Excel.
You will automatically see the changes in ABS.
If you have added columns and/or rows and they do not show up in your ABS drawing you will need to save the ABS
drawing and close out of it, then reopen the drawing inside of ABS.
Editing a linked Excel file in Excel:
Open up the Excel program.
Open your file that is linked to ABS inside of Excel.
Edit as desired.
Save the file.
Exit Excel.
Open up ABS and then open up the drawing inside of ABS with the linked file in it.
You should see the changes you made in Excel in the ABS drawing now.

Editing a non-linked Excel file in ABS:
Double click on the table and what LOOKS like Excel will open.
Edit the table as desired in this pop-up.
You will NOT be able to save this.
Once you are done making changes simply close out of the pop-up.
Your changes should automatically appear on your ABS drawing.
NONE of the changes will appear on your original Excel file.

Moving the OLE table around in ABS:
Inside ABS click on your OLE table.
Type ‘m” to move, or click on the move icon.
Now you can move it around to the desired location.
You can also click on the grips and adjust the size.


Convert Excel Table to an ABS Table:
Open up Excel and open the file you want in ABS.
Highlight and select all the cells you want inside of the ABS dwg.
Go to Edit/Copy.
Open ABS.
Open your drawing inside of ABS that you want the table to appear in.
Make sure you are in modelspace.
{The current layer step below is due to how I have our table layers set-up, you probably won't need to worry about this, and you may not have this layer created even}
Set current layer to “M-Anno-Schd” (load this layer if necessary).
Go to Edit/Paste Special.
Make sure “Paste” is selected instead of “paste link”.
Select “AutoCAD entities” from the list.
Hit “Ok”.
Click inside your ABS drawing for an insertion point.
Be patient, this can take a little bit to do.
It will automatically open up the editor for the table, just click “Ok”
Now your table will function like an ABS table. (edit, size, add columns/rows, etc)
Keep in mind any editing you do to this table will not change in the Excel file, and vice versa.
This is not a linked process.
NOTE: The schedule comes in at a 1:1 scale.
You will need to scale it up per your modelspace scale (if it is an 1/8” dwg scale it up 96 times).
Edit the table as required.


Extracting Attribute Information into a Table:
You can extract attribute information from an entire drawing and drop it into a table to do quantity counts with.
This could be helpful when counting F/S dampers.
{We have an attributed block for our fire and smoke dampers that we usually will need to count on projects}
I would suggest using the layer isolate function to assist in selecting a specific grouping of attributed blocks.
Make sure you have saved your drawing first.
Go to modelspace.
Set current layer to “0”.
Make sure you have all the blocks with attributes already in your drawing.
Type “eattext” at the command prompt.
An “Attribute Extraction” pop-up will appear.
There will be 6 steps to this process.
Click on “Create table or external file from scratch”.
Click “Next”.
If you want the count on the whole drawing click on “current drawing”.
Verify that the drawing name under “drawing files” is the one you are working in.
Click on the “Additional settings” button.
Verify that the “include nested blocks” and “include blocks in xrefs” are checked.
Verify that the “include all blocks from entire drawing” is selected.
Click “Ok”.
Click “Next”.
You can choose what blocks to gather the attributed information out of in this step (step #3 out of 6).
In the left-hand section called “Blocks” you can uncheck anything you do NOT want included in the count.
In the right-hand section called “Properties for checked blocks” you can uncheck any attribute that you do NOT want include.
You can edit the displayed text by clicking under the “display name” column and edit what the table will output.
Click “Next”.
It will preview the information. If you do not like it hit the “Back” button and edit it again.
You can click on “Full preview” to see it as it will appear in your drawing.
Make sure under the “Extract attribute data to” section “AutoCAD table” is checked.
Click “Next”.
You can enter in a title for this table if desired.
Next select the “{Your company} ABS Standard Table Style”.
Make sure “Display tray notification when data needs refreshing” is checked.
Click “Next”.
Click “Finish”.
It will warn you “Any manual edits you make to an attribute extraction table will be lost when you refresh the data in this table”.
This includes any scaling!
Click on “Yes”.
Click somewhere in your drawing to place the table.
If your drawing is NOT 1’-0” = 1’-0” scale you will need to scale up this table.
Click once on the table to select it.
Type “Scale”.
Choose the base point.
Scale as required (use 96 for an 1/8”= 1’-0” drawing).
Now move your table around as desired.
Select the table and change the layer it is on to “M-Anno-Schd”.
{The current layer step above is due to how I have our table layers set-up, you probably won't need to worry about this, and you may not have this layer created even}
Now you can print out this schedule if needed, if not place it off to the side in your drawing.
Keep in mind you will need to interpret this table. What it is giving you is the # of times each symbol block appears. Therefore, if
it says qty 5 for F & S that means there are 5 F’s and 5 S’s.

[KristiS]

Thank you so much! I will get on this right away. Hopefully I can get this to work.

[ameador]

Good luck!

Post back if you have any questions....maybe I can help.