Can extracted, AutoCad attributes, be changed in Excel?

When you find it please post it. I am unaware of any way to do what you want to do. Have you tried an import on the changed data? If you could do an HTML link that would change the numbers. I do not know how sorry. Seems to me there should be a data base some where in the Acad file you could modify instead. I used to do that with a program that used Access for its storage of data. Make backups so you do not hose it...

I did some research. There is a way to bring attribute data into a spread sheet, like Excel, but the data cannot be changed within Excel, and have it mirrored back to the drawing. On the otherhand, Autocad has a data base program built in . It requires learning a little bit of the SQL programming language. It is then possible to build a data base of data in an Autocad drawing. This data can be inserted into a spreadsheet like Excel. Any change to the data, within the spreadsheet will change the same data in the drawing. This is an advanced topic, and I'll have to look into it more before I can apply it. I found this info in a manual put out by Autocad Press. It is titled Using AutoCad 2004, Advanced, author Ralph Grabowski.ISBN: 1-4018-5058-8.

You would have to write a LISP routine to do it. ?????

NOW THAT WOULD BE WORTH SOMETHING.

sorry for shouting, but I'm a little excited.

I have application out the wazzou for such a critter. even better, the satisfaction of getting the computer to do that which I thought it should have been doing back in release 11.

PLEASE post what you come up with, even if it's just that you reached some dead end.

thankyouverymuch

roy

a 3rd party solution is XL2CAD from

. You create your schedule in Excel then XL2CAD draws the schedule in Acad and inserts/links the data. Pretty slick... Dave DDP

Do some research on SQL. I know in Access there are tables that when the text is modified it is only in that table. You will need to find the master table. Or at least that is what we did with Access. After all the same folks probably wrote the both programs

2004, indeed! I am still using R14 (and I think I WON"T upgrade in the future).

-- Dimitris Tzortzakakis,Irakli> >

We still use R14 as well but we've purchased all the upgrades as they've come out, just haven't installed them.

But recently we've had to start using 2004 due to some arch desktop objects showing up in dwg's that crash r14 (even with obj enabler installed).

The only things about 2000 thru 2004 I hate are:

1. the new plotting interface (To complex for hvac/electrical/plumbing design)
2. the way acad 2000 thru 2004 treats polyline thicknesses. IE. if I have a plotter.ctb file that had the color red set for a thickness .25 then I create a zero thickness polyline in the color red it will be much much thinner than the default .25. Also polyline thicknesses don't plot as thick as they did in r14.

I like 2004, would never go back to 14, just too cumbersome.

-Dennis

after my lisp routines and quick commands are loaded in 2004 I find no difference in 2004 except in plotting and I hate the plotting in all the 2000's series acad.

Dennis,

When I was doing a lot of my own AutoCAD work, I automated repetative steps by using QBasic to write script files for batch attribute editing and AutoLISP routines to insert series of blocks with sequentially numbered attributes. It should be possible to take the spreadsheet with the extracted addresses, add another column with the new addresses, save it to text format, then have a QBasic program read each line and write a -attedit command to perform global editing as follows. It could be done with VBA in Excel, I just never took the time to convert my code. This will work only if two conditions are met: the digital addresses are the same attribute in a unique block and no digital addresses are duplicated.

-ATTEDIT N Y BLOCKNAME ATTRIBUTE_TAG OLD_ADDRESS W 1ST_CORNER 2ND_CORNER

OLD_ADDRESS NEW_ADDRESS_WITH_PREFIX

This will take a few minutes to run. The prefix makes sure that, in case any new address matches an old address, it will not be selected. I usually use &&, since it doesn't mean anything to AutoCAD text. The final command removes the prefixes from all of the addresses.

-ATTEDIT N Y BLOCKNAME ATTRIBUTE_TAG

• W 1ST_CORNER 2ND_CORNER

&&

Hope this helps,

Mike

Try

search for Excel. I found lots of shareware programs to do what you are talking about for all different flavors of Autocad. Here is the description for one of them:

************************************************************ Description: EXCELLINK 2000 is an ARX application for AutoCAD 2000/2000i/2002 (Map, MDT, ADT). It allows to bi-directionally hot link attribute and block data between an AutoCAD drawing and an Excel 97/2000/XP sheet. For room schedules, BOMs, lists, computed attributes, etc.

Version: 1.18 File Size: 305kb Registration: Shareware ($99.00US to register) Platform: AutoCAD 2000, 2000i, 2002, MTD6, ADT3 Author Email: snipped-for-privacy@cadstudio.cz Author Website:

Admin | 4/15/2002 | 1153 Downloads | Rate it!

************************************************************** Good luck

Dennis schrieb:

Sure. Excel links have always been hot-link capable. First with DDE, than OLE.

The remaining problem is how the specify the link from excel to autocad. The only reliable way is to change an text or attrib textvalue. This is the default, every app uses.

Parametric modeling would require a geometrical change also (length, angle, blockname, ...). This needs custom programming, but has also been done.

thank you one and all for the help, and input.

I've come up with several solutions that will work for me, (and my boss).

Dennis

>

Dennis,

I'm a little late on this, but if you have Express Tools, you want to look at ATTOUT and ATTIN. They'll do exactly what you want.

Regards, Al

Dennis wrote: