Integration of schedules & registers across platforms

[Susan Murray]

Is anyone using software, plugin or found another “seemless” way of linking data between MS Xcel and CAD? I am currently making a datalink in CAD to the Xcel data and creating a table with the data link, but it is not easy to modify in CAD and if changes are made to the table’s size or formatting in Xcel, the table in CAD goes corrupt. I have also done the “paste special” to link the table to CAD, but the same thing happens.  I have searched through the CAD forums online, but thought I would try this forum, since l.a.’s deal with multi-platform schedules & sheet registers.  In my dream world, I would have one sheet register in an xcel file that automatically updates the drawing index in our drawings (CAD) and specifications (Word).  As it is now, a lot of time is wasted updating each index separately.  Any thoughts?

Thanks,

Susan

[Eric Gilbey]

Susan, I would suspect by CAD you are referring to AutoCAD, and for that I would not be able to offer a helpful suggestion. If you are looking for a CAD application that provides this currently, I would suggest you take a look at Vectorworks Landmark. With ODBC functionality, it does have the ability to tie the data from Excel to the worksheets within Vectorworks. I believe this link may further explain how this process works. http://kbase.vectorworks.net/questions/967/ODBC+Compatibility+-+Excel

[Susan Murray]

Thank you Eric – yes, I was referring to AutoCAD.  We do not use Vectorworks in our office; however, we have been considering it.  Thanks for the recommendation.

[Dennis J. Jarrard, PLA, CLARB]

I have created Schedules in Xcel and have successfully inserted them using “paste special” into Microstation files. I have never done this with Autocad.

[Susan Murray]

Yes, AutoCAD does this as well, but it is not always reliable – if the table is changed (i.e. rows or columns added or deleted) the linked table in AutoCAD does weird things.

[Chris Whitted]

I don’t know about ‘seamless’, nor do I know how well the current versions are working, but I use an add-on called AutoXlsTable.  In my version (2.53) it’s not completely automatic – you do have to click a tool and then the table to update it.  But it’s fast, easy enough to use once you get the parameters down, and worked very well for the land use tables, plant schedules, drawing indexes, and other misc. charts we used it for.

[Susan Murray]

Thanks Chris – I’ll take a look at this.  I know, seamless is probably asking a little much – but there has to be something that works better than my current method.

[Susan Murray]

Hi Henry – we do have LandFX in our office – I will have to see if it can do what we need –  thanks for the recommendation!

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