Oracle Database and CAD drawing integration

[paulblackwell]

Hello,
I'm not too sure where this question sits in the forum?

I need to retreive data from an Oracle database and display it on a AutoCAD drawing. For example, a floor plan with desk references needs to display the persons name sitting at the desk, read from the database.
I don't necessarily need the drawing updatated real time, an overnight process would be fine.
It would be a great help if someone could point me in the right direction, software packages, programming languages, anything?

Thanks in adavnce,
Paul

[fuccaro]

When using AutoCAD 2k I played with the DBCONNECT command. I managed to link the records stored in a DBF file to lines placed in a drawing. AutoCAD can label your desks with names stored in a database. You "just" need to connect the drawing to the Oracle file, create the links between the AutoCAD entities and the records and to define a label template.
I used this only once for testing –never needed it in a real project. Also I used AutoCAD 2k and a DBF file, so you should read about the DBCONNECT in the help file.
I remember that I found this process long and hard –probably because I used it for the first time.
The possibilities are interesting. After you will solve this problem please return here and share with us your experience.

[hendie]

hi fuccaro, nice to see you back, even if only for a brief visit.

Paul,
it's possible and not too difficult. I would recommend using VBA for this. It is possible also in Lisp but much more difficult.

I've never used Oracle but I use an MS Access database on a daily basis. I use VBA to connect to the database, query it with SQL and retrieve data which is automatically inserted into the drawing, using block attributes.
Personally I found the dbconnect feature of autocad too limiting and avoided it altogether.
the biggest problem I found was getting the connection string correct, once that was done the rest was relatively easy.