Civil3D / Map 2008 - Creating Dynamic Points with Excel

[Bob Hellbringer]

I'm at a dead end in trying to get CAD to show points I have in an Excel file. More specifically, I want it to be dynamic so that if I change the coordinates of a point in excel (or autocad), the changes will be reflected in my drawing. I'm hoping for something more advanced than a straight-up .csv file conversion > import method.

My points have 5 columns:
Point | Northing | Easting | Elevation | Description

I've gotten Map '08 to communicate with my spreadsheet as a data source, including showing up in a data table and the dbConnect Manager. I was able to get "points" to display Data Connect tool by defining X, Y coordinates under the "Add ODBC connection" feature class. However, these points aren't really usable in terms of being able label them with Name, Easting, Northing, etc, or to change a point style for them. They come in as "MAPBULKFEATURE".

Does Autocad Civil3D even support what I am trying to do natively or am I entering plug-in/lisp/script territory?

Perhaps I have a fundamental misunderstanding of how the program works, but I can't help but feel I'm merely unaware of one or two steps. It seems like a straightforward concept to me, but I just can't find anything in CAD to make it doable. Please help!

Thanks,
Bob H.

[rustysilo]

I'm curious to know why you would be changing points in the first place? Why not just import them as one normally would?

[rakachitra]

I'm curious to know why you would be changing points in the first place? Why not just import them as one normally would?

Bob,

Rustysilo got the point. I am also curious what is your workflow and for what kind of information/analysis your points serve.

[Prime]

The short anser is NO.

ID: TS34004


Note: If you configure an Excel spreadsheet using the Microsoft OLE DB Provider for ODBC Drivers, you cannot open the spreadsheet for editing from within Autodesk Map. To make changes to the spreadsheet, you must edit it in Microsoft Excel.