OLE Plots as black box

[rickats]

I'm using AutoCAD 2008 and Excel 2007.

I tried importing a spreadsheet into AutoCAD, which worked great, everything is there that needs to be. But when I plot to PDF my spreadsheet is a black box.

When I open the PDF the data is still there from the spread sheet. I am able to highlight cells in the black box where they should be and copy+paste the data to another program.

When I do a plot preview there is no black box, the spreadsheet OLE shows up fine.

I don't know how to fix this issue. Any ideas?

Rick S.

[rickats]

I figured out a work around.

It was the way I was importing the excel data apparently.

In AutoCAD 2008 I was going to Insert-> OLE Object... and point it at my spreadsheet. and the plot as black boxes.

Now, in excel I highlight what I want and copy, then paste special in AutoCAD, and it magically plots normal.

I have no idea what the difference is in doing it this way. But I don't have black boxes anymore.

[MaxwellEdison]

Glad you found a workaround. I've found that OLE's were just AutoDesk's way of adding interesting and random glitches into AutoCAD. I highly recommend you take a look at the Datalinked tables. Biggest difference is they are an autocad table element (vector) and not a raster image prone to wonky resizing at their own choosing.