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Extracting Data from Blocks for Parts List


ziemerd

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Below is a sample of a part on our part list. The P/O on the second line means Part Of, meaning it's something needed to complete the assembly of the part but it's ordered separately. In the drawing I have created a block for F1 and have attached attributes for the information from the F1 line below. Now I need to somehow add the information for the second line so when I extract the data from the part I'll also have the P/O information as well because the P/O is not shown in the drawing therefore there isn't a block with attributes for the second line.

 

Ref Des Qty P/N Mfr Description

F1 1 AGC-5 Cooper-Bussmann Fuse, 5A Glass

P/O F1 1 HKP-HH Cooper-Bussmann Fuse, Panel Mount Fuseholder

 

A big issue here is that the number after the F is not always the same.

 

Currently I'm attaching the following attributes:

 

Tag: ref_des

Prompt: Ref Des (I put the letter and question mark here so F?)

Default: F

 

Then I attach the above to the block. My next attribute for the same block looks like the following and I have Invisible and Constant selected under Mode:

 

Tag: p_n

Default: AGC-5

 

I attach the above and my next attribute is:

 

Tag: mfr

Default: Cooper-Bussmann

 

Then:

 

Tag: qty

Default: 1

 

Then:

 

Tag: desc

Default: Fuse, 5A Glass

 

Now I can do the same thing for line two but if I have two attributes with the same tag like mfr or p_n how will the extraction process know to put the p_n for line 1 with line 1 and so on.

 

Any ideas on how I can add attributes so it correctly puts the information in a spreadsheet?

 

Thanks for the help.

 

Dawn

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No I haven't I'll look into that...thanks.

 

I don't understand your comments perfectly. But EATTEXT will give you quantities, coordinates any of the information about your block you want and then put it into a table into CAD which can be exported to exel.

 

The not understanding bit results from being partially asleep, not your wording.

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Thanks wannabe...though it very well could be my wording.

 

Ok...I made my block with a bunch of attributes. I'm testing EATTEXT to see if I can extract the data the way I need it. I'm at the spot where it says "Save Data Extraction As" and it's only giving me .dxe as a choice for extentions. Is there a way to have it save to .xls instead? It doesn't give me the option...perhaps I have to create the spreadsheet first?

 

Thanks for the help.

 

Dawn

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Thanks wannabe...though it very well could be my wording.

 

Ok...I made my block with a bunch of attributes. I'm testing EATTEXT to see if I can extract the data the way I need it. I'm at the spot where it says "Save Data Extraction As" and it's only giving me .dxe as a choice for extentions. Is there a way to have it save to .xls instead? It doesn't give me the option...perhaps I have to create the spreadsheet first?

 

Thanks for the help.

 

Dawn

 

Just create it as a table in autocad then right click on it and export it. It will then be saved as a .csv file which exel can read.

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You are correct. It has to save it as a dxe but I went through the wizard several times and the last couple of times it let me create an xls file for some reason. I selected all the same things I had only changed my attributes to see if I could get what I wanted.

 

Anywho, I'm still having trouble. I'm having a hard time pasting an example because it squishes everything together so you can't see the columns. Essentially I have the following headings in my parts list:

 

Ref Des (column 1) Qty (column 2) P/N (Column 3) Mfr (Column 4) Description (column 5) Notes (Column 6)

 

Each block has attributes for the parts list headings. When I have a part that has other parts tied to it, it looks like I can only make one row in the spreadsheet per block and I need to fill two or more rows.

 

In other words, one block will have two Ref Des to identify the part and identify the other part that goes with it. Say I had a 9 pin D-Sub. Well I need 9 pins for that D-Sub. So I have a block for the D-Sub and it has attributes for the part number, manufacturer and so on. Well the pins have a different part number, mfr, and it's qty is 9 where the D-sub qty is 1. I do not have a block for the pins but want to add attributes to the D-Sub block to include the pins.

 

Hopefully that is more clear.

 

Any help will be much appreciated. I'm at a critical spot with this because drawings are waiting to get updated with new blocks to include all this info if possible.

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You are correct. It has to save it as a dxe but I went through the wizard several times and the last couple of times it let me create an xls file for some reason. I selected all the same things I had only changed my attributes to see if I could get what I wanted.

 

Anywho, I'm still having trouble. I'm having a hard time pasting an example because it squishes everything together so you can't see the columns. Essentially I have the following headings in my parts list:

 

Ref Des (column 1) Qty (column 2) P/N (Column 3) Mfr (Column 4) Description (column 5) Notes (Column 6)

 

Each block has attributes for the parts list headings. When I have a part that has other parts tied to it, it looks like I can only make one row in the spreadsheet per block and I need to fill two or more rows.

 

In other words, one block will have two Ref Des to identify the part and identify the other part that goes with it. Say I had a 9 pin D-Sub. Well I need 9 pins for that D-Sub. So I have a block for the D-Sub and it has attributes for the part number, manufacturer and so on. Well the pins have a different part number, mfr, and it's qty is 9 where the D-sub qty is 1. I do not have a block for the pins but want to add attributes to the D-Sub block to include the pins.

 

Hopefully that is more clear.

 

Any help will be much appreciated. I'm at a critical spot with this because drawings are waiting to get updated with new blocks to include all this info if possible.

 

 

Ok.

 

I seriously recommend you head to the customisation forum and check out http://www.cadalyst.com to see if there is a lisp or macro to achieve what you want.

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I tried the export attribute information tool under blocks in the express menu but all it did was list my attribute defaults and tags in a text file. Am I missing something?

 

In the meantime perhaps I should check out the link you put in your other post.

 

Thanks for the help...I'm learning new things here...that's for sure.

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I tried the export attribute information tool under blocks in the express menu but all it did was list my attribute defaults and tags in a text file. Am I missing something?

 

In the meantime perhaps I should check out the link you put in your other post.

 

Thanks for the help...I'm learning new things here...that's for sure.

 

The express attribute information was a long shot. I used it in a previous role and couldn't remember exactly what it did. I was hoping maybe you could combine the two functions.

 

Head to the customisation forum on this site and also the link I gave you. Chances are that someone else has had this problem and had a program written for it.

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doesn't electrical contain a BOM extraction tool. Isn't it possible to utilise that?

 

And if not, can you explain why. We are having a live demo with the top UK AutoCAD Electrical guy in a few weeks time and any curve ball I can throw will be good.

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Thanks Dave. I'll look into the BOM feature in Electrical. I'm new to ACADE so I'm not really sure what it all has. I'll go sifting through the Help to see what I can find. I'll let you know if I find some "curve balls" for you.

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