Zoom/pan annoyance when Paste Specialing

Adesk Architecture 2013 30 day trial, W7

 

When Paste Specialing a couple of Excel cells as Picture (Metafile), onto a Paperspace viewport, the screen image instantly zooms in and pans to a particular point, with the Picture floating around attached to my mouse pointer - so I have to zoom out, find the desired spot, click to place the Picture - then it repeats the zoom and pan trick.

 

As I'm doing this routine hundreds of times, placing annotations, it's getting on my ...

 

What's so special about this point it pans to, and the large scale it zooms to? Can I prevent it?

There really is no need to be using "Paste Special" in 2013 since AutoCAD now includes the ability to create a dynamic link with an Excel spreadsheet. The feature was added back in AutoCAD 2008.

Wouldn't that add massively to file size, when there are hundreds of instances? AFAIK the whole Excel spreadsheet gets displayed, rather than just the 2 cells at a time that I need. Yes it would be handy to have those 2 cells, as displayed in Acad, update if the cells change in Excel - but much scope for widespread unintended changes I'd have thought. Safer to just paste in a dumb image of the text contents of the 2 Excel cells.

 

I think I may know what the trouble is - will try in the morning.

Prob solved - the final step of paste special involved picking from a Windows (not part of Acad) dropdown list, which has to be done to conclude the macro routine but isn't captured by the macro - it still has to be done manually every time. On creating the macro I had done the picking with the mouse, and the macro had recorded the click's position on the screen as a location to zoom to as part of the macro. Instead doing the picking by down-arrow>Enter, no such position is recorded - and/or unchecking Restore pre-playback view in the Manage macro>Modify dialog.

There really is no need to be using "Paste Special" in 2013 since AutoCAD now includes the ability to create a dynamic link with an Excel spreadsheet. The feature was added back in AutoCAD 2008.

Hey you're right. It is still the same Paste special routine but with Paste link instead of Paste, checked in the final Windows box. It looks just the same on screen, and it does update after a saved change in the Excel doc and a click on the image in Acad.

 

What about file size, with hundreds of live links instead of dumb images?

If sending the .dwg to someone else, they would have to have the .xls as well, filed where Acad expects to find it - problematic on a strange computer's filing system. Where woiuld the expected filepath be stored? If the .xls isn't present, or not where expected, does the image still display, as most recently edited?

Edited July 29, 2012 by fostertom

Hey you're right. It is still the same Paste special routine but with Paste link instead of Paste, checked in the final Windows box. It looks just the same on screen, and it does update after a saved change in the Excel doc and a click on the image in Acad.

 

What about file size, with hundreds of live links instead of dumb images?

If sending the .dwg to someone else, they would have to have the .xls as well, filed where Acad expects to find it - problematic on a strange computer's filing system. Where woiuld the expected filepath be stored? If the .xls isn't present, or not where expected, does the image still display, as most recently edited?

 

You should take a look at ETRANSMIT, which is one of the options listed in your beloved MENU BAR, if you click on FILE, or on the APPLICATION button, under PUBLISH. There are a lot of available options, once you dive into it, you can probably create a new transmittal setup type however you need it.

What about file size, with hundreds of live links instead of dumb images?

If sending the .dwg to someone else, they would have to have the .xls as well, filed where Acad expects to find it - problematic on a strange computer's filing system. Where woiuld the expected filepath be stored? If the .xls isn't present, or not where expected, does the image still display, as most recently edited?

I thought an linked xls file became an embedded table if the original xls file couldn't be found but could be re-synced at a latter date. You are probably right about file size but I have had lots of issues of losing lines with paste special in the past so its a no brainer for me.

There really is no need to be using "Paste Special" in 2013 since AutoCAD now includes the ability to create a dynamic link with an Excel spreadsheet. The feature was added back in AutoCAD 2008.

Hey you're right. It is still the same Paste special routine but with Paste link instead of Paste, checked in the final Windows box. It looks just the same on screen, and it does update after a saved change in the Excel doc and a click on the image in Acad.

Except that it doesn't work - or works disastrously.

 

The live link from image on screen in Acad, to the Excel file, points to Excel col:row cell address(es), which dob't update if the Excel file is altered, as it inevitably is. So if I add rows into the Excel sheet above, or cols to left, something different is now in the col:row addressed cell(s), and that something else now displays in Acad.

 

Disastrous! how to go back and unscramble that? This behaviour is just as uncouth as in Acad 2006, let alone 2008. I wonder if Adesk is aware of it?

 

Better to paste special in dumb images of the cell(s).