Paste Special Ts

When I copy a range of Excel cells and paste them into AutoCAD Civil 3D 2017, I get the option to paste as “Ts”.

It looks good and is better than using the paste as AutoCAD objects or creating table links (the paste as Ts looks exactly like the cells to in Excel, same size and everything, and update when the Excel file changes.

My problem is that it seems to really slow down the opening of the drawing, even moreso than when we use tables that auto-update when opening.

I have looked on the web and can find no information about what a “Ts” even is, much less a way to control its' behaviour. I think this may relate to it being C3D, or 2017. I don't remember the “Ts” option when using 2015.

If anyone could help me figure out what Ts is, and if it has any setting to make our drawings load faster, I would appreciate it.

ETA : The Ts option is only available when the Excel file is open, if that matters or helps.

Thank you

The CADDork

Whatever it is, it inserts as an OLE. I avoid using these at all costs. In the past, they have created lots of problems for me.

Thank you for your response RobDraw.

I wish I could decide what I use as I don't always like OLE objects myself, since we are on a network, it seems more problems arise with the more "non-AutoCAD" objects that populate our drawings.

Paste Special > AutoCAD Entities. Or, try Datalink. See if this works better for you.

-TZ

So, you are forced to use something that could potentially cause harm, possibly serious, to you drawings?

Standards gone bad?

We have to use county state & county supplied Excel files for this stuff.

We were using Datalinks & Paste Special > AutoCAD Entities, but they come in extremely large, since AutoCAD tables seem to have to expand so that text in the Excel cell that overwrite the cell will fit within the table cell, if that makes sense, and some of the tables become very large, and the text must remain 0.1" in height per county regs.

The Datalinks were very slow to create (typing in very specific names for the many many tables) and the Paste Special > AutoCAD Entities didn't seem to cooperate in a way that made all here happy.

The Datalinks size made 1 1/2 pages of Ts links (or just non-updating copy & paste) grow to 4 pages or more in some cases. Others prefer copy and paste as image so it looks just like the Excel file, but with several edits each time, it quickly adds up to several extra hours to recopy & paste, whereas links are 1 few second affair to update.

I appreciate the response tzframpton and all the help (lurking mostly) I have received over the years from you, RobDraw, Remark & many others.

Thank you for the reply

Generally quick & dirty is the name of the game, and OLE in many instances is the fastest method, and so it is the norm.

To date OLE hasn't caused any real issues, at least not since we switched from 2010 to 2017.

The same issues occur on a clean machine with a out of the box drawing, so I don't think the standards in our base drawing have gone bad or been corrupted, if that is what you mean RobDraw.

The same issues occur on a clean machine with a out of the box drawing, so I don't think the standards in our base drawing have gone bad or been corrupted, if that is what you mean RobDraw.

Nope. I meant standards as is guidelines as to how certain things go into the drawing. OLEs, although not officially not allowed are very frowned upon, especially for tables. I had one project that we used them extensively on. When it came time to print, they were all truncated. The quick fix was to change my screen resolution. Not sure how I came up with that one but we haven't used OLEs for tables since.

The Datalink Table can be controlled with a good Table Style. Get that working good and you'll never have a problem. Best thing to do is reference in an Excel file from an existing job from a temporary location, set up the Table Style, and delete the referenced Excel file so that it is orphaned in the XREF Manager. Save this in your Template. Now, when you start a job, you can simply re-attach a new Excel file from a new job location and it'll sync up nicely, while retaining the existing formatting.

-TZ

Thanks again for all the help. I will try your suggestions and perhaps get the powers that be to try something other than OLE the way we currently do it.