Copy From Excel to AutoCAD

[Bill Tillman]

I just read a small tutorial which explained how to copy and paste a BOM from Excel into an AutoCAD drawing. The directions said to:

 

Create the BOM in Excel

Highlight the cells in the Excel file which contain the BOM

Copy these cells to the clipboard

Open the AutoCAD file

Choose and use the % PRODUCT Entities choice

 

Trouble is in my version of AutoCAD on this machine (2010) there is no % PRODUCT Entities choice in the menu. The paste action worked but it simply brought in a graphic image which I cannot edit as text within AutoCAD. Silly me!

 

I am looking for a way to copy the BOM from Excel to AutoCAD but need it to be text in a table which I can edit within AutoCAD later. This is all new to me and I'm searching for good information on how to import/export between AutoCAD and Excel.

[alanjt]

If it won't let you just paste in, try it with the INSERTOBJ command.

[SLW210]

Paste Special>Paste Link>AutoCAD Entities.

 

Where is the tutorial you read?

[Bill Tillman]

The link was at this site:

 

http://www.cadalyst.com/cad/autocad/import-3d-points-excel-autolisp-solutions-4708

 

I did figure out that I could use the AutoCAD Entities selection. That worked well. I was also dissappointed to find today that the IMPORTXYZ.lsp program which I have used with csv file, did not work directly on an Excel file. I don't know if I am doing anything wrong but for some reason the lisp file will not work on my Excel files. I checked it again with a csv file and it worked but it's a no go with the Excel file I saved using Excel 2007.

[ReMark]

Bill! You have AutoCAD 2012! Not AutoCAD 2000. Use the Dynamic Link feature which was added to AutoCAD back in the 2008 version. Anything else, in my opinion, is old school.

[Organic]

Bill! You have AutoCAD 2012! Not AutoCAD 2000. Use the Dynamic Link feature which was added to AutoCAD back in the 2008 version. Anything else, in my opinion, is old school.

 

What happens with this when we save down to a 2000 or a 2004 .dwg file though?

[ReMark]

I would respectfully suggest to the other party that they consider upgrading to a more recent version of AutoCAD? I don't know; I'd have to test it.

 

Bill: Do you need to back save this drawing with the embedded spreadsheet to a version of AutoCAD prior to 2008?

Edited December 14, 2011 by ReMark

[Bill Tillman]

...Bill: Do you need to back save this drawing with the embedded spreadsheet to a version of AutoCAD prior to 2008?

 

The client I'm working for is using AutoCAD 2009. I'm working with 2012 so yes I will have to back save this to am earlier version. Shouldn't be a problem though.