Automatic Text or Block sequential numbering

[Lapdog1968]

I cannot use Visual Basic. I would rather have a simple fix to my situation. Here goes.

 

I have a spreadsheet in excel with Item numbers which corresponds to adding a cable, deleting a cable and/or changing a cable on original drawings and as-built drawings. a set of original drawings exists consisting of 58 drawings. a set of as-built drawings exist consisting of 58 drawings. Each Item number on the excel spreadsheet corresponds exactly with the mtext number on the cad drawings.

 

Problem....Lets say I finish the spread sheet and each change is numbered from 1 to 500. I find each instance of the change on the drawings and place a text entity next to it. If I delete or add an Item number on the spreadsheet, it throws off the matching numbering sequence in the drawings. Example, If I delete an item number say........250. Number 251 now becomes 250. The drawings however still show 251. That number and each subsequent number would have to be manually changed. It sucks. I wish I could insert blocks as numbers or fields or do something that will update the numbers automatically. Extracting the attribute data would be even better so as to generate a spreadsheet automatically which could be a solution.. I NEED a simple fix.

[Glen Smith]

It's been a while since I have been around, but I'm waiting on an answer myself, so I'll take a stab.

 

Can you define a block which consists of an attribute and perhaps a point or node. This would take the place of your MText with the number. Since this is now an attribute, you can extract the attribute from the drawing, massage it in excel to suit, building your spreadsheet from this data. You can then import back into the drawing any changes you want to make to any attributes.

 

The commands I think you need are ATTOUT and ATTIN.

 

Someone smarter than I am may be along (or beat me to posting) to allow you to use the text you already have. In fact, you can use DATAEXTRACTION to export the existing MText, and LeeMacs amazing PtManager LISP to bring back in the new MText attribute.

 

Good luck