Trouble Editing Spreadsheet In Drawing

[ziemerd]

I have a spreadsheet linked to my drawing. I went into my spreadsheet and did a strike through on text in a cell and made some other changes. I updated the link to the spreadsheet and all the changes came through except the strike through. I tried editing the cell in the drawing but could not find a Format Cells option anywhere.

 

Does anyone know how to get a strike through to show up when the spreadsheet is updated or at least how to edit the spreadsheet in the drawing?

 

Thanks.

 

Dawn

[MaxwellEdison]

Is your datalink set up to always keep Excel formating?

[ziemerd]

Good question....I'm not sure. How do I check that?

[MaxwellEdison]

Edit the datalink and click the expand button on the bottom (should look like a ">" in a circle). Those are the advanced datalink settings.

[ziemerd]

I select the table and click on the upper left corner to get the table menu. then I select Edit Data Link at the right end of the table menu bar. I can then navigate to the spreadsheet I want to use to update the table in my drawing.

 

The problem is I do not see the symbol you described...the > in a circle. Is there another way to edit the data link that includes the button you described?

[ziemerd]

never mind...I found it.

[ziemerd]

It was not set to keep table updated to Excel formatting so I selected it and clicked ok. The table is now very narrow and the text very small. What do I do now?

[MaxwellEdison]

Trydownloading the changes again. Also, you might want to try inserting a new table from the datalink. Its possible your formatting was modified incorrectly after changing the link.

[ziemerd]

Ok...I've tried inserting a new table from the spreadsheet but it's the same. The cell has the text but not the strike through.

[MaxwellEdison]

It's possible AutoCAD doesn't support strikethroughs in text. Perhaps italicizing it to differentiate it in your drawing and some linework to produce the desired outcome? Unless anyone else has any input on it.

[ziemerd]

Thanks for trying...I really appreciate it. I have the AutoCAD Bible for 2008 and it mentions strike through for databases but it doesn't mention it for Excel.

 

I'll keep digging and I'll post here if I find the answer.

[ziemerd]

I just found something called Paste Special that allows me to link a spreadsheet to a drawing that will update the drawing automatically when I change the spreadsheet. Doing this allows the strikethrough to appear in the cell so I'm liking this.

 

What I now want to know is if there are things I can no longer do with the spreadsheet linked to drawing if I Paste Special. Do I lose any features doing it this way?

[MaxwellEdison]

Sounds like an OLE. They can introduce their own sets of problems. Basically think of it as a screenshot of your spreadsheet. AutoCAD treats it like a raster image. I've seen the size get deformed after an edit before, usually fixed by unlocking the aspect ratio in properties. Resetting the X and Y scaling, then relocking the aspect ratio. basically they were what you used before Datalinks came into the picture.

[ziemerd]

Wow...sounds like a bother but it may be our only bet if I can't figure out the other issue. I know text with a strikethrough can be done because I have another drawing with it done but I don't know how it was done.

 

I have a question in to the instructor who taught us the ACE class but it usually takes a while to hear back from him.

[MaxwellEdison]

OLE's can be a pain, which is why they were basically replaced. Please make sure to post your solution if you manage to get this resolved.