Use Table Styles for Data Extraction Tables

Extract Data from Drawings and Spreadsheets

Understand Data Linking and Matching

 

AutoCAD 2008 User's Guide > Share Data Between Drawings and Applications > Extract Data from Drawings and Spreadsheets > 

Link an Excel Spreadsheet to Access Data

Concept

Procedure

Information in a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet can be combined with extracted data from drawings.

By linking to an Excel spreadsheet, you can include information from an entire worksheet, or part of a worksheet, referred to as a named range. Using the Link External Data dialog box, you can

• Specify a data link by selecting an XLS file to which the extracted data from the drawing will be linked.
• Match the extracted drawing data and the spreadsheet data. (See Understand Data Linking and Matching for more information.)
• Select the columns in the XLS file to merge with the extracted drawing data.

On the Refine Data page, you access the Link External Data dialog box; you can set up a link to an entire Excel spreadsheet, or to a range of rows and columns, to the extracted data.

Before you can link a spreadsheet, Microsoft Excel needs to be installed on the same computer on which the data extraction is performed. If Microsoft Excel is not installed, or if the XLS file is not saved locally on the computer that is performing the data extraction, a data link cannot be established.

If a linked spreadsheet has been changed, such as a row or column has been added, the table in your drawing can be updated accordingly using the DATALINKUPDATE command. Likewise, if a change is made to the table in the drawing, the linked spreadsheet can be updated using the same command.