Exporting Schedules

[hjsanders]

Is there a way to preset the file name of different scedules when exporting to Excel?  I seems to default to the last one used.

[hjsanders]

Or is there a way to export the Drawing name as one of the columns?

[David_W_Koch]

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@hjsanders wrote:

Is there a way to preset the file name of different scedules when exporting to Excel?  I seems to default to the last one used.

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Not that I know of.  The very first use gave me Schedule.xls as the title, with no path.  The second and subsequent uses gave me the file from the first use, even after closing and restarting ACA 2015.  I did not check to see what happens if I move or delete that file.  But there does not appear to be a way to associate an export file with a particular Schedule Table instance (or even the style).

[David_W_Koch]

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@hjsanders wrote:

Or is there a way to export the Drawing name as one of the columns?

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Unless the Drawing Name appears in the Schedule Table being exported, I would not expect to be able to do what you ask using the out-of-the-box tool.

[hjsanders]

Thanks for trying,

You would think that after 15 years of ACA that would have come up in a design meeting. 

[hjsanders]

I couldn't find any Property Set Definitions that included drawing information.  Which of course means, no columns in schedules.

Edit:

When you said if it's not on a column... it got me to thinking.

 So I went back and added a formula column and manually added the drawing name.  As with all VBA if you want to display text as text in a formula add quote marks before and after.

[David_W_Koch]

If you really wanted a column for the drawing name of each item in the Schedule Table, I was going to suggest that you could set up a Formula property that would report the value of the DWGNAME System Variable for each object, but it turns out that in situations where that might be of use, scheduling multiple files in one schedule, either by external references in the file with the Schedule Table, or by setting up a separate, external file with the external references and then specifying that file as an external file for a Schedule Table in a separate file, the value reported is always that of the current drawing, even though the objects themselves report their own drawing, inside their own drawing.

So, other than adding a manual parameter to hold a manually entered drawing name, I do not see a way to get the drawing name as a property that could be displayed in a column in a Schedule Table.

[David_W_Koch]

Or, you could do what you did while I was typing my previous response.

[hjsanders]

I was wrong about the quotes.

It seems that entering the system variable as an undefined entry results in the system variable being treated like text (no quote needed).

Any ideas on using system variables in a  column formula?

[David_W_Koch · Accepted solution]

The following code works in a Formula property or a formula column.  The problem is that in either case, the result in a Schedule Table is the drawing in which the Schedule Table appears, not the file where the object resides.  If that is what you want, then this should work.

Set acadApp = GetObject(,"AutoCAD.Application")

RESULT = acadApp.ActiveDocument.GetVariable("DWGNAME")

[hjsanders · Accepted solution]

Perfect,

Thank you.

Except for Title Blocks I rarely use Xrefs unless I'm working on site plans with multiple lots or buildings.  VisionRez relies on layer management to display the various views, and floors. It works pretty good for light frame residential (up to 5 floors).

Once again, Thanks.

[hjsanders]

Is that Lisp or VBA?

I write Microsoft VBA code all the time and the syntax seems a little different.

[David_W_Koch]

Formula properties are interpreted as VBScript, which is, I am told, similar to, yet slightly different from, VBA.

[hjsanders]

One Last (hopefully) Thing,

Were you able to learn that from the help files?  Or is do you know of a good web site where I can have a look?

[David_W_Koch]

I hope that is in the Help file.  If you edit a Formula property, the lower right pane, labeled Insert VBScript code:, has a number of items that can be double-clicked to place them in the Formula edit box.  If you right click on the ones that are VBScript code, there is a VBScript Help: choice on the context menu that will take you to the Microsoft website, to the page that describes that code's function and use.

When formula properties were first introduced, a helpful PDF with explanations and examples was posted in the Discussion Groups by Scott Arvin.  While the original forum in which that was posted is no longer available, you can find a repost of the PDF in my 08-01-2014 reply to this thread.

You may also find information of use in my blog.  Links to Schedule-Feature-related posts can be found in this post, along with links to other resources.  I try to keep that page up-to-date, but there may be a more recent post or two that I have yet to add.

[hjsanders]

Thanks David,

Here is how Microsoft describes it:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/t0aew7h6(v=vs.84).aspx

What comes next is much more difficult. Please Stand by.

[John.W.Mumaw]

When formula properties were first added, I found the book "VBScript in a Nutshell" by Lomax,Childs, & Petrusha, very usefull.  Of particular interest to those familiar to Visual Basic is that with each command there is a discussion of the differences between VB ad VBScript.

John

[David_W_Koch]

I have the VBScript in a Nutshell book as well (2nd edition).  It makes for a nice, at-hand reference when working on a formula property.  I also bought VBScript: Programmer's Reference, by Susanne Clark, Antonio De Donatis, Adrian Kingsley-Hughes, Kathie Kingsley-Hughes, Brian Matsik, Erick Nelson, Piotr Prussak, Daniel Read, Carsten Thomsen, Stuart Updegrave, Paul Wilton.  (I bought the first edition, one month before the second edition came out; the third edition is the current out, by Adrian Kingsley-Hughes, Kathie Kingsley-Hughes, Daniel Read).

The Nutshell book organizes the command listing in alphabetical order, making it easy to find the details on a command if you know the name.  The Programmer's Reference groups commands by function, making it easy to look at, for example, all commands that process strings.  Both have indices or listings that work the other way.  I have the Nutshell book at home and the Programmer's Reference at work, and use both.