Report Column widths

[Anonymous]

Hello All ... Is there a way I can modify the column widths of various reports generated by ACADE at the time of their insertion on the drawing. There's the column squeeze factor, but that will just uniformly squeeze all columns by that factor. What if I want to change the widths individually. Also, it doesnt seem to support Word Wrap .. does it ? Thanks and Regards Abhishek Singhal

[Anonymous]

Abhishek, There are two ways to do this in the current version of AutoCAD Electrical (neither is very pretty): The first is to go ahead and insert the report as a dumb table and then use AutoCAD STRETCH WINDOW to adjust the column width. The second way is a bit more complicated but works better. 2a. Make sure that the target report type has a ".set" file established (a ".set" file is auto-created in the USER folder the very first time you run a given report AND then hit "Change report format" button - the ".set" file name is same as report name plus the ".set" extension). For example, terminal number report will generate a report settings file "c:\documents and settings\{user name}\autodesk\...support\user\term.set" if you change anything in the report's format. 2b. Open this settings file with any ASCII text editor. It has five lines of text. The 3rd line gives a list of field character widths corresponding to the field names listed in the 2nd line. Adjust these column widths per your needs. 2c. Save the file. Now, any time you run that particular type of report and it displays in the report dialog, untoggle the "Squeeze" button. The report display will now follow the column widths as found in the edited ".set" file. Hitting the "Put On Drawing" button will then use these column widths for the report as it is inserted on to your drawing. Word wrap - the current version of AutoCAD Electrical does not support word-wrapping within the inserted report tables. Hope this helps... Nate.

[Anonymous]

Nate, Thanks ! This will do my work. Can AutoCAD Electrical be customized using VBA beyond what the regular AutoCAD allows. I could not find any entry points into ACADE functions from VBA. Does that mean any customization requiring ACADE functions has to be done in Lisp ? Thanks and Regards Abhishek Singhal "Nate Holt (Autodesk)" wrote in message news:40030449$1_2@statler... > Abhishek, > > There are two ways to do this in the current version of AutoCAD Electrical > (neither is very pretty): > > The first is to go ahead and insert the report as a dumb table and then use > AutoCAD STRETCH WINDOW to adjust the column width. > > The second way is a bit more complicated but works better. > 2a. Make sure that the target report type has a ".set" file established (a > ".set" file is auto-created in the USER folder the very first time you run a > given report AND then hit "Change report format" button - the ".set" file > name is same as report name plus the ".set" extension). For example, > terminal number report will generate a report settings file "c:\documents > and settings\{user name}\autodesk\...support\user\term.set" if you change > anything in the report's format. > 2b. Open this settings file with any ASCII text editor. It has five lines of > text. The 3rd line gives a list of field character widths corresponding to > the field names listed in the 2nd line. Adjust these column widths per your > needs. > 2c. Save the file. > > Now, any time you run that particular type of report and it displays in the > report dialog, untoggle the "Squeeze" button. The report display will now > follow the column widths as found in the edited ".set" file. Hitting the > "Put On Drawing" button will then use these column widths for the report as > it is inserted on to your drawing. > > Word wrap - the current version of AutoCAD Electrical does not support > word-wrapping within the inserted report tables. > > Hope this helps... > Nate. > >

[Anonymous]

Nate,
i have followed your instructions as per below, however the *.set file is not holding the column width info, neither is there a line in the set file that i can edit to force them.

i have created a file called "bom_fra.set" in my user folder. in the ASCII file there are lines as follows:

reportname - as per above
format - indicates the column headers used (and in which order)
title - names of all possible column headers
characters - im assuming this is the max characters in each column row
justification
sorting

can i enter my own line to force column widths? i notice the above post was some time ago, is this something that has been changed in acade 2006? if so, how can i do it now.

also, the first column of my reports is the item column. why does this always appear blank? i want it to just read 1, 2, 3 etc.

Thanks