Please Create a better integration of Excel in Drawings

[Qube-it]

I use Excel to represent engineering data that is separately calculated in many of my drawings and I always have a very tough time fine tuning the look of the imported table in my drawings. It's a back and forth (between Inventor and Excel) that I do, changing the relative size of the table inside Excel and then stretching or compressing the Excel table inside Inventor before the table finally looks right in Inventor AND prints out the same way. Many of my drawings get exported to PDF first and then printed out downstream. If I don't tweak it juuuust right, then the letters and numbers end up looking very inconsistent and blotchy.

It also seems that the "Paste Special" method is the only viable and consitent solution to bring an Excel Table in. I have tried importing an Excel table to an Inventor Table, but that never yields the results I'm looking for and actually takes longer to tweak than the problematic process of bringing in an Excel table on its own merits.

I can appreciate the cross-graphical hacking that is required to even be able to graphically embed Excel tables into Inventor's drawing environment, but I would kindly request that some improvements be made in this area as it is a PITA to be constantly fiddling with.

-Brian Hall-

[Anonymous]

The first time I griped about this was, I think in '01 back around R5.
Inventor's Excel integration stunk back then, and still does, which is
particularly ironic considering that there are major chunks of Inventor that
*won't work* unless Excel is loaded up. Seriously, you'd think that if they
were going to be joined at the hip like that someone would figure out a way
to make the two packages talk the same language. When I inquired back then,
I got the impression that this was one of those things that both Microsoft
and Autodesk were aware of...and each wanted the other to fix.

I guess the finger-pointing is still going on. Instead of fixing the Excel
problem, Autodesk has instead given us a set of half-baked table creation
tools within Inventor. Last version we got (as part of the subscription
bonus pack, mind you) the ability to actually (prepare to be astounded) move
a table from one drawing sheet to another!

Yeah, things really are that lame.

Cheers,
Walt

[mcgyvr]

Here, here Walt.

I only use paste special too as insert object has caused more problems in the past for me. And the built in table functionality is just plain jane functionality with no real formatting options. I hate having to dumb down an excel table so I can bring it into Inventor.., I commonly shrink font size of my whole table just to paste it or else it cuts off rows/columns,etc... It really is a shame it doesn't work better than it does.

[Qube-it]

As much as I would like to focus on holding Autodesk's feet to the fire, I must also bring attention to Microsoft's shortcomings as well. Excel (2007) is mildly problematic in and of itself. Occasionaly I will experience wierd Ribbon dissapearing acts and I have to kill the process (not the task) in order for Excel to close.

So I think you are correct Walt. There are problems on both sides. I would venture to say that maybe with Office 2010 and Inventor 2012 there would be some changes, but they have both had coincidental releases in the past without a proper update to the interaction so I will wait with baited breath. 🙂

Funny thing is, I know that beginning with Inventor 2010 the user interface was switched over to a new programming architecture called WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation). In a nutshell, it separates the UI from the programming logic which enables more flexibility with respect to making changes to either one. From an Excel table formatting perspective this gives me hope that the problem I mentioned above might be more easily fixed than with versions prior to 2010. We'll see.

-Brian Hall-

[j_madison]

I appreciate and I respect the troubles that exist between Excel and Inventor, and the "silly work" that becomes necessary to just get drawings to display correctly.

However, I would prefer that Autodesk -not- spend any more time at all trying to further integrate Excel and Inventor. I think it would be in the best interest of all Inventor users if Autodesk was to shift their focus from a "Microsoft Excel Only" mindset to a simply "generic spreadsheet" mindset. There already exists an Open Document Spreadsheet format (.ods) that can be used by Excel, among many, many, other spreadsheet programs. For more info please see this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenDocument_software

My suggestion is simply this: Use the .ods format to store only data, and use the Inventor graphical interface to control the display of that data. In this way, users get the best of everything. We can choose whichever spreadsheet program suits us (Excel or otherwise) and we 'tweak' the table views in Inventor.

Autodesk, you make good products. Please make them better by moving forward with open standards.

Disclaimer: I am in no way affiliated with any of the makers of spreadsheet programs. I just believe that Autodesk can make a good product even better if they choose open standards whenever possible.

[Qube-it]

So you're saying to do what ever work you want inside the spreadsheet application of your choosing and then "save as" an .ods file extension to bring into Inventor? I like that idea, but it still wouldn't address the formatting problem that has persisted with Inventor. Whether it's Excel, or Google Docs, or Open Office, the issue at hand is the fact that the data doesn't retain it's fidelity well enough to be easily resized and formatted to look good in a drawing without a lot of trial and error. My guess is that part of the reason this occurs is that you're bringing in raster based graphics into a vector based application.

I think one approach would be to completely overhaul the Inventor Table toolset and then bring in spreadsheet data through a native Inventor Table (in a better way than is currently available). When I create a native Inventor Table, formatting it to "look" good is much easier than doing the same thing with an imported Excel table. If there was a much easier way to "copy and paste" the spreadsheet data from the actual spreadsheet to the Inventor table where it keeps the formatting done in the spreadsheet application, then we might be getting somewhere.

[j_madison]

Qube-It,

No, I'm not suggesting that we do a "save-as" to .ods, that's just doing the same thing in a different way.

What I am suggesting is that Autodesk re-think, and re-code Inventor like in your second paragraph, "... bring in spreadsheet data through a native Inventor Table..." And, if Autodesk were to do that with the mindset of using -any- spreadsheet data, rather than just Excel, then I think we'd be on our way to a much better table-making experience on Inventor. Basically, the spreadsheet should be used to store raw data, and the Inventor drawing file should then be used to format and display that data.

Sorry, but my suggestion does not help your immediate issue. I was just trying to change the focus from "make it work better with Excel" to "make it work better with spreadsheet data."

[Anonymous]

>I think one approach would be to completely overhaul the Inventor Table
>toolset and then bring in >spreadsheet data through a native Inventor Table
>(in a better way than is currently available)

Such as chanting and rubbing sticks together

I would also rather that Inventor were not so dependent on Excel...however,
I can see why things were done that way. When you get into iParts, some of
Excel's functionality really comes in handy. I have no idea how much of
that is duplicated in the open source offerings. Excel is also widely
known, so it's not hard to find help if you get stuck trying to figure out
how to do something.

However, integrating the two packages so closely, and then letting the
glaring flaws, glitches, inaccuracies and general lameness just continue
year after year, release after bloody release....there's really no excuse
for it.

Cheers,
Walt

[Qube-it]

Ok, I see. I do like where you're going with the idea of being able to essentially do the same tasks inside of Inventor tables as you can do with Spreadsheet programs. Basically, have a mini spreadsheet program inside Inventor ("...and I will call him Mini-Me").

If I understand you correctly, the Inventor spreadsheet program would be compliant with current open standards. Come to think of it, that's a really great idea. Just to be sure, though, I would still want (need) to be able to bring in data from Excel (or any other spreadsheet program) formatted in the same way and linked back to the original file. I have quite a bit of legacy spreadsheets that are used in other places outside of Inventor and I would really hate to have to "redo" that data.

-Brian Hall-

[Margherita]

I think Autodesk eventually managed to get it right to display Excel properly in Inventor drawings, but looks like with the 2010 version, they messed it up again... back to the same struggles we've had in 2006 😞

Only problem is - now it's even worse, because a lot of my old drawings contain Excel spreadsheets and when I open it in the new Inventor, it doesn't display properly anymore.

One step forward, two steps back. And we carry on dancing...

Spoiler

[Margherita]

oh, and by the way, I have decided to create Excel spreadsheets and import Inventor CAD drawings into it rather - that seems to be working quite a charm. Let's hope that keeps on working in the future as well..