topic Re: Excel Spread Sheets in Drawings - blotchy text? in Inventor Forum

Excel Spread Sheets in Drawings - blotchy text?

phlyx — Mon, 05 Dec 2022 14:07:54 GMT

When we do a valve bank document, we nest an Excel spreadsheet that shows the I/O callout and also the function. We have found that if we have no background color behind the cells in Excel, when they display in the Inventor drawing the text is all blotchy. It will print cleanly to the printer or to a PDF but in Inventor, no cell background color = blotchy text. In this image the Inventor drawing is on the right, the PDF output is on the left.

If we add color background to all cells, everything is clean in the Inventor drawing.

The font is Calibri 11pt not bold in all cells and we are running inventor 2022.4.

Very odd that the background color makes a difference in Inventor display but not in anything else.

Re: Excel Spread Sheets in Drawings - blotchy text?

Gabriel_Watson — Mon, 05 Dec 2022 15:36:59 GMT

Try checkmarking this option and see if it makes any difference:

Re: Excel Spread Sheets in Drawings - blotchy text?

CGBenner — Mon, 05 Dec 2022 16:12:23 GMT

@phlyx

Are these brought in as OLE? Or are you using the table function in Inventor?

Re: Excel Spread Sheets in Drawings - blotchy text?

johnsonshiue — Tue, 06 Dec 2022 00:24:02 GMT

Hi! This has been reported repeatedly in the past. The issue here is that the OLE object view is an image. To show it in a high fidelity, the image can be very big, which will make the drawing relatively big. Inventor does not offer an option or setting to control the image resolution unfortunately. Currently it uses an internal hardcoded resolution. As a result, it can look blocky depending on the scope of the spreadsheet.

I think the workaround is to take a snapshot of the spreadsheet and insert it as such. However, there will not be a direct link between the Inventor drawing and the Excel spreadsheet.

Many thanks!

Re: Excel Spread Sheets in Drawings - blotchy text?

phlyx — Wed, 07 Dec 2022 15:12:57 GMT

It prints to the printer correctly and prints to PDF correctly but the image in the drawing is terrible. Have found that "no background" is blotchy as heck but if we make the background white, then the text is all clear and crisp in the drawing. Not sure why Inventor only has trouble with text in cells that have background color set to 'none'.

Re: Excel Spread Sheets in Drawings - blotchy text?

phlyx — Wed, 07 Dec 2022 15:16:17 GMT

And not sure how these were brought in, they are part of the templates that someone else setup.

Re: Excel Spread Sheets in Drawings - blotchy text?

CGBenner — Wed, 07 Dec 2022 15:55:21 GMT

@phlyx

Based on that image, I'm guessing these were set up using OLE. My experience with that has never been good, the images are always fuzzy, and yes,... required a background color to even get them close. Plus they are hard to size, and harder to snap to a corner or edge of the titleblock.

It would require tweaking the template, but I would suggest taking a look at using the General Table feature linked to a specific Excel file. Since it pulls the data into a standard table feature, the text is clearer, the scale and location are easier to deal with... it's just better (my opinion). But... I'd test it out a few times and make sure you like the results before messing with the templates. Good luck, sir!

Re: Excel Spread Sheets in Drawings - blotchy text?

cadman777 — Wed, 07 Dec 2022 18:39:41 GMT

To add to what @CGBenner said, which is the method I use due to OLE problems:

1. DO NOT change the name of the underlying Excel file, or you will lose the link.

2. If you add columns or rows in the Excel file, the Inventor table will resort to default cell dimensions, which is a huge PITA b/c you have to reformat your table which can take a lot of time.

I'm currently using 2010, but if things have changed since 2010, then please correct me!

Re: Excel Spread Sheets in Drawings - blotchy text?

CGBenner — Wed, 07 Dec 2022 18:42:05 GMT

@cadman777

Those are all probably still true. It's def not perfect, but I think I lost a lot less hair using tables than I did with OLE. 😂

Re: Excel Spread Sheets in Drawings - blotchy text?

cadman777 — Wed, 07 Dec 2022 20:07:11 GMT

Yeah, OLE...👎

Re: Excel Spread Sheets in Drawings - blotchy text?

phlyx — Wed, 07 Dec 2022 21:48:12 GMT

I'll have to discuss this with the power to be that are in charge of the all-mighty templates. We regular Joes can't change the templates. I might try to set something up and test and then when I get it working, present it. I am thinking that if it prints or exports to PDF fine they will be reluctant to throw any time at it. But for us folks only viewing IDW's it's a blurry PITA.... thanks.