How to select a schedule table style ?

[Angayo]

I thought I had figured out how to make room schedule table to get room surface areas. It even worked in one drawing. In onother drawing I am however faced with 3 problems. One of them being that the schedule table style is wrong and I don’t know how to simply tell Autocad which one to use. A workaround is to create a schedule table tool. There one can tell which style the tool should use and that appears to to work (except for the name being wrong).

Here are two tables. The first is made with the tool and the second is made afterwards with the scheduleadd command.

 

Room Finish Shedule is one of the four styles defined in the Style Manager.

As a related question, where can I find information on the schedule command ? It has style option, as visible in the picture, that I imagined would allow me to select a style that would be the one schedule tables are made with.

[leothebuilder]

Autocad Architecture schedules are easily copied and edited.

If you insert a schedule (any schedule) from the tool palette, then right click the schedule and select "copy and assign" you are creating

a new schedule style. You can name, or rename the schedule style and make any and all adjustments to columns etc.

Once you have edited this schedule to have it look the way you want, you can drag this schedule onto your tool palette.

Now this style is available to you for use in other drawings by using this new tool on your tool palette.

If you have a schedule that exists in another drawing that you want to use, open that drawing and drag that schedule onto your tool palette.

Then you can use the tool to insert this schedule into other drawings.

If you have a lot of custom schedules I would suggest that you create a style drawing where all these schedule styles reside so you have continued access to these schedule styles.

[David_W_Koch · Accepted solution]

If you have the Properties palette open, after starting the SCHEDULEADD (or AECTABLEADD) command, you can choose the Schedule Table Style that you want to use from those defined in the current drawing.

As you note, a Tool Palette tool can be created to add a Schedule Table to your drawing, and that tool can specify the desired Style.  It can also specify an external file from which to import the Schedule Table Style if one of that name does not already exist in the file.  You can also use the Styles Browser to access the Schedule Table Style(s) in the current drawing as well as in external drawings.

Any Property Sets referenced by a Schedule Table Style that is imported from a source file will also be imported, if, and only if, a Property Set of that name does not already exist in the receiving file.  If a Property Set of that name does exist, that existing version will be used.  If it is missing any properties that the Schedule Table references, those columns will be deleted from the imported Schedule Table Style.  You can use the Style Manager to copy and overwrite any such "deficient" Property Sets in the receiving file and then also copy and overwrite the Schedule Table Style, to restore any lost columns.

[Angayo]

Ok, thank you for the advice. Tools appear to be a good way to resuse schedule table styles in other drawings.

The option to choose a style in the properties panel when using the command scheduleadd seems to have escaped me.

What the Style option of the schedule command does is probably not important then. I think though Autodesk should either update its help and explain that or remove the option alltogether.

[Angayo]

Apparently I was wrong. Tools don’t work for making the same schedule tables in other drawings. The tool contains only the style of the table, but that style won’t work unless the drawing was already prepared for it. Apparently the prerequisits are not imported with the tool, even when no namesake exists.

I did the following to get the schedules tables into a new drawing :

• Keep the source drawing open.
• In Option --> AEC Object Settings --> AEC Property Setting --> select ‘Automatically Attach’
• Open Style Manager.
• Drag Space Styles, Property Set Definitions, Schedule Table Styles and Classification Definitions to the list for the new drawing.
• Close Style Manager.

The above procedure also copies some required and a few other layers and all superfluous styles of the same category as the desired ones (like the property set RoomLocation, wich is just in the way). Purge doesn’t remove the clutter. The display style of the spaces is wrong.

Now it works. The tool works as well.

Is there a more convenient way to do that ?

[David_W_Koch]

Importing a Schedule Table Style into a new drawing, whether using a Tool Palette tool that is linked to a source file, the Styles Browser (with a drawing source file) or the Style Manager will:

• Bring in the Schedule Table Style, if a Schedule Table Style of that name does not already exist in the drawing.
• Bring in all Property Set Definitions referenced in the Schedule Table Style, if Property Sets Definitions of those names do not already exist in the drawing.

That is it.  The Style Manager has the advantage of giving you the option to overwrite the Schedule Table Style using the source file style if a style of that name already exists in the target file.  If you do that, I would recommend also using the Style Manager to copy over the referenced Property Set Definitions from the source file and overwrite those in the target file, to make certain you have the latest version, that coordinates with the Schedule Table Style.

It will not copy over any other content - such as styles/definitions of objects that could be included in the Schedule Table, or the Multi-View Block Definitions of the Schedule Tags that might be used on the objects that could be included in the Schedule Table.  Nor will it place any of those objects so that they are available to be scheduled.  The expected workflow is that you will build your model (perhaps using Tool Palette tools that pull object styles from source drawings; those styles could include style-based Property Sets), attach the needed object-based Property Sets (perhaps by tagging the objects, using a Schedule Tag tool from a Tool Palette) and then place an instance of the Schedule Table, selecting the objects to be scheduled.

The Schedule Table (style or instance) does not contain the data, it merely displays it.  The data live on the actual objects, in the properties in the attached Property Sets.  Copying the style to a new drawing does not bring along any of the object-based data.

If you are copying Space Styles to a new drawing and the Spaces placed therein do not display "correctly", then the problem may lie with the template used to create the new drawing.  You will want to create a template file that already has your display settings in it.  Starting with one of the AutoCAD Architecture templates provided with the installation files is a good starting point.  Find the one that is closest to what you want, and, if necessary, make adjustments from there.  [This all assumes that you are mostly relying on the drawing default display settings for your objects, and only using style-level overrides where appropriate and avoiding object-level overrides whenever possible.  Discussion of the display system is a separate topic and should probably be done in a separate thread.]

[Angayo]

Thanks for the explanation.

I started a new drawing (drawing 1) and then opened the source drawing of the schedule table style. Next, in the Style Manager I copied that style to the new drawing. What else was copied ?

• The classification definition Spaces --> Rooms
• Two pertinent Property Data Formats
• The Property Set Definition ‘Rooms’
• Two layers : One I used for my space style ‘Rooms_’ and another called G-Anno-Nplt that I don’t know what it is for.

The source drawing has fors ome reason also gained 2 classification defintions Spaces(2) and SpaceType_BOMA(2) and two Space styles, that have nested themselves in the 2 Space styles, that then multiplied into Rooms_(2) and Standard(2). The two formats have also procreated. They can all be easily deleted though. The Property sets RoomLocation and SpaceStyles also procreated, but they are now gone, even though I didn’t delete them ?!

 

I tested the strange procreation behaviour with yet another new drawing, but it did not occur this time.

What it didn’t copy :

• The space style ‘Rooms_’
• The layers A-Area-Spce and A-Anno-Scrn that Autocad for some reason needs to draw spaces. These are automatically created when a space is created.
• Several superfluous Property Set definitions.

Does the schedule table tool work ? No. It needs Rooms_ style spaces and these don’t exist.

So, in the Style Manager, I copied the Space Style ‘Rooms_’ from the source drawing to drawing 1. The style was copied and nothing else seems to have happened.

Does the tool or schedule function now work ?

Sort of. I need to right-click on a schedule and choose ‘Add All Property Sets’. That is because I forgot to change the setting I mentioned in the AEC Object Settings. The tool still got the name wrong though.

So it would seem I only need to copy the schedule table style and the space style and possibly clean up clutter. The latter isn’t always possible though. In drawing 6 the Property Set Definition ‘RoomLocation’ still exists. If it is used without my awareness, Autocad should mention that when I try to delete it.

I thought that was it, but then I noticed in the Properties panel my spaces have the property set RoomLocation ?! It must have hitched a ride when I copied ‘Rooms_’.

Let’s see if that is what probably happened with yet another new drawing, drawing 4. Indeed, the Property Set Definitions RoomLocation and SpaceObjects (how that got in the source drawing I don’t even know) are copied with Rooms_.

Imagine how confusing that must be in a big drawing where one created several styles or if one decided to use a drawing as a style library.

About the space style changing when copying it : I thought I would start over from scratch and put everything in a template, but the help article ‘About Template Drawings’ recommends against putting styles into templates. So best is probably to start over from scratch (to ditch the clutter and errors) in a new drawing and use that as a source for the styles. The space appearance will then be chosen by AutoCad (in true ‘Microsoft knows what is best for you’ style), but it in unimportant.

[David_W_Koch]

If either your Schedule Table Style or your Space Style(s) have a Classification attached, that Classification definition will get copied over with them.

Duplication of Styles or Definitions (with same name with " (2)" appended) is easily done without realizing it.  If you select one or more Styles/Definitions in the Style Manager, it is very easy to accidentally drag those selected items ever so slightly.  The Style Manager will interpret this to mean you want to copy those styles to the indicated destination, which in this case is the same spot as the originals, so the duplicates are given a unique name by appending " (2)" to the name.

Your Space Styles are not tied to the Schedule Table Style, and will not be copied with it.

Are any of the Property Set Definitions that you were not expecting (not referenced in the Schedule Table Style) style-based Property Sets?  If so, were they attached to any of the Styles that you did copy?  If so, they will definitely come along for the ride when copying a Style to which they are attached (assuming that a Property Set of that name is not already in the target drawing).

I have found that layers (text styles, and other stuff) are often mysteriously copied from one file to another.  In this case, if your target file did not have any Display Representations/Sets/Configurations, copying an AEC style or definition to it will bring along some minimal amount of Display System items, which might reference the layer(s) that show up.  You won't get the full Display System settings, however, which is why it is a good idea to have and use a template that has all of your display settings already in it.  You can use Display Manager to copy them in later, but that is sufficiently tedious that it is just better to have them in the template and have them in the file from the start.

[Angayo]

“Duplication of Styles or Definitions (with same name with " (2)" appended) is easily done without realizing it.  If you select one or more Styles/Definitions in the Style Manager, it is very easy to accidentally drag those selected items ever so slightly.  The Style Manager will interpret this to mean you want to copy those styles to the indicated destination, which in this case is the same spot as the originals, so the duplicates are given a unique name by appending " (2)" to the name.”

I tested and that does indeed happen. However, in that case the copying is noticible. So far all the unwanted copies have been made behind my back.

“Are any of the Property Set Definitions that you were not expecting (not referenced in the Schedule Table Style) style-based Property Sets?”

I don’t know what style-based Property sets are. I suspect though that many of the unwanted duplicates are due to the duplicates being related to other entities that were duplicated.

The Property Sets RoomLocation and SpaceStyles are copied with the Space Style Rooms_ and yet appear unrelated to it in the Style Manager. Yet when the RoomLocation Property Set is set to visible, it shows on the Extended Data tab when a Rooms_ style space is selected. How can I get rid of it ?

[David_W_Koch · Accepted solution]

There are two types of Property Sets.

• Object-based:  When editing the Property Set Definition, on the Applies To tab, the Objects radio button is selected.  This type is applied directly to individual objects.  Any manual property values entered will only apply to the currently selected object(s).
• Style-based:  When editing the Property Set Definition, on the Applies To tab, the Style and Definitions radio button is selected.  This type is applied to a Style or Definition, on the General tab, using the Property Sets button.  Any manual property values entered will apply to all instances of that style/definition.

To remove a style-based Property Set from a style/definition:

• Edit the style/definition (one way:  use the Style Manager).
• On the General tab, select the Property Sets button.  The Edit Property Set Data dialog will appear.
• If the style/definition has style-based Property Sets attached, they will be listed in the Edit Property Set Data dialog, and the Remove Property Sets button will be enabled.  Select this button.
• In the Remove Property Sets dialog, each attached Property Set will be listed, with a toggle at the left of each name.  Clear the check mark from the toggles of any Property Sets you do not want to delete.  Leave the check mark (or, if accidentally cleared, select the toggle again to place a check mark) for all Property Sets to be removed.  When done, select the OK button to ratify the selection and to removed the checked items.
• The Edit Property Set Data dialog will be active.  You can continue to make edits here as desired.  When all edits are done, select the OK button to return to editing the style/definition, on the General tab.
• When all edits to the style/definition are complete, select the OK button to return to the drawing.

[Angayo]

I suspect the above procedure works, but I tried wether I could give the Autocad help and it does indeed have an article to do it using the propertysetclean command: ‘To Remove All Property Sets From Objects and Styles‘. It and it worked.

Then I could delete RoomLocation.

So if one knows where a Property Set is used, one can disable it there and then delete it. How does one find out where it is used ? I have that Property Set SpaceObjects that applies to Objects that I can’t remove. I changed it to Style-based, but I still can’t delete it

Strangely enough it shows up in the properties of the rooms (of Space Style Rooms_) of a particular appartment.

If a room of a different appartment is also selected, the Property Set is replaced by Rooms, the one that ought to be used.