How to use dimension value in schedule?

[Angayo]

We want to schedule walls. The walls are not wall type objects in Autcad, but lines representing walls. What we came up with is tracing polylines along the walls, make a schedule of the polylines and type in the heights, like floor and ceiling thickness and ceiling height. (This works badly under sloped roofs unfortunately.) A drawback with typing in stuff is that when for some reason the value changes one has to modify both the dimension in question and the value in the table. Wouldn’t it be great if you tell Autocad that for height in a field it has to use the value of a particular dimension ?

The help article ‘To Add an Anchor Property Definition to a Property Set Definition’ suggests that is possible. However, when looking at the properties available for dimensions in the Style Manager, the value property is missing.

Lines have the length property that could be used, but dimensions would seem better.

[David_W_Koch]

Anchor properties only work between AEC objects, that have an anchored relationship.  I doubt that you will be able to establish such a relationship from an AutoCAD Polyline to an AutoCAD Dimension.

Are you actually drawing Walls, and then tracing them with polylines?  Or are you just tracing over AutoCAD linework that is meant to represent Walls?  If the former, you would save yourself time, and may actually have a shot at getting the value you want, by scheduling the Walls.

[Angayo]

We are just drawing polylines over existing Autocad linework meant to represent walls.

So the way to get Autocad to fill in the schedule is to draw lines representing heigths and use those as anchors.

[leothebuilder]

Goede morgen of goede middag,

If you want the height and length of walls (AEC wall objects) there is not need to dimension these and scheduling the dimension values.

Neither is it necessary to draw polylines and scheduling the polylines.

Simply schedule the wall objects in a Autocad Architecture Schedule. 

If you change a wall object, the schedule will update automatically without the need to adjust dimension or polylines.

This article may be helpful:

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/autocad-architecture/learn-explore/caas/CloudHelp/cloudhelp/2...

There are many more articles and videos on creating ACA schedules, just do a google search.

[Victoria.Studley]

Hi @Angayo,

Is it possible for you to use the AEC wall objects instead of polylines and dimensions? This will make them much easier to schedule going forward.

You could even convert your existing polyline linework to walls using this workflow: To Create Walls From Linework and 3D Objects

Utilizing the AEC objects in AutoCAD Architecture will save you a lot of time spent drawing plans, elevations, sections, etc. separately, and provide you more dynamic data when you go to schedule your designs.

[Victoria.Studley]

HI @Angayo,

I'm just checking in again to see if you need more help with this. Did any of the suggestions that @leothebuilder, @David_W_Koch, or I provided help you solve your issue?

[Angayo]

Thank you for the help.

The problems we are facing is not how to draw stuff, but how to extract information from existing drawings.

I have learned that I can’t anchor dimensions, so we’ll probably use (vertical) lines in stead. Replacing these with walls does not seem useful, unless Autocad can somehow figure out the correct height of walls, but I doubt that.

Replacing existing linework by walls does not appear worth the hassle.

Drawing walls iso polylines may be useful as walls can be given a classification.

[David_W_Koch]

You will be the best judge of what works best in your situation, but you should be aware that the automatic property sources are available for creating Properties in a Property Set Definition for Walls.

[Angayo]

I have tried replacing some of my polylines with walls.

The height is wrong, as expected, which makes no better or worse than polylines in this respect.

A problem is though that a single wall can’t have bends, so Autocad splits the polylines in many straight wall sections, making walls  worse than polylines. Is there a way around this ? Join and merge don’t seem to work.

The above problem made me not even bother with trying to exploit the classification. The lack of classifications for polylines can be worked around by using a layer wildcard (filter) for schedules.

[leothebuilder]

When you insert a wall object, the default height is 10'-0"

It is up to you to change the height. 

Select the wall object and on the properties palette change the height to what it should be.

You certainly can have bends in wall objects.

Try the fillet command on two wall objects that are at say 90 degrees to each other.

As for scheduling different walls, you can use classifications or place them on different layers.

Both give you the opportunity to use wildcards to filter.

[Angayo]

How does one change the height of walls ? if it requires typing in heights, then that is no better than polylines. The idea of anchoring dimensions is to avoid having to type in anything.

Fillet appears unable to merge walls or create a bend or corner in walls. Its purpose appears to be to join wall sections without merging them.

Edit : browsing through the Stock Tool catalog I notice there is an AEC dimension tool. Could these be used to anchor heights ?

[Victoria.Studley]

Hi @Angayo,

Part of the trouble here is that you're trying to mix core AutoCAD elements with the enhanced AEC tools that AutoCAD Architecture provides. Plain old polylines are going to be limited in their usefulness when you're trying to represent 3D wall dimensions and then use AEC-specific tools (AEC dimensions, schedule tables, property set data, etc.) to analyze them as if they were AEC objects (actual walls, windows, doors, etc.).

Based on what you've described, I think you've reached the limitation of the usefulness of polylines to represent and schedule 3-dimensional walls in your project.

To enter wall height, you do need to adjust it in the properties palette (which you can adjust on the fly as you create the wall), or pull on the height grip on the wall itself. However, utilizing all of the AEC features to design your project should save you more time in the long run once you get the hang of how they work.

[leothebuilder]

I did describe how to change the height of a wall object.

Select the wall object (highlight) and on the properties palette you can change the height.

The default height of wall objects is 10'-0".

You can change the default wall height as well by editing the wall tool on the tool palette.

If all your walls are the same height you can select all the wall objects and change the height on the properties palette in one operation.

AEC dimension work well for aec objects such as walls, windows, doors etc.

I don't think you will be able to use them to dimension a wall vertically.

As for curved walls the following may be of assistance:

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/autocad-architecture/learn-explore/caas/CloudHelp/cloudhelp/2...

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/autocad-architecture/learn-explore/caas/CloudHelp/cloudhelp/2...

If you believe that drawing polylines and dimensions work best for you by all means stick with that method.

[Angayo]

The use of the word ‘bend’ has apparently given the impression that I want to make curved wall sections. I don’t. I want to get the height of walls represented by linework. Most of these walls have corners. I can draw polylines with corners, but not walls with corners. The limitation of Autocad walls appears to be that they can only consist of single sections with one curvature.

[leothebuilder]

Bend, curved.....all is possible in plan view.

Are you talking about a bend or curved wall in elevation view?

That is possible too.

Are you talking about a bend or curve at the end of a wall in plan view?

Yes, even that is possible.

As mentioned before, if you're happy with the polylines, stick with that. 

[Angayo]

I was talking about bends (almost always corners) in plan view.

How can one draw a single wall section with corners ?

I am unhappy with polylines and unhappy with walls. Each has a feature I want, but neither has both, unless walls can have corners.

[David_W_Koch]

Walls join to form corners, but if by "corners" you mean you want one object that changes directions, with intermediate vertices like a Polyline, then no, Walls do not do that.  There is no "PolyWall".

[Angayo]

OK, so polywalls don’t exist and the value of dimensions cannot be used in a property.

For a different case I could use a closed polyline :

A space represents a window. Now I need the open area of the window, i.e. the size of the hole when the window is open. For that I could use a polyline, since I can anchor the properties of polylines. So I did :

• Define a property (call it PA) set for polylines with as sole property its surface area.
• In the property set for my window spaces I added that property.

Then I drew a rectangle in one of my window spaces and added PA to it.

(I can’t show any pictures for Autocad is since 60 minutes busy with automatically adding property sets to objects. I has hope it would have finished over lunch.)

In the window space the new anchored property shows, but it has no value, only a comment that there is no object is anchored (or something like that).

So I turned to help, hoping to learn how to anchor my polyline to my space. I didn’t find it.

Does anyone know how one can use the value of a property of a polyline in a property of a space ?

A solution could be to use polygons iso polylines.

[leothebuilder]

You can use AEC window objects and attach property sets to calculate the open area of that window object.

From there you can schedule your windows and include a column in your schedule to report the open areas.

[Angayo]

AEC polygons can be anchored to spaces.

I suspect drawing windows would be more work or values would have to typed in.