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Space Scheduling & Data Linking - 2015 Architecture

Anonymous

Space Scheduling & Data Linking - 2015 Architecture

Anonymous
Not applicable

My progress so far:

 

I've managed to get my head around Space Styles, Property Set Definitions, Custom Tags and Custom Schedules.

 

You can see by my attached drawing that I'm using the space's 'NAME' to input Room ID and space styles to denote the 'users' of each space.

 

I'm hoping to apply more data to the rooms that doesn't seem to be provided through out of the box means (please correct if wrong)

 

Data such as:

Clinical Department, Room Use, Number of Workstations etc.

 

I'd like to Data Link to an Excel spread sheet and populate the above data via Excel.

I know similar can be achieved with tables but can it be done with schedules?

Are there alternative methods to get the same outcome?

 

I assume the limiting factor would be maintaining an association between each defined space and the data being attributed, but as you can imagine, this is exactly what I'm hoping to achieve.

 

Any advice on how to proceed would be greatly appreciated.

 

Regards,

 

Tom

 

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Anonymous
Not applicable
Is this a problem that can be solved with DBCONNECT?
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Anonymous
Not applicable

**DWG hopefully attached**

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David_W_Koch
Mentor
Mentor

Out-of-the-box, exporting from a Schedule Table to Excel is supported, but for a bi-directional capability, you would need to either create a custom program or acquire one from a third party (if any offer such).

 

As for your additional data, you can add Property Definitions to either an existing Property Set Definition or to a new Property Set Definition that applies to the object(s) of interest, in this case, Spaces.  The items you list sound like good candidates for manual properties (either object- or style-based, depending on whether the value can vary per instance, or is the same for all instances of a specific style).

 

Each object type has certain automatic properties available, which get their data from the object itself (for example, the area of a Space), not all of which may be present in an out-of-the-box Property Set Definition.  There are also addtional automatic property types which you may find useful:

  • Formula properties allow you to manipulate the values of other properties as well as extract data from the drawing, using VBScript.
  • Location properties allow you to read in property values from the Space or AEC Polygon overwhich the location grip of an object is placed.
  • Classification properties allow you to read in the classification assigned to an AEC Object, or the value of a property attached to its Classification definition.
  • Material properties allow you to read in the material definition assigned to an AEC Object, or the value of a property attached to that material definition.
  • Project properties allow you to access project data, when working with the ACA Drawing Management system (Project Browser/Project Navigator).
  • Anchor properties allow an item that is anchored to another object (such as a Door to a Wall) to read in property data from the host object.
  • Graphic properties allow you to assign a graphic image for each object that can then appear in a Schedule Table with the other data.

You may find the references and links in this blog article of interest.


David Koch
AutoCAD Architecture and Revit User
Blog | LinkedIn
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leothebuilder
Advisor
Advisor

You can certainly attach more property data to your space style and extract this in a schedule.

I noticed that the room names are just plain text.

You can certainly add the room name and function to the space style and from there extract to a schedule.

If you add workstations as MVB's you can attach PSD's to the furniture and extract to schedules as well.

 

While you can export schedules to excel, you can't import data from excel into a schedule. (not that I'm aware of anyway)

E.g. autocad architecture schedules are not autocad tables.

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Anonymous
Not applicable

Thank you very much for your input, gents.

 

Manual Property additions to my current PSDs should solve my problems by the sound of it. If I'm honest, it's a better solution to have the required data within the drawing rather than linked via an excel spread sheet. I can then export up to date schedules as and when required.

 

I'll have a thorough read of the relevant articles on your blog, David.

 

For my reference, could you tell me which ACAD release initially had the capability to add manual properties to PSDs... or rather when it became necessary to do so? (I imagine earlier releases weren't so advanced in their out of the box property sets and were all custom/bespoke as per each user's requirements)

That way I won't confuse myself... (Who am I kidding, that's inevitable)

 

Thanks again,

Tom

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Anonymous
Not applicable

I thought I had a grasp of the concept, but I don't.

 

I understand the principle difference between automatic & manual properties.

Within a PSD, am I limited to the predefined manual properties, or can I attach custom/unique manual properties?

 

Tom

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Anonymous
Not applicable

Ahhhh, I think I got it.

Please see attached screen dump:

 

Space_Schedule_Query_TW_SS_4-3-15.jpg

 

Thanks again for your help guys.

 

Tom

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leothebuilder
Advisor
Advisor

You can add as many manual properties as you want, unlimited.

 

Automatic properties are predefined and are limited.

Just click on the New Automatic Property button and you will see a range of automatic properties available to the particular object you are editing.

You can also add Formula properties wherein you can perform calculations and display the result in a schedule.

Property sets have been around for a very long time in ACA and ADT prior.

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Anonymous
Not applicable

Thanks Leo,

 

It must sound like I'm all over the place! The pieces are slowly coming together for me now.

 

So I've added some manual properties and even a basic formula as a test. Ran a new schedule to call out the new manual definitions and it's worked. GREAT.

 

Now then, is there a way I can make inputting values into the manual properties more efficient? I'd like to have a selection of predefined values, but also be free to input values that haven't been previously predefined.

I'm currently updating values through the properties palette. Is this the only method?

 

Thanks,

Tom

 

 

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leothebuilder
Advisor
Advisor

If you define and attach PSD's to a style for all the information that is constant that means you would only enter the information once and it would apply to all objects of that style.

 

If you want to able to vary the PSD's per object, you would attach the PSD to the object.

 

Yes, for object based PSD's you need to edit through the properties palette.

 

If style based PSD's you would edit by editing the Style and on the General Tab add or edit the PSD for the style

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Anonymous
Not applicable

Leo, thanks again for your input...

 

I can't attach drawings whilst at work (suspect browser issues), so it's difficult for me to explain where I stand.

 

I'll attach another working drawing tonight from home so I can better explain what I hope to achieve.

 

Thanks,

Tom

 

 

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John.W.Mumaw
Advocate
Advocate

You can have a set of predefined values by using a list definition.  The list definition needs to be created separately under "Multi-Purpose Objects" and then selected under "type" in the property set definition.  When you create the list definition there is a checkbox for allowing values other than those in the list to be input.

 

John

John W. Mumaw
Timber Frame Designer
Lost Bent Woodworking & Design
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David_W_Koch
Mentor
Mentor

To add to the previous responses...

 

As John mentioned, list-type manual properties in conjunction with a List Definition can help make adding data to manual properties more efficient, if you have a reasonably limited number of "typical" values.  They can also help if you want to enforce particular terminology.  If you have a property that needs to vary by object (so a style-based property set is not appropriate), and you need to add the same value to multiple objects, you can select all of those multiple objects and use the Extended Data tab of the Properties palette to add the value to all of them at once, provided that the Property Set is already attached to all of the selected objects.

 

Manual and Automatic properties have been around since the Schedule Feature was first introduced (Architectural Desktop 2, if I recall correctly).  There have been enhancements (list and auto increment - character type manual properties; additional automatic property sources for various object types) since then.  A number of new "other automatic" properties were added in the 2004 release:  formula properties, location properties, classification properties, material properties and project properties.  The 2007 release added Anchor and Graphic properties (along with list-type manual properties).


David Koch
AutoCAD Architecture and Revit User
Blog | LinkedIn
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Anonymous
Not applicable

I like the sound of that, John... sounds very much like what I'm trying to achieve. I'll certainly be looking into that in the morning

 

Attached is my work prior to attempting the above whilst I can at home...

 

 

 

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Anonymous
Not applicable

Thanks also for your response, David.

I must have overlooked it at home last night.

 

...Now to try out the theory.

 

Regards,

Tom

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Anonymous
Not applicable

You guys are fantastic! There's such a wealth of knowledge on these boards.

 

I'm achieving exactly what I'd hoped to do.

Thank you all very much for your help.

 

Hopefully the thread will serve others in the future struggling with the same functions.

 

Thanks again,

Tom

 

 

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Anonymous
Not applicable

Hello David,

 

Per your comment : "Out-of-the-box, exporting from a Schedule Table to Excel is supported, but for a bi-directional capability, you would need to either create a custom program or acquire one from a third party (if any offer such)."

 

Do you have any more direction or information on how I can find out if linking the CAD schedule to Excel is possible? 

 

We have massive amounts of data that we would like to execute changes to globally and Excel would be an easier program to do this in.

 

Thanks,

Randi

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David_W_Koch
Mentor
Mentor

Welcome to the community!

 

Do you need to have the data make one or more round trips between AEC object property values and Excel, or do you just need to display data generated in Excel in AutoCAD?  The latter could be handled with AutoCAD Tables, or, for more formatting options, by third-party programs like AutoTable.

 

The former was discussed a bit in these forums a long time ago, and Peter Funk of Autodesk had posted some starter files in the now-defunct ADT Customer Files forum.  The attached ZIP file has those files, along with RTF files of associated forum threads.

 

These threads are still accessible:

ADT to Access

ADT To and From Access and Excel - Some assembly required...


David Koch
AutoCAD Architecture and Revit User
Blog | LinkedIn
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Anonymous
Not applicable

David,

FYI , I am using AutoCAD Architecture.

 

I have Spaces that created a Schedule Table. There are more than 10 columns worth of information attached to each Space.

 

I need to make some global changes to the information assigned to a cell of a Space. i.e. "Clinic" needs to change to "540 - Clinic" (I have thousands of Spaces to make similar edits to.)

 

If there's a way to do this within AutoCAD Architecture, I'm all ears. The find and replace doesn't seem to work within a Schedule Table. It seems to me it would be easier to filter and copy/paste in Excel and push back to AutoCAD Architecture.

 

So therefore, I need the data to make a round trip information exchange.  Space creates Schedule Table then is exported and linked to an Excel Spreadsheet that can be edited and uploaded back into AutoCAD Architecture updating the Schedule Table and Space data.

 

Does that make sense?

 

 

Thanks,

~Randi

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