Auto increment text in a cell or block

[Anonymous]

Hi All,

I have recently changed from Microstation to Autocad and need to find if there is options to auto increment text and datafields in a cell (block).

This is not to place cells/blocks and have the text in them auto increment. The cells/blocks are already placed in the drawing with a datafield attached to them. All I want to do is change the sequence. Example I have 20 blocks in a cell with text that are numbered 1 - 20. I want to change the numbers to 21 to 40.

In Microstation i had specific commands that let me pick a datafield enter the first number and then when i click on the next datafield in another cell it would auto-increment.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

[3wood]

Not sure about terms of "cell" and "datafield". Can you upload a simple example drawing which includes the 20 blocks you want to update?

[Anonymous]

i have uploaded an example with 30 cells in it. The numbers F1 - F30 are the sequential numbers that I want to change. Instead of having to manually enter text edit mode and typing the changed sequence, I want to be able to use an inbuilt tool (available in microstation as auto increment data field) which will allow me to change F1 to F50 and then click on each of the subsequent text and change it automatically to the next sequential number i.e 51 and so on.

Also in the same example for the text "ABC", I want to be able to change it to "DEF" for some of the 30 but not have to retype every single instance. Here also I want to be able to use an inbuilt tool (again available in microstation as datafield copy) where I can change one instance of "ABC" to "DEF" and then click on "DEF" with the tool selected and click on any text block to change it to "DEF" automatically.

If anyone can help me with these functions will be much appreciated as most of my work invovles changing multiple items like these in the example.

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

This free AutoDesk app may be helful:

https://apps.exchange.autodesk.com/ACD/en/Detail/Index?id=appstore.exchange.autodesk.com%3aincrement...

I hope this helps you as much as it has me.

[Anonymous]

Thanks shiploose. This is going to save me heaps of time. I also did not know that there were apps that could be installed as add-ons.

Really appreciate your help.

[3wood]

You can also try ALTEXT.

[Anonymous]

shiploose, also can you please provide help on how to copy text from text element and then paste into multiple elements with one click just like the increment tool but something that will only copy the same text to multiple items. I have tried the appstore and there is one program but it does not seem to work. Thanks.

[3wood]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

... something that will only copy the same text to multiple items.

---

It is quite easy with ALTEXT, settings as below:

[Anonymous]

thank 3wood, i have installed ALTEXT, but I was looking for something much simpler similar to this:

https://apps.exchange.autodesk.com/ACD/en/Detail/Index?id=appstore.exchange.autodesk.com%3atextcopyp...

Not sure why I am unable to download and use this tool. Any advise?

[3wood]

I don't know.

I reckon there are a bunch of similar tools avaiable. It is not that hard just copy content of text to other texts. But it is a bit complicated when dealing with Mtexts. If you are not able to find better one and only need proceed text objects, I can try a quick one for you.

---

@Anonymous wrote:

Not sure why I am unable to download and use this tool. Any advise?

---

[Anonymous]

Thanks it would be great if you can program a tool if it is easy enough. Would be much appreciated.

[3wood · Accepted solution]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

Thanks it would be great if you can program a tool if it is easy enough. Would be much appreciated.

---

As I suggested, a lot of people has done it before.

For example, a good one from Lee Mac: Copy or Swap Text

There are many other similar routines. You can share with us your experience here after testing.

[Anonymous]

Thanks mate.. that was exactly what I needed a simple function that somehow is not natively available in CAD. 

Thanks for the help. Its been really good help with the forums.