Automatic Updating an exploded material table
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Technical Description – Updating Exploded Volume Tables in AutoCAD
We need to automate the update of exploded material volume tables in AutoCAD. Since these tables have been exploded, they no longer behave as native AutoCAD tables, and all values are just text entities.
Table Structure
Header row (Station row)
Format: Material(s) at Station 0+250.00
Contains only one cell.
The station value (e.g., 0+250.00) is critical and must be extracted as a number.
Second row (Fixed column headers)
Always contains four columns with the following fixed titles:
Material Name
Area
Volume
Cumulative Volume
Subsequent rows (Data rows)
Each row corresponds to one material.
Column 1: Material name (constant across the project but may differ between projects).
Column 2: Area value (numeric).
Column 3: Volume (to be calculated).
Column 4: Cumulative Volume (to be updated).
Key Observations
Row spacing from the second row onward equals 3 × text height.
The X-insertion points of all values in each column are aligned with the column headers.
Calculation Method
Volumes are calculated using the truncated cone formula:
Let A1 = Area in section 1
Let A2 = Area in section 2
Let H = Distance between two consecutive stations
Then:
Volume=H3×(A1+A2+A1×A2)Volume = \frac{H}{3} \times (A1 + A2 + \sqrt{A1 \times A2})Volume=3H×(A1+A2+A1×A2)
Workflow:
Read the station value from the header row and convert it to a numeric value.
For each material row:
Read A1 from the previous table and A2 from the current table.
Compute the volume using the formula above.
Replace the volume text in column 3 of the current table.
Update the cumulative volume by adding the new volume to the cumulative volume of the previous table.
Replace the cumulative volume text in column 4.
Repeat the process in order of increasing station values.
