Beam schedule

[Anonymous]

I am laying out a roof plan. I would like the representation of the beam on my plan to have information attached to it such as beam type, size and span. This would make it possible to automatically populate a beam schedule. Is this possible?

[TheCADnoob]

This can be done in a few ways but there may be a ready made solution with products like advanced steel or MEP. Have you looked into using one of the autocad verticals?

http://www.autodesk.com/products/advance-steel/features/all/list-view

http://www.autodesk.com/products/autocad-mep/overview

[dgorsman]

With vanilla AutoCAD?  Not available OOTB (out of the box), however with some customization that is possible.  Might also want to look into the Advance Steel package, as well as various third-party structural design programs.

[JDMather]

Blocks with Attributes might get you what you need.

This is available in vanilla AutoCAD.

[john.vellek]

Hi @Anonymous,

If you are doing something fairly simple, I can envision doing this with dynamic blocks or blocks with attributes.  Otherwise, a vertical product might be more appropriate.

If you want to attach a sample drawing I am happy to take a look for you and make some suggestions.

[Anonymous]

Here is the drawing I am working on. I want to be able to have the schedule generated automatically with the ability to update if a beam changes on the plan.

Brian Hadley
352 East Riverside Drive Suite A2
St. George, Utah 84790
Phone (435) 673-8586
Fax (435) 673-8397

[RALogo_Titleblock_Red_w_gray]

[john.vellek]

Hi Brian, Unfortunately, your attachment didn't stick. Can you put it in a ZIP file and try again? You might also try turning off your Firewall temporarily.

I look forward to working on this for you.

[Anonymous]

I figured out how to do it with dynamic blocks and attributes then extracting the data into a table. I now have a problem with sorting. I have attached a zip file of the dwg. I could solve this by putting a zero in front of the 1 through 9 ie. RB-01, RB-02, etc. but our standard is to call them out as RB-1, RB-2. Is there a way to specify how the data is sorted?

[john.vellek]

Hi @Anonymous, I am happy to help you with this but the Zip didn't get attached. Can you try once more - perhaps turning off your firewall and using a different browser? If that doesn't work I will shoot you a PM that you can respond and attach to.

[Anonymous]

Here it is.

File attachment added by John Vellek as OP was unable to attach it.

[john.vellek · Accepted solution]

Hi @Anonymous,

Thanks for the files!  Unfortunately, there is not much you can do about sorting the Mark category other than what you have suggested. However, you could create an additional but invisible attribute that contains a '001' , '002', '003' kind of syntax. You could then sort on this and then hide the column when you create your table.

Would this work for you?