Create Table from existing text

[matthew.scottVP8DB]

I have an .dwg that was created from an exported 3D program. This results in a BOM table that is a block.  When exploded the block is just lines and MText.  My goal is to create a table that I can export into a spreadsheet.  Any ideas?

[JBerns]

@matthew.scottVP8DB,

Did you try any of the solutions from this forum?

https://autocad.space/autocad-text-to-table/ 

Let us know if this is helpful?

Optionally, post a sample drawing for the community to work with.

Regards,

Jerry

[matthew.scottVP8DB]

@Anonymous Thanks for the response. 

I had discovered Data Extraction but am having some difficulty.  I have a table of text 25 rows, 12 columns = 300 items.  I can extract the text into 300 rows of data, but they are not organized in any order.  I have even tried to define the selection set by picking text objects one-by-one to try to get them organized into some order, no luck.

[JBerns · Accepted solution]

@matthew.scottVP8DB,

I did some more Googling:

Try this lisp routine:

https://cadtips.cadalyst.com/tables/convert-plain-geometry-tables 

Video tutorial:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nusUNEDkUg  

Let us know of your success.

Regards,

Jerry

[matthew.scottVP8DB]

@JBerns LISP routine worked perfectly. Thanks for the leg work!

[arshad_iqbalEPGJT]

"cot " lisp is working in cad 2021 & less

but not working in autocad 2024

[pendean]

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@arshad_iqbalEPGJT wrote:

"cot " lisp is working in cad 2021 & less

but not working in autocad 2024

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It works just fine here in 2024 and 2025: can you share your DWG file where this does not work?

[MSchille-1994]

This link no longer works.

[caddude]

It looks like CADALYST dig some reorganization of their website and that link is now broken.  I found links to the actual script here located in this post: https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/autocad-forum/make-autocad-table-from-lines-and-text/td-p/2895384

[will_young]

If you print the dwg to pdf (or have a table as a raster image) you could use Excel both for converting pdf or images to tables.

Windows snipping tool also has a converter for smaller tables.

Excel vector based pdf import

Excel table from raster image

Windows snipping tool table from raster image

[caddude]

Thanks @will_young!!  I didn’t consider trying to convert it first. I’ll give that a try 🙂

[dgladfelter]

If you plotted the exploded table to a raster format, the Raster Design toolset (included with AutoCAD) has a Recognize Table command.

[caddude]

@dgladfelter oohhh!  I’ll try that one too!  Thank you! 🙂