Data Extraction and Drawing Selection

[Anonymous]

Hello, I apologize if this thread exists already, I searched but could not find my specific problem.

I have a block and this block has attributes. Using the Data Extraction tool I was able to collect the blocks attribute information as well as X,Y and Z coordinates and place it all in a table. It works great but I was wondering if I could automate this even further once a template .DXE file was created.

I thought maybe I could make a button and tell the macro to use the -dataextraction command and then type in the location of the template.dxe file and automatically hit enter. This again all worked beautifully. The problem though is that I can't select which drawing I want that extraction to take place in. It will always only extract from the drawing that was used in the template file.

Is there a way to prompt the user to select a drawing instead of it being pre-baked in the template (step 2 of the wizard) or will I have to run the data extraction wizard for each new job? I know this can all be done with LISP but unfortunately I don't know how to write LISP routines.

Thank you.

[john.vellek · Accepted solution]

Hi @Anonymous,

I am afraid the dataextraction is always going to use the file or files that were saved in the template. The only way I can think of getting it to work with other files is to create a folder designated for the data extraction.

You could temporarily copy your files (if they always has the same names) into this folder to run the macro.

Otherwise I am afraid you will have to explore some customization options such LISP. You might check the customization forum to see if someone can help you with this.

You might also check the Autodesk App store to see if there is anything useful there.

Please select the Accept as Solution button if my post solves your issue or answers your question.

[Anonymous]

@john.vellek

Thank you for the reply, I had a feeling that's what the answer was going to be. Re-running the wizard with the template is still super easy and I can live with doing it that way. I just figured I'd ask the question anyway to try and save a few clicks here and there.

Thank you.