Excel 365 to AutoCAD 2023 - Paste Special > Paste Link > AutoCAD Entities Does Not Work

[tim102289]

A coworker recently told me about this functionality that he used at a former employer.  He could make a schedule in Excel, then select an area he wanted, Copy it to the clipboard, and then Paste Special in AutoCAD, selecting Paste Link, AutoCAD Entities, and it would paste as a table in AutoCAD, linked to the original Excel file.  Then if changes were made to the file, they would be updated in AutoCAD.

However, we could not get this to work at all on our systems.  Everything appears to be working right up until I click OK.  The Paste Special dialog box shows the sheet name and cells where it says 'Source:'.  If I select Paste Link > Microsoft Excel worksheet, that pastes fine.  If I select Paste (instead of Paste Link) and select AutoCAD Entities that works fine as well.

Some other posts I've come across mention Excel and AutoCAD need to be the same bit (both of mine are 64-bit).  I've tried both .xls and .xlsx.  I've tried using our in-house AutoCAD .dwt template, as well as the ootb 'Open with no template - Imperial'.  I've tried both model space and paper space.  When I click OK for Paste Link > AutoCAD Entities, the cursor is briefly the standard Windows arrow, and then changes back to the AutoCAD crosshairs.  Command line just shows _pastespec with no apparent errors or cancellations.

[pendean]

Share files please (DWG and XLS): perform a clean test in new files (both) then let us see it all.

[tim102289]

All of the files I have used were brand new blank files to try to narrow down the issue.  They are posted here:

[leeminardi]

Check that the visualstyle is 2D wireframe.

[spear_kevin_pe]

Does the XLS live in the cloud? ie-onedrive or sharepoint? If so, it needs to be something like "always cached". I forget the exact term. I just tried the copy & paste special. The LINK option is not available for me.

At the risk of being redundant, I have always created the data link first. Here's the "old school" workflow - https://help.autodesk.com/view/ACD/2022/ENU/?guid=GUID-EC74C0C3-22EA-4159-B43C-479102E4639B.

Its 2 steps; 1 - define a data link, 2 - insert table from data link. Before defining the link, its helpful if you have a named range in the XLS. Otherwise, you have to know the range of cells.

Its been this way for as long as I can remember. Maybe there's something I'm unaware of?

[tsmith-motzengineering]

It is not in the cloud. Originally I was trying to do it with a file on our local server, but I've also tried with local files on my own Desktop. I will try the option of adding the data link first, but I still don't understand why the Paste Link option doesn't work. It is listed for me, but nothing shows up when I select that option.

[tsmith-motzengineering]

Visual Style is set to 2D Wireframe already, yes.

[tsmith-motzengineering]

I had the External References window open when I tried this today, and when I select Paste Link > AutoCAD Entities, it adds a line that says Excel Data Link 1.  Status says Unreferenced and it has the path to the file, so it seems to be finding the link and attempting to put it in.

[spear_kevin_pe]

Keep us posted. The difference may be in the flavor of AutoCAD you and I are using. I'm using Civil 3D. I am guessing you're using AutoCAD Mechanical...

[tsmith-motzengineering]

I am using just plain old AutoCAD 2023. I tried to do Insert Table, From a data link, Excel Links, Create a new Excel Data Link, I named it test, and then I got a popup that says 'The data link cannot be created because Excel cannot be found. Check to make sure that Microsoft Excel is installed properly on this computer.'

[pendean]

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@tsmith-motzengineering wrote:

I am using just plain old AutoCAD 2023. I tried to do Insert Table, From a data link, Excel Links, Create a new Excel Data Link, I named it test, and then I got a popup that says 'The data link cannot be created because Excel cannot be found. Check to make sure that Microsoft Excel is installed properly on this computer.'

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Might be time to start a support ticket through your subscription portal as explained here https://knowledge.autodesk.com/customer-service/account-management/users-software/support-options#:~....

[spear_kevin_pe]

Just thought of something else.... It sounds like there is NOT a desktop version of Excel installed. You're using the browser version to edit the XLS. Its a requirement to have Excel installed locally to do the data link. Sorry.

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/autocad/learn-explore/caas/CloudHelp/cloudhelp/2022/ENU/AutoC...

[tim102289 · Accepted solution]

No it was a desktop version of Excel.

I worked through the steps on the page listed below and after doing the Online Repair option, (which actually ended up uninstalling office and I had to install it again after) Paste Link now works.  It hesitates for a few seconds, but the table eventually appears.

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/autocad/troubleshooting/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/Error-...

If anyone has the same issue and comes across this post, you may have to Repair Microsoft Office, or Uninstall/Reinstall Microsoft Office.  Also I uninstalled Microsoft Access database engine 2010 (English) so that may have also been the fix, don't know for sure.

[diazd5220]

It sounds like the problem is specifically with the Paste Link → AutoCAD Entities part. The fact that regular Paste → AutoCAD Entities works makes me think the actual Excel-to-CAD conversion isn't the issue; it's the link between the two applications.

If you don't really need the schedule to update automatically from Excel, there is a much simpler route: skip the link entirely and bring the finished Excel table into AutoCAD as CAD content.

I came across a free tool called DatumParser that does exactly that. You can prepare the schedule in Excel, make whatever revisions you need there, and then put the table into AutoCAD/DXF without depending on Paste Link or an Excel Data Link.

It won't give you the live updating part, but for drawings where you just need the current version of the schedule in the DWG, it might save a lot of hassle. 

the link = datumparser.com