How to use CountInArea from Fields ?

[gapet14]

Hello,

I would like to sync a CAD spreadsheet with an Excel spreadsheet to have an automatic count of the inventory of furniture on a floor plan. I've already linked both spreadsheets and now I wanted to replace the numbers from the CAD spreadsheets with fields so that it would update the spreadsheets without having to manually check the inventory on the CAD with Count. I was wondering if I could use the Fields->Objects->CountInArea option to have an automatic count of blocks in the spreadsheet ? If so, how to do so as I do not understand how that option works. 

FYI: I can not share the DWG for confidenciality reasons, so sorry in advance.

Thank you

[ChicagoLooper · Accepted solution]

Hi @gapet14 

You can use DATAEXTRACTION command. 

Because this command makes you run through a step-by-step procedure with windows, it more like a Wizard than a command. 

When properly used to extract blocks it will:

1. Count the instances of a block based on block’s name and/or an attribute
2. Create an external Table of the extracted data, xls, csv, etc. The wizard can also  Datalink this table. 
3. OR create an internal Table that can be inserted in modelspace (datalink). An internal table is capable of performg calculations too, e.g. A1 X A3 = A4. 

Based on your description, using DataExtraction would streamline your procedure. Using a field would make it clunky, not smooth.

More info on DataExtraction can be found >>HERE<<.