Link Excel to AutoCAD DWG. Excel File Format Not Recognized

[Anonymous]

Greetings All,

I have been trying to link an Excel Spreadsheet to an AutoCAD drawing but I am experiencing Issues with the Excel file formats supported by AutoCAD.

Please see the attached GIF. showing the steps I follow to create a basic spreadsheet and then trying to link it to an AutoCAD Drawing.

It States that I have to save it in the correct file format but that doesn't seem to be working. What am I doing wrong?

Thanks in advance.

[john.vellek · Accepted solution]

Hi @Anonymous,

It is hard to tell from your file what version of AutoCAD you are using. It looks like it is perhaps 2016 or 2017. Is it 64-bit? If so, your Excel also should be 64-bit to behave properly with AutoCAD.

If you have a specific spreadsheet and drawing that you can attach as samples I am happy to take a look for you.

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

[Anonymous]

Hi John,

Apologies for not giving all the specific details the first time around.

System Specs:

CPU - Intel I7 - 4790 @ 3.6GHz
Ram - 16GB DDR3 - 1666MHz
GPU - NVIDIA Quadro K2200 - Driver Version 21.21.13.7586
Windows 10 Pro 64bit
Excel 2013 32bit - 15.0.4875.1000
Microsoft Office 2013 32bit - 15.0.0.4875.1000
AutoCAD2017 - N.301.0.0 AutoCAD 2017.1.1 Update
AutoCAD2016 - N.107.0.0 AutoCAD 2016 SP1
AutoCADCivil3D2017 - 11.0.771.0 Autodesk AutoCAD Civil 3D 2017 SP1.1 - Built on: N301.0.0 AutoCAD 2017.1.1 Update N200AC Autodesk AutoCAD Map 3D 2017.0.3 Hot Fix 7.9.48.0 AutoCAD Architecture 2017


I tested the link creation in AutoCAD2016, 2017 and Civil 3D 2017 all 64bit versions to create the link and all produced the same problem.

Attached two basic Sample files.

As mentioned in your response it could be that my excel is not a 64bit version.

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

Greetings All,

I Uninstalled my 32bit Office and reinstalled it as a 64bit version and that solved the problem.

Thanks for the help.

Kind Regards,

[Anonymous]

Hi @Anonymous,

Are you certain that the 64-bit office install was the fix for this issue? 
We've been experiencing the same thing in our office, but uninstalling 32-bit and reinstalling 64-bit has not fixed the issue. In fact, the issue is still exactly the same. 

Do you have any more information that could help us with this?
Thanks

Josh

[Anonymous]

Hi @Anonymous,

Since I have updated my Microsoft Office to a 64 bit version (Similar to the AutoCAD version which is also 64bit) I haven't experienced any issues like the one I originally posted.

I only used it twice since then so I haven't played around with it allot to try and produce more errors so there might be something else producing the same  error message.

If all the software (AutoCAD and Excel/Office) is updated there shouldn't be any errors.

So unfortunately I don't have any more information to offer other than working with Excel 2013 (32Bit) and AutoCAD 2017 (64bit) didn't work with the "Data link" and by changing my Excel 2013 to a 64bit version solved the issue in my case.

Kind Regards,

Alto Roos

[Anonymous]

OK sure. Thanks for taking the time to reply mate, I appreciate it.

Cheers

[Anonymous]

Copy information out of Excel to clipboard and do a paste special > Paste > Unicode text. This will allow you to edit text, if an image explode it until it is workable.