Linking table cell text in different AutoCAD Layouts

[Anonymous]

John,

I am trying to link content (i.e part descriptions) from a table in model space to different tables in drawings so that it only needs to be changed once and all drawing tables will update properly. Is this possible? I understand it is easy to do so with numbers using the formula such as =Table(1051850272).A7 however you can not do this with words which is what I would really like to do.

I have read some of your responses before that have been very helpful, thanks for sharing.

[john.vellek]

HI @Anonymous,

I see that you are visiting as a new member. Welcome to the Autodesk Community! 

 And, thank you for the compliment!

Is it possible to attach a drawing file with the tables setup and then show me the one piece of text you are trying to replicate?  I am happy to look into this for you.

[Anonymous]

Attached is a quick example I have generated. Is there any possible way to replicate the text in cells B2, B3, B4 and B5 in the table in model space to the other charts in the two drawings. This would allow for someone to only have to change the content once rather then have to go through all the drawings and ensure they have been copied correctly. As you can see I have easily done that with the A column cells in the drawings that are just numbers.

Thanks so much for your help!

Andrew

[Anonymous]

If this is not possible or not clear please let me know.

Thanks again!

[john.vellek]

HI @Anonymous,

I was not able to get the cells to link to a cell in the model but I added some Custom DWG Properties and used fields in all those cells to link to those properties.

I am not sure if this will work for you or not but at least the data is in one place and can be updated automatically on multiple layouts.

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

[SeeMSixty7]

Question: Is the table on the two layouts meant to be identical to the one in Model Space or are you just wanting to link to particular cells for each sheet?

If it is identical, why not just create a viewport of the table in each layout tab? Then you only have on entity to update and it is reflected in the layouts via the viewport.

Good Luck,

[Anonymous]

Exactly what I am looking for! Is there anyway you could explain how you created these fields so I could recreate this on other drawings (this was just an example I have created).

Thanks again!

Andrew

[john.vellek · Accepted solution]

Hi @Anonymous,

I made a quick video for you that shows the steps:

• DWGPROPS
• add a custom property and give it a default value (this can be edited later)
• Go to the table, click the cell and rt-click. Insert>Field
• Point the field to the appropriate document custom property.

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

[Anonymous]

Guys,

I know I am a little late to this rodeo, but I may have another less-tedious solution (then establishing and setting possibly hundreds of fields)...

I am working on a complete drawing creation/management tool that involves this capability.  I found that using Document fields being a little too abstracted from the drawing itself, kind of an out-of-sight...out-of-mind thing...
I ended writing a small lisp routine that would take a table (my core BOM that is intended to display/replicate on every layout where a part is shown/referenced).

Observations to this point are correct, you can not link a table cell content across different layouts.  This is demonstrated by inserting a field into one of the cells that points to the content of another, copying that table containing the field to another layout and you will find that ACAD has removed the object id (set it to be zero)...again...why?  The database is reachable from any space!  So I now have a worker routine which gets all of the object ids and updates them in the linked table.

I am still unsure as to why the object ids get disassociated and need to be refreshed in the first place.

In short, I am unable to create a field to link to a table cell, but I can create a table cell that is linked to a mtext object...so...

I copy the table off the page and explode it.  (This is important) I create a selection set using the exploded components of the table in the order they were created (using ssget "p") and group/name the src data to my BOM as BOMData.  I then have a 1 to 1 relationship between my BOM table and the exploded/ordered group of mtext objects that used to be my BOM table.  I then run a worker lisp routine that replaces each cell in my new BOM with a field corresponding to the correct mtext object.  Yet another gotcha (thanks AutoCAD), the fields fortunately evaluate initially to the infamous (####), however, after a quick copy/paste of the field within each cell AFTER you propagate the tables to the layouts where they belong, ends updating the field correctly (still tedious).  This is reduced somewhat as the BOM tables required on each layout is a subset of the master BOM table.  I would like to automate this copy/paste task, but can not locate the "selection" object in VBA/AutoCAD.  Searching the libraries in the VBA Object Browser turned up no support for a selection object (dimmit). Regardless, I have had success in linking two tables together via both tables being linked to the exploded table.  Finally I place the BOMData group onto a frozen layer to wait for my editions which will now propagate throughout my drawing.  What a mess!

Note that using an excel link for my source table was tried, but in the end it was only good for identical tables and not ones based upon subsets of data records (each line in the BOM)

Finally, writing a comprehensive program to automate the entire process is in the works, but will only be offered if my employer approves it.  Sorry....

TANX.Rob