Excel opens when DWG with OLE link is present

[Anonymous]

when the dwg was setup and prior to our latest submittal excel would not open when the dwg was opened.  after revisions by a new employee in the spreadsheet it opens with the dwg.  also if user 1 has the spreadsheet open user 2 cannot open any dwgs that have the excel spreadsheet pasted into it.  we used the 'paste special' function and haven't seen this issue for years.  any thoughts?  thank you.  

[CivilFlow · Accepted solution]

Hello @Anonymous

I have seen this before too.  My only workaround suggestion for you to consider is to connect to the Excel Table via a Data Link in lieu of an OLE paste.  This way there are no restrictions in a team environment....plus you can update the Excel table behind the scenes at any point during the design and any update will push out to any drawing that has the Data Link to that spreadsheet.  We have had no issues with this approach on large projects with multiple team members. 

This video shows the Data Link workflow:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CO1XlvpXFx4

I hope this helps. 

[Anonymous]

Thanks Mike!  Jeff Bartels has the best civil 3d videos on youtube.  Thanks for sharing that link.  The OLE/paste special method works great until it doesn't.