Let users change delimiter type on Assets export to CSV

[daniel.smejkal4275F]

Asset attribute values sometimes contain commas, which is hard to avoid, esplecially when the values are extracted from Revit models. When exporting those assets to a CSV file that uses comma as the only option for delimiter, the commas from the attribute values get mixed with the delimiting commas which makes the export unusable. Giving the users more delimiter options would prevent from these problems to occur.

[robert_smith]

Hi @daniel.smejkal4275F,

When you export a CSV, where are you typically importing the information? For example, in Excel, you can choose the delimiter to use. We'd like to understand how you use the CSV file once it is exported.

Thank you!

[daniel.smejkal4275F]

Hi @robert_smith, 

yes, we work with the CSVs in Excel with the aim of reimporting them back to Build. The problem is not that I cannot set the delimiter type on excel side. It is that if the exported data already include commas in the text field values such as Description, they cannot be distinguished from the delimiter commas by any software and it leads to wrong import results.  I know we could strictly set the standards to forbid usage of comma in parameter values but we must work with data that were created long before we knew they would be later used in Build / Assets tool. 

If we could simply switch the delimiter from comma to eg. semi-colon on the export side, we would give us a quick fix for problematic scenarios like the one described.

[robert_smith]

@daniel.smejkal4275F If values are being edited in Excel, we recommend using the XLSX export. It contains the same information as the CSV export, but is more easily understood by Excel for editing purposes. Are there blockers for using this export format?

[daniel.smejkal4275F]

@robert_smith  That indeed solves the problem. Thank you for the hint! I wasn't aware the Assets could be updated by importing XLSX as well as the CSV as I remember CSV was the only option mentioned in the video training I saw in the past.