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dgladfelter
en respuesta a: john.vellek

Combined with Excel, the Import and Export Attributes commands (ATTIN & ATTOUT) is probably my favorite workflow. Since the commands simply write/read a tab delimited text file, it's very easy to bring that data into Excel.

 

Before Sheet Set Manager was introduced in AutoCAD 2005, I used ATTIN/ATTOUT (and Excel) to basically function as SSM. I would export the title block attributes to a single tab delimited text file that I would then import into Excel. Once in Excel I could manage sheet names, numbers, revision dates, etc in a table form. From there I would save the Excel worksheet back to a Tab Delimited TXT file. To update my title blocks, I used a batch script to run the ATTIN command on all of my sheets. 

 

With Sheet Set Manager, I don't use the ATTIN/ATTOUT workflow to manage my sheets any longer, but I absolutely still use it to make batch updates to block attributes. For example, I recently had a drawing where I needed to change the room numbers (contained in a block attribute) from 1, 2, 3, to 101, 102, 103, etc. In lieu of changing each one manually, I did the following:

  1. Select a single room tag block.
  2. Right-click, choose Select Similar.
  3. Run the ATTOUT command, and save TXT file.
  4. Import TXT file into a new Excel spreadsheet.
  5. Use a simply formula to add 100 to the room number attribute cell.
  6. Hide the original column (with room numbers 1, 2, 3, etc.
  7. Save the Excel worksheet to a Tab Delimited TXT file.
  8. Back in AutoCAD, run the ATTIN command to import the updated room tags.

It seems like a lot of steps, but assuming you're familiar with Excel, the process is relatively straight forward. The big gotcha' in the process is the ATTIN/ATTOUT commands use the unique object handle for each block. That means the location of the block doesn't matter, but the insertion itself does. In other words, erasing a room tag block will between the export and import steps will make the process fail. 

 



Donnie Gladfelter

Sr. Manager, Technical Staff Development, Bowman

The CAD Geek Blog

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