Referencing data stored on SharePoint

[eli_duykers]

Hi all,

I'm looking to understand Inventor's capabilities and workflows around referencing a database stored on Sharepoint, to populate values in a drawing. If Inventor is capable of this, any pointers to resources would be greatly appreciated. As an amateur programmer, I could spend considerable time attempting something that may simply not be supported.

The goal would be to create a drawing template which references a Sharepoint spreadsheet to fill values in drawing annotations and tables. Ideally the template would contain a selection which allows the user to choose which values  in the table to reference (eg user selects row 3 > populates multiple values based on this data). The motivation is to eliminate errors created through manual data entry, and save time by minimising the drafter's inputs. The absolute holy grail would be to replace models in the drawing through this same macro, but I'm not expecting that to be workable.

Is any of this worth attempting?

Thank you

[william]

If I understand correctly, it sounds like you want to simply reference an excel file stored on a company SharePoint? 
This is entirely possible. Could you elaborate more on your workflow with specific steps and what you are trying to achieve?

[eli_duykers]

Yes, thankyou.

We are producing drawings using Inventor with a combination of loose parts and manual sketches in the drawing itself. Due to the illustrative nature of the drawing, producing an actual assembly for each drawing is not beneficial (and would be fairly time-consuming). Parts are inserted where a realistic outline is required, whilst sketching is used to simplify and quickly convey information that would be lost in a realistic part. Finally, a number of annotations are updated to reflect manufacturing information, part numbers etc. Some of these follow patterns (e.g. Part 1.ipt selected, therefore a Part Number annotation should be 12345, and the Manufacturing Specifications annotation should show ABCD).

I hope this isn't overwhelming to read - due to IP, I have to be a bit ambiguous. Thanks for your consideration.