-DATAEXTRACTION command and template

[Anonymous]

I would love to use an existing data extraction file (.dxe) as a template for future extractions and do it through the command line (-DATAEXTRACTION) instead of going through the tedious process of clicking "OK" on the "data extraction menu" window for every and each one of the 8 steps. 

My approach is as follows (keep in mind I've tried to find a workaround to the dwg name downside from which the data are extracted):

· I've created a first data extraction (DATAEXTRACTION) as the .dxe template. I've saved the drawing in a specific location as Extraction.dwg together with the aforementioned .dxe template and an Extraction.xls file.

·Once the data extraction has been carried out, I move the Extraction.dwg file out of the folder to its new folder destination and rename it (I also copy the .xls file and rename it).

· In the original folder I'm still keeping the .dxe template and Extraction.xls. Whenever there's a new drawing to extract data from, I rename it as Extraction.dwg and move it to the folder where the .dxe file is. I'm aiming at keeping the same drawing name and path the .dxe file takes the values from.

Disadvantages:

· Well, to begin with, this doesn't work (lol). The overwritten .xls file after using -DATAEXTRACTION only shows the A1 cell content (it sometimes shows "COUNT" whereas most of the times it's an error message or something like that)   

· I can't change the .dxe file and save it together with each drawing. The .dxe file will contain the data of the very first extraction. Not a big problem, though I'd like to keep the .dxe for each extraction.

· The process can be cumbersome if for some reason any of the drawings change once the data extraction has been done. I would have to save the modified the drawing as Extraction.dwg, open it, run the -DATAEXTRACTION command and get the new files. Now move, rename and replace. Now that I think of it, the non-friendliness is always there even when extracting data for the first time <:o).

My main goal is to get the -DATAEXTRACTION to work as I guess it was originally conceived. I mention the other disadvantages in case someone can point me to a more efficient way of doing it. I highly doubt the gurus at AutoCad haven't designed this properly after all these years.

 
  

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

I don't know what was happening yesterday but today I got it to work going through the exact same steps I was describing in the OP. On the other hand, I wish there was a way to save the .dxe for each extraction, but this is not essential.

[dlanorh]

What are you trying to extract?

[Anonymous]

I'm extracting dynamic blocks parameters as well as some attributes.