Topic: (AutoCAD LT) Attribute extraction for BOM - tutorials?

[jumpy]

Hi all, we're looking at extracting a bill of materials from our drawings.

I get the premise of using embedded attributes - I've used these in various blocks/title blocks for other reasons.

The idea is to use this to provide accurate counts of materials and fittings for the purchasing department/contracts managers to use for contract costings etc following some recent er... confusion over fittings requirements and lack of materials delivered to site... in the words of one full autocad tutorial page on the subject:

EXTRACTING ATTRIBUTE DATA IN AUTOCAD

So now you're wondering what can you do with all of this information. A CAD drawing can be used to track inventory and export that data to another file (such as Microsoft Excel - a spreadsheet application) for others to use. Maybe the purchasing department wants to know what to order, based on the design you are working on.

Because I'm shackled with LT, there's no handy EATTEXT command (tools/data extraction) that streamlines the process with shiny dialog boxes and output settings in check-boxes.

So after much preambulatory waffling, we come to the crunch (you can't handle the crunch!) - can anyone push me in the direction of a half decent tutorial on how to write the 'attribute extraction template file' to use with ATTEXT - I've had a look at the help files, but I'd like a real world tutorial to learn the workings of it all instead of guessing and trial and error.
Most of the ones I've seen only cover FULL AutoCAD, so my optimism is repeatedly dashed to smithereens upon the bulwark of LT's 'budget functionality'.

[jumpy]

OK trial and error is doing my nut.

Anyone know which part of an attribute to list for extraction?

eg. I have a block with 3 attributes:

name

model

manufacturer

each attribute has 3 fields : TAG / PROMPT / DEFAULT

What am I missing? Do the attributes have to be 'fixed' - have no fields other than what it is... that would be a constant attribute?

Based on this help file http://exchange.autodesk.com/autocadlt/enu/online-help/ACDLT/2012/enu/pages/WS1a9193826455f5ffa23ce210c4a30acaf-6be7.htm

one of the examples given is

BL:NAME C008000       (Block name, 8 characters)

This means I must create an attribute with the 3 fields:
Tag = NAME
PROMPT = ENTER NAME
DEFAULT = LIGHT

Pretty much every time I get the return of "No Attribute fields specified".


I must be doing something wrong. Does anyone understand what?

[David Hall]

can you post a dwg with a few blocks inserted,  its been a long time since i tried this, and doing it from memory aint happening

[jumpy]

Thanks for the reply.

Ive created a basic light fitting with the following attributes:

name
model
manufacturer

As you can see it's pretty simple stuff - no rocket science here 

Any ideas as to where I'm going wrong or suggestions would be of great help.

Extracting the attributes should be easy; so I know I'm missing a bit of the puzzle somewhere along the line 

[David Hall]

Create a text file with these 5 lines

BL:NAME C015000
BL:NUMBER N005000
NAME C030000
MODEL C030000
MANUFACTURER C050000

and use that as your template.

[David Hall]

Here is your dwg back, with a few more blocks to help illistrate the extract file

[David Hall]

here is my temp file

[David Hall]

and here is the result

'MODULAR LIGHT', 1,'600X600 MODULAR FITTING','IMOD SOLO 2X28W','HACEL'
'MODULAR LIGHT', 2,'600X600 MODULAR FITTING','IMOD SOLO 2X28W','HACEL'
'MODULAR LIGHT', 3,'600X600 MODULAR FITTING','IMOD SOLO 2X28W','HACEL'
'MODULAR LIGHT', 4,'600X600 MODULAR FITTING','IMOD SOLO 2X28W','HACEL'
'MODULAR LIGHT', 5,'300X300 DSH','NOT IMOD','MINI ME'
'MODULAR LIGHT', 6,'600X600 MODULAR FITTING','IMOD SOLO 2X28W','HACEL'
'MODULAR LIGHT', 7,'600X600 MODULAR FITTING','IMOD SOLO 2X28W','HACEL'
'MODULAR LIGHT', 8,'300X300 DSH','NOT IMOD','MINI ME'

[jumpy]

Wow.

Thankyou very much indeed!

Seeing it applied to those attributes has made the whole thing so much clearer to understand.

That's a big help and a step forward for what we're trying to do here