The client is forcing us to use their antiquated template for all index sheets It is basically an array of individual pieces of center aligned text. They send us and we modify an excel spreadsheet, but the spreadsheet is not in the same order as the index sheet. Furthermore, one would like to use a table, but the client wants NO MTEXT in the drawing. We've already agreed to this.
I could use a table.. then format.. then explode.. then rearrange. This still takes a great deal of time.
The thing is the log file is an excel spreadsheet and it never changes in format. Would it be possible to Script the placement of the text and pull the text from the cells in the spreadsheet?
I have to do this and re-do this several times throughout the design process and it's a tremendous pain in the keester.
The spacing is always the same vertically and for the most part horizontally, although the distance from one column to the other varies.
Each individual piece of text(not mtext) is aligned center.
column "X"
1 0.5000"
2 1.2500"
3 2.6895"
4 4.5411"
5 5.6375"
6 6.2121"
7 7.8273"
8 11.4238"
9 14.4935"
10 16.00"
The first "Y" is at 9.85" and each following row is .2" lower than the previous
Example DWG
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/20790817/theswamp/index/SOME_DRAWING_INDEX_TEMPLAT.dwgExample XLS
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/20790817/theswamp/index/SOME_PROJ_LOG.xlsExample Completed Index
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/20790817/theswamp/index/58-03-0296.dwgI don't mind copying and pasting the header info.. takes a few min..
Manually entering 300 lines and 10 columns is a pain. I often have to do this multiple times throughout a project because the order will change, or drawings will be added or removed from the project log.
In any case this seems like something that both should and could be scripted. Especially since each piece of text is formatted exactly the same.
The main problem being that the columns in the DWG are in a different order than the columns in the XLS.
Sometimes the project is 20 DWG's and once 1300 dwgs.
The engineers always update the EXCEL LOG, but neglect to inform me so I can update the INDEX. If I could somehow find a LSP routine that would allow me to clear the text and then repost from a log file I can choose.. that would be freek'n awesome.
I have spent at least 6 to 10 hours of each project filling these things out and then backchecking for fat finger mistakes...
At my wits end.... Please HELP
PLEASE do not suggest TABLES, OLE objects OR MTEXT.. those avenue's are not available to me.
I am not apt at writing LSP. BUt I am pretty good at figuring out what I'm looking at... Just not good enough to write or debug.