Topic: Block Attribute Extraction Programs

[ELOQUINTET]

We are in need of a Block Attribute Extraction Program and I'm wondering if anyone has found something that I might check out. First off, I have tried the one in autocad and while it works well we need something that will allow us to format the schedule so we can limit the amount of post extraction work we need to do so it looks nice. I have tried using tables too but they freeze up my autocad too much and don't allow all of the formatting and formulas we need to use. I need to create Shade Schedules, Hardware Schedules and Address Schedules for wiring. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[Atook]

I'm a fan of using express->blocks->export attribute information.  Drop that file into excel and I can do all the formatting I want. I can even run calculations and import attributes back into the drawing if I'm careful with the data.

[CADaver]

EATTEXT with a template??

[ronjonp]

I'm with Tim....attin...attout does not get much easier than that.

[CADaver]

ATTOUT has its use, but it will not extract addition information from the block like insertion point, scale (X,Y,Z), rotation, layer, etc.

Using EATTEXT, you can build and save templates (*.blk) for future extractions into the exact format you want, and including nearly everything you need to know about the block.

ATTEXT can be used in conjunction with text templates (*.txt) to accomplish the same thing.

[David Hall]

or roll your own in VBA or LISP

[David Hall]

I use VBA to extract my atts to Excel for filling out project logs

[Krushert]

 
Have you tried the core attribute extraction program in 2008? IMHO it can't get any sweeter than that. And like Randy states it creates templates so you don't have recreate the extraction.  It is much more powerful that the older versions.  It can pull the length of regular lines or count regular blocks (the ones without attributes) and dump it to excel.  And it will do some clean up prior to dumping to excel.  I have some white papers on it somewhere.  I will look them up if you are interested.

One of the items that is worth the subscription price, IMO.

[ELOQUINTET]

I tried using the built in attribute extraction and while it extracts the data fine I didn't see any formatting there. I wanted my columns in a specific order and the only way I found to do this was to prefix the tag names with 01,02,03 so they'd come out in the order I wanted them on Page 5. Maybe I'm missing something, How else could I do this? Another problem is that we usually break our schedules per floor and list totals for that floor then a grand total. Is there a way to put 2 rows of double underlines if the floor number changes? Also how can I use an existing excel spreadsheet as a template which has all of the headers and column widths the way I want? I will post examples of the look I'm going for. Thanks everybody

[ELOQUINTET]

So here's the stuff I was playing around with to give you a better idea

Sample Schedule

Sample Block

My extraction Template

[Krushert]

Also how can I use an existing excel spreadsheet as a template which has all of the headers and column widths the way I want?

This way I do this is to cut and paste in excel.  Extract to one file and then clean-up and organized then paste into the my file with headers. (or paste from the excel template).  How much data are we talking? 

[Krushert]

Your block has a floor number and room number.  I would sort by that and then paste into you template file. 
But you might be able to roll your own vba.

[ELOQUINTET]

I was trying to use the link external data button and link attributes to columns in my template file but when I click the check match button it gives me this message:

The data column in the external data does not contain unique values.

my attributes all have unique values and my xcel file was empty so I tried to put unique numbers in each column but still get this message.

How can I get this to work?

[Krushert]

I was trying to use the link external data button and link attributes to columns in my template file but when I click the check match button it gives me this message:

The data column in the external data does not contain unique values.

my attributes all have unique values and my xcel file was empty so I tried to put unique numbers in each column but still get this message.

How can I get this to work?

That linking part I haven't figured out yet.  We are doing a lot of 1 time per project extractions but there is some minor and I say minor interest in linking stuff.  99% of excel stuff goes into the spec book not into the drawings.  Sorry about that one.  If you find out be sure to let me know.

[CADaver]

I tried using the built in attribute extraction and while it extracts the data fine I didn't see any formatting there.

Which one? there's two, a dialog box version and a command line version.  With the command line version the order of extraction is defined in the template (*.txt)