DBUG> Re: Excel tables to DC; more on thread

[James E. Horecka, AIA <jhorecka@pe.net>]

Yes Matthew, you can do it that way and it is easier to import.

BUT, there is a downside: Editing afterwards is a real bitch, because each
LINE of text is a separate entity. So, if you go to edit a word in the third
column, it screws up the alignment of everything that comes after. This is
bad, very bad.

And, you can't individually align the separate columns by Center, Left, or
Right.  I like Room Names left-justified, and most other stuff centered, but
some stuff right-justified.

By importing a column at a time, you can retain the wonderful separate
entities for each and every cell.  If you edit a word or two, and it is now
longer, you only have that cell to deal with.  You can re-center that word
if you wish. You can change the font, size, aspect, color, weight, whatever
of that particular text entity.

You can even Rotate each separate entity of the first row of the
spreadsheet. This is very cool for certain tables.

Anyway, saving-out and importing the material a column at a time is the way
to go, IMHO.  Sure, it takes a little extra work at the git-go, but once you
get the rhythm you can rip.  The secret is to keep NotePad open, and alt-tab
between Excel and NotePad.  Never Close notepad while you are working. When
you are done saving Col1.txt, don't hit Exit, hit New. The file will close,
and a new file will open. Alt-tab to Excel. Select the next column by
clicking the top box above that column. Hit Copy. Alt-tab to notepad. Paste
the next column, hit SaveAs, and NotePad is in the same directory you left
it. Type Col2.txt, OK, and hit New again. Then alt-tab back to excel and
keep on goin'.  Yeah, man.

If you have a nice big screen, you can have both excel and notepad open at
once. Right-click the task bar and select Tile,Vertical to display both
excel and notepad in the optimum positions for doing columns.

Oh, yes, and always SAVE that original Excel table. If drastic changes
occur, or you want to edit for the next job, or whatever, you have that
original file to mess with.

The same applies to Word files. Keep the Word file and the TXT file.  If the
TXT does not work out, you can edit the Word file, even changing Page Setup
margins to completely change Word Wrap arrangement, and re-save the Word
file by rewriting the .txt file (or creating a new one) always choosing Save
as text only WITH LINE BREAKS.  By the way, you can also do HYPHENATION with
this method, great for Gen notes and such.

So, this is the way that works for me.

Bummer, though, that we can't just copy and paste or even LINK or EMBED
Excel and Word files into DCAD, as we can in many other programs. You can
OLE in ACAD quite nicely.

Jim Horecka, AIA

-----Original Message-----
From: Matthew A. Peters <networth@wolfenet.com>
To: DBUG Group <datacad-dbug-digest@world.std.com>; jhorecka@pe.net
<jhorecka@pe.net>
Date: Wednesday, July 22, 1998 2:51 PM
Subject: Excel tables to DC


>There is an easier way to "dump" an Excel file into a text file for use in
>DC as a table.
>
>1)  Make a simple table in Excel.  Change the font to 12 pitch, and use
>System font or OCR-A (these look most like ASCII text, you will need this
to
>accurately format spacing)
>
>2) Auto-size columns so everything fits nice and tidy.  DO NOT CENTER TEXT
>ACROSS SEVERAL COLUMNS! That just makes things messy.
>
>3)  From the menu, select FILE | SAVE AS and under the file type, select
>.PRN.  This is a space-formatted ASCII format.  Type in your file name and
>save.
>
>4)  Close the file in Excel.
>
>5)  From Explorer, change the file suffix to .TXT, or, in DC when using
TEXT
>| I/O FILE, change the suffix to .PRN  (your own choice)
>
>6)  Import the file in DC via TEXT | I/O FILE.  Play around with fonts
until
>you find one that works best with spacing.  I have found that Roman and
ARCH
>fonts are NOT good for this.  I think 'SIMPLE' is the name of a good font -
>you are looking for a font where each character occupies the same area -
>this way the White Space lines everything up neatly.
>
>7)  Draw your grids as James suggested - although you may not need it if
>there is enough white space.
>
>Another option is to open the text file in MS Edit before importing, and
>adding an extra RETURN after each line - the additional White Space makes
>drawing the lines easier.  You can also verify alignment this way.
>
>Have fun!
>
>
>Matthew A. Peters
>networth@wolfenet.com
>

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