Linking Excel Spreadsheets to AutoCAD Tables (AutoCAD 2008+)
Comments(19)You may have heard about how you can link Microsoft Excel spreadsheets to a table in AutoCAD 2008 and have them stay in sync with each other. It is easy to do but it’s not as straight-forward as you might imagine. Here is how to do it in a few easy steps.
STEP 1: Create a data link.
On the command line type DATALINK. In the Data Link Manager dialog box double-click on “Create a new Excel Data Link” and give the link a name.
Browse for an Excel file and modify settings in the New Excel Data Link dialog box:
As you can see, you can link to a sheet or a range in Excel. Hit Ok when finished.
If you want to modify your link, simply double-click on the name of your link and the Modify Excel Link dialog box will appear.
(click to view larger picture)
I recommend un-checking “Use Excel formatting” so that my table style matches the CAD standard instead of taking formatting from Excel.
STEP 2: Create a table using a data link.
On the command line type TABLE. Under insert options select the radio button called “From a data link”.
(click to view larger picture)
Launch the Data Link Manager dialog box:
Select a data link and hit OK:
Hit OK in the table dialog box and click to insert the upper-left corner of the table into your drawing.
STEP 3: Modify the table.
Select the table, right-click and select Table Style –> [your standard table style]
If you don’t have standard table styles already created, I recommend doing so and saving them to your drawing template.
If you want a row of cells to be the header row, you can hold down shift, select the first and last cell in the row, then right-click and select Cell Style –> Header.
The Excel file will now stay in sync with the AutoCAD table. If you make changes to the Excel file, right-click on the table and select “Update Table Data Links”. Anything you change in the Excel file will be changed in the AutoCAD table as well.
In the command line I typed datalink and hit enter, it says Unknown Command, press F1 for help.
Mike
Ah, I should be more specific. You need to be using AutoCAD 2008+.
[...] I talked about Linking Excel Spreadsheets to AutoCAD Tables but this time I am going to show you an even simpler way to get Excel data into an AutoCAD [...]
[...] is especially useful when your table is linked from an Excel spreadsheet. If the table gets too long vertically, you can simply make the table wrap by dragging that [...]
Can you use Excel spreadsheet data links for modifying the dimensions on parts in Solidworks, Pro E, and/or NX 5 Unigraphics? Thanks and appreciated.
When I select the table, to modify it, it highlights in large green block, hiding all the data. My columns are not evenly spaced and I need to manually modify them. What can I do to modify this table. I think that there may be an active lock on it.
J D,
I have no experience using any of the software you mentioned. Sorry I can’t help you there.
Craig,
Is your table on a locked layer?
I use Excel for creating my material lists and I have a construction unit drawings created in AutoCAD 2008. I am able to highlite & copy the cells on my material list; open my AutoCAD drawing, Edit, Paste Special, Paste Link, make sure that Microsoft Office Excel Worksheet is selected and click on OK. It drops the file into your CAD drawing. If it is too big or too small, then scale it up/down using Scale Reference. Make sure that the OLEQUALITY is set to 0, then plot.
FriendsIs it possible to link autocad drawing dimensions with excel sheet.I dont want the drawing to be parametric.I just want my drawing dimensions to get changed whenever I change some values in my excel sheet using some formulas.
I don’t know of any way to do this Pandian.
i tried it too.even pull down menu not showing any related function.can u please highlight what i should do to get these function?
Thanks for the Excel linking info. I was having trouble with this function but now it is slick. One thing I would like to be able to do is "collect" data points from the ACAD drawing into the spreadsheet ie. I would like to be able to click on points along a curve drawn in ACAD and have the coordinates of the points entered into the spreadsheet. Does anyone know if this is possible? Thanks very much.
[...] love that you can link an Excel spreadsheet to an AutoCAD table. This is a very powerful tool, but I quickly discovered a problem: using .shx fonts in AutoCAD [...]
I’ve been linking Excel 2003 into AutoCAD 2008 for about one yr or so… very simple. BUT since “upgrading” to Excel 2007, NO LUCK. What gives?
I’ve been using data linking for making mechanical schedules, but I’m having a problem. I can’t get the data link to come into my CAD drawing using my CAD RomanS text style. It wants to keep the excel text formating. I can remove formating by using ctrl spacebar to get the table to use the RomanS text style, but then when I download from source to update the table it brings back in the Excel text formating. Does anyone know of a way to get it to stop doing this?
Im running into a few problems using these tables, if lines have been entered into in the excel file, they import on the table in autocad, even though they are blank and i cant find anyway to remove them either in CAD or excel.
also the issue with the non-standard font, if you untick the use excel formatting, you lose all the formatting like merged cells ect. and if i keep the excel formatting i get the correct formatting imported, but the font is wrong.
any ideas?
any ideas?
another problem we have found, when using datalinks from excel to autocad, if the table is too long and you adjust using the “wrapping grip” when the drawing is closed and reopened the datalink is lost and the table isnt able to update when changes are made in the excel workbook, anyone come across this problem?
I am finding it difficult to attach to files larger than 25kb. I have gotten a 435kb down to 73kb and it still will not load. I am using Acad 2008
Is there any way to link a dimension to a table? So that I am able to change the table and dimension its linked with also change?