CAD Notes

Have you used data extraction? This is a very handy tool to create a report about any data from your drawing. Some of my colleague choose to extract this data to excel instead of directly to his drawing. They want to modify the data further, and using excel is easier (and faster).

But here comes the problem: when he tried to sum any column, he can get excel to calculate them. What’s wrong?

Apparently, AutoCAD export all the data to text strings, not numbers. That’s why you can’t get them calculated.

To fix this is easy:

1. Select all the cells contain your data in excel, click copy on the ribbon (or press [ctrl] + C) to copy them to clipboard.
2. Open notepad, paste them here.
3. Select all (you can press [ctrl] + A) then copy this value to clipboard.
4. Paste them back in excel.

Now your formula should works ;)

Popularity: 3% [?]

You might also interested to these posts:

1. How to: Copy Objects to Different Level
2. Create a Report Table with Data Extraction
3. Creating Custom Schedule Field
4. Saving Families From a Project
5. Selecting Multiple Elements (2)

Written by Edwin Prakoso

Application Engineer. Jakarta, Indonesia. 5+ years experience as CAD engineering application. AutoCAD, MicroStation, Revit, Inventor, and certified CATIA part design specialist. Here are some topics I am currently focusing on

Visit Edwin Prakoso's Website

Follow Edwin Prakoso on Twitter