KozMos XL2CAD Project

  Import active Excel spreadsheet into AutoCAD drawn table
กก         KozMos XL2CAD Project is designed to import data from current active Excel spreadsheet into AutoCAD drawn table (use normal TEXT or MTEXT and lines or polylines). Different font size and name will also be recorded and imported into AutoCAD very well. The created AutoCAD objects (MTEXT / TEXT / LINE / LWPOLYLINE) can be modified as freely as normal created AutoCAD objects.
        XL2CAD Project can use both text and mtext as cell content in AutoCAD drawn table. XL2CAD Project also can provide users many converting options such as Content Layer, Border Layer, Gather new object type and even the Excel Range to convert.

        To start XL2CAD Project -MTEXTContent, just type XL2X at AutoCAD "Command:" prompt.
        To start XL2CAD Project -TEXTContent, just type XL2Q at AutoCAD "Command:" prompt.

XL2CAD Project-MTEXTContent

        XL2CAD Project-MTEXTContent will use mtext as content, the various font style and size will be recorded and imported into AutoCAD as same as they are in Excel and in this situation, the following options are supported:

  • The excel data range:
    We can import all Excel used cells or just selected cells into AutoCAD.
    Default: All used cells
  • The layer of the cell borders and contents:
    The border layer and content layer can be set to any existing layer in current drawing.
    Default: Current layer
  • The entity type of the cell/table border lines
    We can use either lines (enable Merge border lines) or lwpolylines (disable Merge border lines) as the border lines of table.
    Default: polyline
  • Import the colored cell background
    The colored Excel cell background can also be imported into AutoCAD as ACI (in AutoCAD2002) or AutoCAD true color (in AutoCAD 2004+)
    Default: Ignore
  • Import the cell content color
    The cell contents' color can be imported into AutoCAD as ACI (in AutoCAD2002) or AutoCAD true color (in AutoCAD 2004+)
    Default: Ignore
  • Default text height
    This option is used to set the size of the table by a unique smallest text height. Then the table will need not further scale in order to fit different plotting scales. Since Excel spreadsheet may contain different text heights and this value will be use to match the smallest text height. Texts with other size and all of cell height and width will both be scaled automatically.
    Default: 300.0
  • Gather all created AutoCAD objects
    Created AutoCAD table can be gathered as a unnamed group or unnamed block so that the "AutoCAD Table" can be quickly and generally selected.
    Default: Not gather.

XL2CAD Project-TEXTContent

        Using XL2CAD Project-TEXTContent may lost the various font style and size in Excel, but we can set an unique AutoCAD text style to all AutoCAD table content annotations.
        XL2CAD Project-TEXTContent will support not only the same parameters as XL2CAD Project-MTEXTContent will, but also more options focus on the cell texts will be used:

  • Text Style
    The text style can be any existing text style in current drawing.
    Default: Current text style.
  • Text Alignment and Justification
    XL2CAD Project-TEXTContentan support four text alignments (Left, Middle, Right and Excel <means to keep Excel horizontal justification>). This will not only set the alignment of TEXT, but also re-locate the text in proper position in cells.
    Default: Middle
  • Default text height
    This option is used to set the size of the table by a unique smallest text height. Then the table will need not further scale in order to fit different plotting scales. Since Excel spreadsheet may contain different text heights and this value will be use to match the smallest text height. Texts with other size and all of cell height and width will both be scaled automatically.
    Default:     300.0
  • Keep unique height factor
    In default, the text height is calculated by the cell height. This mean different cell height might cause different text height and it is NOT what we like to do. In most situations, we need the contents have same height. To do so, just enable this option and the text height can be set as the percentage of the smallest cell height in Excel. KozMos do not recommend you set this value bigger than 0.618. If you have multiple line of texts in one cell, please use a smaller Height factor such as 0.2.
    Default: 0.5
  • Keep unique width factor
    We can set a unique width factor to all texts.
    Default: 1.0

Analysis speed on Excel Range:

        The analysis speed on Excel Range is different according with the hardware configuration of PC. As normal tested, XL2CAD Project can process about 15 Cells within one second (PC configuration: AMD 2600+ / 256M RAM / AutoCAD 2004 / Windows XP SP1).
        It can not be a very fast speed because XL2CAD Project have to scan the cells one by one in order to catch the different fonts and merged cells. But this is not a problem for normal Excel spreadsheet. If you have HUGE Excel spreadsheet, you have to wait long time for the conversion. BTW, the analysis speed maybe reduced on HUGE Excel spreadsheet because of the lack of the system resource.

Empty cells with colored background in Excel:

        The program will treat empty cells with colored background as used cells in Excel. So if the Selection Range option is selected in dialog, or XL2CAD Project will process so many empty cells and this will cost so many time.

Control strings' conversion from Excel to AutoCAD:

        There may be some characters used in AutoCAD MTEXT as control flag strings, if these strings are placed into Excel cells as content, the conversion will be little complex. Even normal AutoCAD 2005+'s "Paste Special" may cause some errors while facing the control characters. (If we enter "\\P" at Excel, AutoCAD2005+ will only got "\P" in content and "\A" in Excel will be ignored.) XL2CAD Project has all these control characters processed normally while the conversion procedure.
        If you have the chance working with these control characters, XL2CAD Project will be your best choice because XL2CAD Project can save your time in checking the content converted from Excel to AutoCAD.

More powerful solution:

        KozMos AutoTableX will be able to provide more powerful features than XL2CAD Project. Supporting by AutoTableX, some useful cell properties such as colored background and content can be imported from Excel to AutoCAD. More detail information can be found at HERE!

Program record

  • 2008-03-15
    Add Import cell color
  • 2008-01-31
    Add Default text height.
  • 2007-01-11
    Process all contents "Orientation" in Excel cell.
  • 2006-04-10
    Support true color in AutoCAD2007
  • 2006-03-31
    Upgrade
  • 2005-05-07
    Import colored cell background into AutoCAD drawn table
  • 2005-03-07
    Change Unique Text Height to Unique Text Height Factor in XL2CAD Project-TCD.
  • 2005-03-02
    Option to keep Excel horizontal justification while importing procedure for XL2CAD Project-TCD.
  • 2005-02-28
    All table texts now have same height in AutoCAD Table even in the merged cells.
  • 2005-01-31
    Hidden columns or rows will be discard in building AutoCAD table from Excel.
  • 2005-01-20
    While prompting for new table width, if the base point and user picked point have same X coordinates, XL2CAD may crash by the "divided by zero" error. This problem is fixed.
  • 2004-12-08
    Fix a bug on empty Excel spreadsheet (command XL2X)
  • 2004-11-02
    Automatically save settings as default value for next time calling
  • 2004-08-20
    Support gathering the "AutoCAD Table" into unnamed block
  • 2004-07-25
    Main module finished
    1st release
  • 2004-07-15
    Start programming XL2CAD Project
กก

//Koz Jono Yeoh//

Copyright(C) 1994-2009 KozMos Inc
All rights reserved.