Information in a Microsoft
Excel spreadsheet can be combined with extracted data from drawings.
By linking to an Excel spreadsheet,
you can include information from an entire worksheet, or part of
a worksheet, referred to as a named range.
Using the Link External
Data dialog box, you can
- Specify a data link by selecting an XLS
file to which the extracted data from the drawing will be linked.
- Match the extracted drawing data and
the spreadsheet data. (See
Understand Data Linking and Matching for
more information.)
- Select the columns in the XLS file to
merge with the extracted drawing data.
On the Refine Data page,
you access the Link External Data dialog box; you can set up a link
to an entire Excel spreadsheet, or to a range of rows and columns,
to the extracted data.
Before
you can link a spreadsheet, Microsoft Excel needs to be installed
on the same computer on which the data extraction is performed.
If Microsoft Excel is not installed, or if the XLS file is not saved
locally on the computer that is performing the data extraction,
a data link cannot be established.
If
a linked spreadsheet has been changed, such as a row or column has
been added, the table in your drawing can be updated accordingly
using the DATALINKUPDATE command. Likewise,
if a change is made to the table in the drawing, the linked spreadsheet
can be updated using the same command.
Understand Data Linking
and Matching
Data
linking is the process of selecting a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet
with the purpose of merging all or some of its contents with extracted
drawing data. See Link a Table to External Data for
more information about data linking.
Data matching creates
a relationship between two sets of data; the data in a column from
the extracted drawing data and the data in a column from an Excel
spreadsheet.
For example, you have
a simple bill of materials (BOM). Three columns of data are extracted
from a drawing. These columns contain data for: Part #, Revision,
and Quantity. You want to include
two additional columns of data in the BOM from a spreadsheet. These
columns contain data for Cost and Supplier.
In this example, the
spreadsheet contains a column of part numbers labeled Catalog
Number that matches the Part Number column
in the extracted data. In the Link External
Data dialog box, you select Part
# as the column for the drawing data and Catalog
Number as the column for the external data. Because there
is at least one cell of matching data in the drawing data column
and the external data column, the data extraction feature “knows”
how both sources are tied together.
You can test if the data
matching is valid by clicking the Check Match button from the Link
External Data dialog box. If the match is unsuccessful, a warning
message indicates what the problem is. In some situations, the drawing data
might not link correctly to the data in the spreadsheet. See
Data Matching Validation for
more information.
Validate Matched Data
The
data matching validation process fails when it cannot find a valid
match between the drawing data and external data (spreadsheet).
The following error messages will display:
No match was found between any values
in the drawing data and external data.
- If the problem is not resolved, the
external data will not be merged. Compare the spreadsheet column
data to the drawing data column for any matching values. For example,
the numerical data in the drawing data may be set to a different
precision level than in the external data.
The data column in the external data
does not contain unique values.
- The data in the external data column
contains one or more cells that contain identical data. This condition
makes it so that one match cannot be configured between the drawing
data and the external data.
To link data to an Excel
spreadsheet in a data extraction table
- In the Data Extraction wizard on the
Refine Data page, click Link External Data.
- In the Link External Data dialog box,
click Launch Data Link Manager.
- In the Data Link Manager tree view, select
Click the Create a New Excel Data Link option.
- In the Enter Data Link Name dialog box,
enter a name for the data link. Click OK.
- Click the [...] button to browse for
the .xls or .csv file to
be linked to.
- In the New Excel Data Link dialog box,
select a link option (whole sheet, range, or Excel named range).
Click OK.
- Select the new data link in the Data
Link Manager tree view. Click OK.
- In the Link External Data dialog box,
in the Drawing Data Column list, specify the column you want to
link.
- In the External Data Column list, specify
the Excel column you want to link.
- Click Check Match. If an error displays,
see
Data Matching Validation.
- From the Select External Data Columns
to Include, select the Excel columns from the list you want to add
to the extracted data.
- Click OK.
To set up a named range
in Microsoft Excel to use in a data extraction
- In Microsoft Excel, open the workbook
or spreadsheet that you want to access.
- Select a range of cells to function as
a linked range.
- Enter a name for the range of cells in
the Name Box, then press ENTER.
- Repeat steps 2 and 3, if desired, to
specify additional linked ranges.
- On the File menu (Microsoft Excel), click
Save.
To view the data link from
a data extraction table to an Excel spreadsheet
- Right-click the data extraction table.
Click Properties.
The Cell Data Link field
in the Properties palette displays the name of the data link associated
with the table.
To detach a link from a
data extraction table to an Excel spreadsheet
- Select the data extraction table and
right-click. Click Data Links
Detach Data Link.
The data link to the
Excel spreadsheet is removed from the data extraction table.
CommandsDATAEXTRACTION
Extracts drawing data
and merges data from an external source to a data extraction table
or external file.
System VariablesDXEVAL
Controls when update
notification displays for data extraction tables.
