Transfering or Updating Door & Window Settings

[Greenfrog]

I've been looking for this one for a while and can't seem to find anything in the right direction, so I figured its time to suck it up and ask you experts.

I place doors and windows when initially designing something, and don't know the specific settings I'll need for the final design. Is there a way to easily transfer/update door and window settings (like width, jamb thickness, mullion spacing, etc) from one instance to another without needing to edit each individually?

What I'd like is an eyedropper-type tool that allows you to pick up the settings from one, and apply them to another.

Or is there a way to reference everything from one initial version of an object, which can then be adjusted to change everything? I don't really want to create totally new symbols just to accomplish this, it seems a bit excessive.

Thanks,

Aaron

[Pat Stanford]

If you made a symbol out of the doors/windows originally, when you change the symbol, every instance will take on the update. In this way you might only have 6 to 10 different symbols to modify instead of 50 doors/windows.

I don't know of a way to "eyedropper" between objects without changing the sizes as well as the trim, etc.

You could probably write a vectorscript that would move a subset of the PIO fields so that only the parameters you are interested in will move.

Pat

[gmm18]

Since 2008 uses 2-way worksheets, that is a great way to make batch changes.

I used Pat's WS_of_PIO_FIelds menu command ( here).

Then used the field and record formulas that it provides to create a "Mega" Door Schedule Worksheet...

This is separate from your regular Door Schedule, instead of showing just the

items you actually want to show on your plans, it has everything. That way, to

edit a batch of door settings, you can just select, copy, and paste cells. You

can do this on multiple cells at once...It isn't a snap of the mouse, but it is pretty quick.

I was thinking that I would recommend the Tools>Custom Modification menu command,

but it doesn't actually work very well for PIO's like doors & windows.

[Pat Stanford]

Oh right, sure, go ahead and make me look bad with my own stuff ;-)

gmm, that is a great way to do this without writing a separate script. The only trick is that some of the fields can be a little hard to figure out. If you are going to do this, make sure that you set up one item manually and then do the copy and paste thing rather than try to hand write the data in the worksheet.

Also, remember this is a worksheet, not Excel. If you copy a range of cells and then select a range of cells and paste it will will all the cells with the pattern in the original selection. For example: If you select A1 to B2 and it is filled with:

W X

Y Z

And then you select A5 to B10 and paste, the destination will get

W X

Y Z

W X

Y Z

W X

Y Z

Note the repeating pattern. For something like this use, it is best to make sure you only select data from a single row to paste.

Pat

[islandmon]

Of course, you could export to Excel ... then do all the heavy lifting ... and import back into a worksheet.

[gmm18]

Yes I copy-paste multiple cells just column by column, or row by row, not across both rows & columns all at once as Pat warns not to do.

Also, for fields that have drop-downs, instead of number entries (such as "exterior trim" you can pick True or False),

you can select/highlight the entire column that you want to change, then right-click, and at the bottom of that

context menu you can pick the value you want to change to.

[Taproot]

If building your own worksheet from scratch seems difficult or you don't have the time, consider Charles Chandler's "Info Editor." It does exactly what you're asking for, but will do so - not just for windows and doors, but for any object type: Drawing borders, Walls, etc. It costs $20 - a bargain for the tedium that it eliminates.

A link to his site is here.