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Counting symbols with records in referenced viewports


da_muel

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Hi,

Does anyone know if its possible to count symbols with records in referenced layer viewports? Ive tried every way I know to list the symbols with a record in a referenced layer viewport but with no joy. Can get the worksheet to count the symbols in a referenced viewport but it doesn't seem to see / count their records - can anyone help me please?

Want to be able to reference multiple files on separate layers and get a count for each layer viewport.

Thanks

Sam

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Did you try the formula:

='Record Name'.'Field Name'

?

This would be for each column, in the database row header. If the criteria for the database row itself won't find the records, then I'm not sure...

(The quotes ( ' ) aren't necessary if there isn't a space in the record or field names).

Not sure it this even begins to help...

Will

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Thanks Will,

That's how I have it set up at the moment but VW doesn't seem to see the records. If I go in to edit the criteriaI I can get the worksheet to count the symbols but not the records.

Does anyone know if it is even possible to count records in referenced layer viewports - I cant seem to find a way? I really hope it is!

Cheers

Sam

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  • 5 weeks later...

Can anyone help or am I missing something here??? Dont understand why I can see / count the symbols but not their records. Can upload files if it helps . . .

Would really appreciate any help anyone can give me with this - even if its just to say "its not possible" so that I can stop banging my head against this brick wall.

Thanks

Sam

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Hi,

Firstly thanks to anyone taking a look at this - its been boxing my head for ages and any advice anyone can give is greatly appreciated. I've uploaded four sample VW files and one jpg file to help explain what Im trying to do.

I work for an exhibition company designing and building exhibition stands. We have a stock of standard kit that we use to build our stands and Im trying to find a way to output a spreadsheet that will tell me the names of every piece of stock that we have and how many of each item we are using on each job. I will be passing the data collected from the VW worksheet to a colleague who will put it into Excel to calculate when we might experience a shortfall in stock.

I have constructed a library document that contains a symbol of each item we have in stock. Each symbol has a record attached to it that details the items Code / Number (default = 1) / Name / Notes. When designing a stand I pick items from the library and then use a worksheet to count the number of items with a particular record on that job.

I have put together some simple sample documents that should help to explain what I need to achieve. The files Job 01, Job 02 and Job 03 are test job documents that contain a couple of stock items with the record BLOX attached to them. The file Test Library File is a scaled down version of the library file I currently use for all our jobs. There are four layers in this file; the library layer contains all of the objects that have a BLOX record and the layers Job 01, Job 02 and Job 03 contain a viewport of the referenced files Job 01, Job 02 and Job 03. I have created a worksheet that counts all of the BLOX records on the library layer but what I want to end up with is something like the spreadsheet shown in the jpg 'Kit usage per job'.

My worksheet works perfectly for items in the document (library layer) but not for anything that is in the referenced viewports. I don't mind if I end up with a library document that references all of the other jobs or individual job files in which i reference the library - the important this is that I end up with a list that shows all of the items that are in our stock and a count of how many of those items are used on each job. Its essential that I have a count for a stock item even if that count is 0.

I hope this makes sense and thanks again for your time. If any further files or explanations are required then please let me know.

Sam

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I don't think you can do it using DLVPs.

See this post from Jeff Oulette. http://techboard.vectorworks.net/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=130530&Searchpage=1&Main=26903&Words=%2Brecord+%2Bdatabase+%2BReference&Search=true#Post130530

It seems that DLVPs fully isolate the resources of a referenced file from the referencing file.

If you need this functionality you will have to consider reworking your workflow to out style imported layer references.

I just tested this in VW2011 and it seems to be the same there.

Sorry.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi Pat,

Thanks for that - very useful. I think Ill try out a few different options on importing layer refs and actually just copying and pasting all the elements that I need into files to count them. I wondered whether you could help me to find a way to make my worksheets count / split items a bit more effectively. So far I have only be able to count all the symbols in the drawing but Id like to find a way to break the count down to items per layer so I get a spreadsheet that looks like the jpeg called "Kit usage per job" in my previous post ie. Id like to get a count of the the symbols on the VW layers in individual columns so all count of symbols on 'Library' layer in one column, symbols on ' Job 1' layer in the next column etc. I need to do this so that I get a complete list of all items of stock that we own even if none are needed on a specific job.

Is there likely to be any functionality built in to enable symbols to be counted in DLVPs with refs?

Thanks for you help

Sam

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Thanks Blind Expert - sounds very interesting. Dont think my colleague will be out of a job but he would love to have the time to get on with other work which he will really appreciate. Will do some digging around on this. Our inventory is already in FileMaker so could be possible - but im guessing costly! Definitely worth some investigation tho so thanks. Will send you a PM in a bit.

Any further info anyone has on my symbols on different layers worksheet query would be much appreciated..

Thanks

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Hi Blind Expert, just re-read your post and had another look around for further info on ODBC on the forum and in the Help - this could be the solution!!! Thanks for pointing me to it.

As you say - using this to track kit going in and out on jobs will be an amazing tool if I can get my head around FileMaker and Vectorscrits, never really used either.

What kind of complications are you referring to! Can you point out any potential pitfalls before I start to delve into this?

Will look forward to the release of SP2 and will start having a play with this ASAP.

Thanks again.

Sam

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Why not assemble the information in Excel rather in VW and let your Library file be just that rather than a stock keeper as well.

Export the Worksheet for each Job file separately

Import all to Excel

Compare against stock quantities.

it's not live but will do the trick

Edited by bcd
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