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How to report dimensions of symbols or objects in a worksheet


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Hello, I'm still a bit of a newbie to VW, but does anyone know how to use a worksheet column to report what the dimensions of a symbol or object are, regardless of how it is displayed or oriented in a design layer? I am simply using extruded shapes converted into symbols to represent various pieces of lumber for a project and would like to use a worksheet to function as a parts list where the various lengths of lumber types are reported by the worksheet based on the drawn dimensions of each symbol. I played around with the IF statement to only print the longest dimension, but it seems that the orientation still plays into what is reported. The project is attached.

 

Any help would be hugely appreciated!

Rock display table.vwx

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As long as you are using Extrudes, you can use a formula of =Length, =Width, =Height to get the dimensions of the bounding box of the extrude. As long as you are using rectangular extrudes you should be OK.

 

If you put the Extrudes inside of Symbols, you will need to edit the worksheet Criteria and check the Include components of Symbols check box.

 

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Thanks a lot for your response Pat. I think the main area where I'm having trouble is that when I use Width or Length or Height in a worksheet formula, it seems to give me different and unexpected values returned depending on the orientation the object or symbol is in the design layer. I'm hoping I'm able to use a formula that can return the actual dimension of an object or preferably a symbol regardless of what view is used, such as Plan, Top, Isometric etc. Actually in my document I'm getting rather unpredictable results with length and width.

 

Grateful for any further thoughts on this!

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Another approach is to attach a parts record to each symbol with all the information that you are trying to pull from each symbol already pre-filled.

 

So for instance, you could have a record with the following fields:

 

Part Name:

Length:

Width:

Height:

Lumber Type:

 

Then all you will need to do is use the record fields for your worksheet columns.

 

Mark

Edited by markdd
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In VW2019, the worksheet returns the correct width/height/length for extrudes regardless of their rotation and location inside of outside of symbols

 

In VW2015, the worksheet returns the width/height/length for the object bounding box, not the OIP values for the extrude for objects that are not in symbols.  For objects that are in symbols, it will return the values based on how the object is drawn inside the symbol definition. Even if the symbol instance is rotated, it will still give you the "orthogonal" values from in the symbol definition. So, you will have to access the extrusions inside the symbol definitions instead of the symbol itself.

 

The following Database Criteria will give the values of all extrusions. You will need to add some other criteria (probably a class would be best) for the extrusions inside the symbols to be able to limit the table to just the objects in the symbols. And if you do it this way, you will not be able to access the symbol names since the criteria is based on the extrudes and not the symbols. If you instead Name the extrudes in the data pane of the OIP, you can access that name with a formula of =N.

 

1383285303_ScreenShot2018-12-31at8_13_18AM.thumb.png.b445e803dab8c440f412bffa55cf4d97.png

 

Let me know if you have more questions.

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  • 5 weeks later...

Hi @Pat Stanford Pat, I have more or less the same problem.

 

I'm working on a furniture project and I need to get the dimensions and areas on the worksheet to buy the materials.

I'm working with generic solids, and I see on the OIP that the basic dimensions are there, but, when I try to place it on the worksheet, the normal formula =lenght, =width, retrieve wrong information...

I just want to know if there's a way (or a formula like framing members plug in =('FramingMember'.'width')) to place this information from the generic solid OIP to the worksheet. I think its very simple and very necessary!

 

Thanks!

 

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I just tried this in VW2019. I am getting the correct values for generic solids in different orientations.

 

Are you using VW2019? If so, please post a file showing some of your objects that are not giving the correct values for us to take a look.

 

If you are not using 2019 and this is important to you, you will need to upgrade. I don't know of any reasonable work around for older versions. You could attach a custom record format and write a script that would store the info in the custom record that could them be accessed from the worksheet, but you would have to run the script each time you made changes to objects to make sure the correct information is in the record.

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Thanks @Marissa Farrell and @Pat Stanford,

 

I'm using VW2017 version, I previously used frames members plugin to model the parts, but that does not make sense if you need to reshape objects in real time. It is faster and better to work with 3D modeling tools such as push and pull, taper face, etc., and automatically this makes these objects became "generic solid" and that's fine.
The problem begins when I need the values shown in the OIP to appear correctly on the worksheet. it seems impossible to obtain correct values if the object was not created with a parametric plugin such as walls, slabs, framing members, etc. instead, with generic solids and extrudes it has to be in top plan only.
 

I attach images and the file

 

Thanks again!

 

Screen Shot 2019-01-30 at 5.41.45 PM.png

Screen Shot 2019-01-30 at 5.45.29 PM.png

Screen Shot 2019-01-30 at 5.46.01 PM.png

Prueba DIM.vwx

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14 minutes ago, Pat Stanford said:

Works in 2019. But I only checked the first three items. There is some slight difference due to rounding for display. You should be able to control that by the cell format settings in the worksheet.

 

 

991317041_ScreenShot2019-01-30at9_17_45AM.thumb.png.0b033c298dc78c3d7efab7a9cf1e85c5.png

Thanks for the rounding tip. In VW2019 works even when you rotate the model in 3D view and recalculate the worksheet?

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On ‎12‎/‎31‎/‎2018 at 5:20 PM, Pat Stanford said:

In VW2019, the worksheet returns the correct width/height/length for extrudes regardless of their rotation and location inside of outside of symbols

 

I tried this on symbols and it give the width and height for symbols, which is great, but it gives a 0 for the length.

 

Is it possible to get the 'depth' of the symbol in a worksheet?

 

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Just now, Pat Stanford said:

The three primary "directions" in VW are Width, Height, Length.  Have you tried those three?

 

I don't have VW accessible right now, so I can't test, but I think I did all three dimensions in my earlier tests.

 

Width and Height work perfectly.

Length returns 0 if you set the criteria to Symbol unfortunately.

VW help says Length is for path based objects, so I thought maybe there is the possibility to use Depth or another formula?

 

Length(criteria): 

 

The length of lines, walls, or path-based objects that meet the specified criteria.

Examples:

 

●        Database header cell: =Length returns the length for each object in the database

●        Spreadsheet cell: =Length(t=line) returns the total length of all line objects in the drawing

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  • 3 years later...

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