Devices that reference a spreadsheet or database?

[modbom]

Is there a way to create devices that reference a spreadsheet to determine things like make, model etc? The idea being that if one wants to, for instance, change 100 speakers to a new model, one can change it in the spreadsheet and the drawings will follow. 

[Nikolay Zhelyazkov]

14 hours ago, modbom said:

Is there a way to create devices that reference a spreadsheet to determine things like make, model etc? The idea being that if one wants to, for instance, change 100 speakers to a new model, one can change it in the spreadsheet and the drawings will follow. 

 

Hello @modbom,

 

You can use ConnectCAD->Documentation->Current Layer device report which will create a worksheet with all the devices in your active layer. From it you can edit make and model if you want to.

 

Best Regards,

Nikolay Zhelyazkov

[modbom]

Thank you.

Is there a way to use an external spreadsheet to drive changes in the drawing? 
I'm thinking of something like what Stardraw 7 with regards to importing an equipment list. 

 

[Nikolay Zhelyazkov]

9 hours ago, modbom said:

Thank you.

Is there a way to use an external spreadsheet to drive changes in the drawing? 
I'm thinking of something like what Stardraw 7 with regards to importing an equipment list. 

 

Why bother exporting to excel, then making the changes there and then importing them back in to update your devices, when you can do this directly in Vectorworks using the worksheet from above?

 

Anyway, you can use Create Devices from Worksheet menu command, which creates all the devices from an imported spreadsheet. This is not updating existing devices, it is only creating new ones, but I think that the updating can be done much quicker directly in Vectorworks rather than skipping from one app to another.

 

Best Regards,

Nikolay Zhelyazkov

[elc]

Hello,

sorry, to pull out an old thread again, but this is another issue I am currently trying to resolve for our use of ConnectCAD.

 

tl;dr: Has anybody successfully used the "Compare record to external document"-feature (german: Datenbank mit externem Dokument abgleichen) with devices and dev_rec?

 

long version:

I am also struggeling with the best way to update PIO data with an external spreadsheet.

Updating make and model might even be a more difficult task, as you might end up with different inputs and outputs, but I would like to update things like customer device ID, parent system, room ID (linking the schematic with my general arrangement plans is on the list to do for the months to come. 😉 )...
Doing this in excel is very easy/fast as you can also use stuff like vlookup() etc.

 

what @modbom describes is exactly what my colleague would have done (we also are currently still using StarDraw) and I use attIn/attOut in AutoCAD for our other types of documents on a regular basis.

 

Got another hint for a feature to compare data records (e.g. dev_rec), but I can't get it to work with dev_rec, as dev_rec is not connected to the device but to the device_label inside, right? (It works perfectly fine, when I add only the device_label symbol to the schematic)

 

Is this function not supported? (as it is missing in the Extras-menu of the ConnectCAD environment) Can't be an EU-version only feature.

 

 

Thanks for any hints!

 

 

Best,

George

[elc]

On 2/18/2022 at 3:53 PM, elc said:

tl;dr: Has anybody successfully used the "Compare record to external document"-feature (german: Datenbank mit externem Dokument abgleichen) with devices and dev_rec?

 

Update: Finally got the feature to work.
So, if you have the EU Version of vectorworks you can use said tool to update VW records from an external spreadsheet and vice versa. 👍

You'll just have to use the "Devices/Geräte" not the dev_rec record to compare your file to. (Silly mistake I made. See image below)

 

On 2/18/2022 at 3:53 PM, elc said:

Can't be an EU-version only feature

...seems like it actually is. 😕

Edited February 22, 2022 by elc

[Ben3B]

I'm looking the way of database connectivity too ... I'll start a new topic 😉

[Ben3B]

3 minutes ago, Ben59 said:

I'm looking the way of database connectivity too ... I'll start a new topic 😉