Import excel file into archicad file

[Anonymous]

Hi, anyone know how to import an excel file into Archicad?
Thanks.

[Anonymous]

Karl wrote:

Robert wrote:
Does GS know what year it is? AC13 can not import a .xls? BRILLIANT!

WHY would you import an Excel file into a BIM model? Where would you have that data appear and how? You can freely extract data FROM ArchiCAD and INTO Excel, which is the appropriate flow of data...

If you want the Excel data on a layout, Excel has the tools to select what to display and how to display it... which is why saving as a PDF from there and placing the PDF is the sensible way to get quality results.

Karl

1) Because AC's schedules are horrendous to use, setup, and edit.
2) I could have the live data on a sheet and it would appear just as it reads in excel. The data comes from equipment suppliers, Owners, Consultants, you name it.

PDF's, really? I could also print the spreadsheet out, scan it to a jpg, convert it to a gif, print it to a pdf and insert it into a drawing. How many steps do you want to use?

[Achille Pavlidis]

I to want to import excel files to Archicad!

This is a feature of Minicad/Vectoworks that i always miss on Archicad. It was extremely useful when we worked with Minicad and had the ability to incorporate large spreadsheets that were given to us by mech. engineers on large industrial projects.

[Erika Epstein]

Achille wrote:
I to want to import excel files to Archicad!

This is a feature of Minicad/Vectoworks that i always miss on Archicad. It was extremely useful when we worked with Minicad and had the ability to incorporate large spreadsheets that were given to us by mech. engineers on large industrial projects.

Achille,
When you say "incorporate" do you mean something other than just placing the spreadsheet in your drawings?
Are your consultants not embedding their equipment specifications in their models?

As Karl explained, architect or consultant this data should be extruded from the model, not the other way around.

I agree, it would be nice to be able to just put the spreadsheet back on the layout without having to first convert it to a pdf, but once done it is a matter of updating the links.

[Anonymous]

Erika wrote:

Achille wrote:
I to want to import excel files to Archicad!

This is a feature of Minicad/Vectoworks that i always miss on Archicad. It was extremely useful when we worked with Minicad and had the ability to incorporate large spreadsheets that were given to us by mech. engineers on large industrial projects.

Achille,
When you say "incorporate" do you mean something other than just placing the spreadsheet in your drawings?
Are your consultants not embedding their equipment specifications in their models?

As Karl explained, architect or consultant this data should be extruded from the model, not the other way around.

I agree, it would be nice to be able to just put the spreadsheet back on the layout without having to first convert it to a pdf, but once done it is a matter of updating the links.

If the information was "in" the model we wouldn't need the consultants, would we? Or are you are you suggesting we get the information from the consultant, put it in our model, and then extract the information?

Not everyone uses AC (for good reason). open workflow. live data. For God sake it is just lines and text!

[Anonymous]

... people! No reason to get all "het up." Sure, it would be real nice if AC were smart enough to know what those lines and text in a spreadsheet meant - whether it is crane data or cabinet data - so that it could be linked through parameters to model parts. But AC would have to read minds to do that.
So, the next best thing would be to have a spreadsheet built into AC. Maybe a translator could be written to import spreadsheets to a "dumb" schedule viewpoint.
Maybe its contents don't interact with the model at all except through the view and layout, but at least updates to that data would not require stepping out of the model, editing another file, saving another pdf, and returning to the model (layout) to update the inserted drawing.
I suspect that is the closest GS could possibly come to what these folks are asking for. They get data and periodic updates to it from clients, consultants, etc. in excel form, and would like to get it onto sheets and keep it current with a minimum of fuss. So would I.
Maybe they can tell me if I have reinterpreted their wishes correctly or not?
There is risk here. If the schedules are generated by the model (yes, they are more trouble to set up and to edit), there is some built-in assurance that the two representations (schedule and other views) will agree with each other. With an independent schedule, coordination of the two sets of data is entirely up to the operator.

[Achille Pavlidis]

Erika wrote:

Achille wrote:
I to want to import excel files to Archicad!

This is a feature of Minicad/Vectoworks that i always miss on Archicad. It was extremely useful when we worked with Minicad and had the ability to incorporate large spreadsheets that were given to us by mech. engineers on large industrial projects.

Achille,
When you say "incorporate" do you mean something other than just placing the spreadsheet in your drawings?
Are your consultants not embedding their equipment specifications in their models?

As Karl explained, architect or consultant this data should be extruded from the model, not the other way around.

I agree, it would be nice to be able to just put the spreadsheet back on the layout without having to first convert it to a pdf, but once done it is a matter of updating the links.

It would be nice to extract the data from the model, but not always possible.
When i say incorporate i mean, that in huge oversize A0 drawings there is the need to place spreadsheets with 10 columns per 100-150 rows. It would be nice to have the ability to adjust alignments, spacing, column width, row height etc, without having to go back and forth to excel and pdf.

[Erika Epstein]

Thanks for clarifying.
I agree; it would be nice to be able to place a spreadsheet directly and adjust its layout as you describe. We once were able to import word documents which made specs easy to hotlink and update. I don't recall if spreadsheets were also importable. They were replaced with the current pdf import.

[Anonymous]

Erika -
Are you talking about Microsoft Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) ?
Since I don't use that MS Windows, I have not messed with OLE, but I seem to recall rumors of its availability in ArchiCAD for Windows. I have no idea how well it works (or worked), or if it ever really worked at all.
Achille -
The best approach we have found is to diddle the formatting in the Word or Excel source file prior to cutting a pdf for insertion in AC.
As you say, sometimes it takes a few tries until you get the feel, or set up a template (or ten) in Excel for different kinds of tables - kinda like we had to do with AC views and .pmk files in the bad old days when the Layout Book was a separate file from the model. A little frustrating, but not so bad if you can have both files open at the same time (edit, save as, update, edit, ....).

[Erika Epstein]

It was something about OLE and when we lost that capability I missed it. The extra step of creating a pdf is annoying, but doable. Links are updatable.

[Anonymous]

Here's the Revit point of view that might help this discussion:
Revit doesn't import excel files, but a user (nicholas iyadurai) found a way to do it. He used a scripting tool - Autohotkey - to automate a copy-paste routine. You can check this at http://forums.augi.com/showthread.php?t=97224 and maybe do the same for archicad.
Before the RDBLink (a database bi-directional data tool), I used to use that script all the time.