By Dennis Collin
A common question often asked on training courses is; can AutoCAD schedule polylines for the purpose of piping or cabling schedules?
The answer is yes, with AutoCAD’s Data Extraction tool, which has been available for users for several years. If users need to identify the service type of cable, place the polylines onto appropriate layers and this information can be tabulated as well as lengths.
The Data extraction command can either be invoked from the command line or accessed from the Ribbon Menu.
This will then take the user through a wizard, and element type and properties can be chosen, reordered and sorted to suit. Typical properties could include Layer information, length, or if using blocks, names, attributes or dynamic properties.
The data itself can either be placed within an AutoCAD table object, exported to Excel or both. Should the information change a notification bubble appears notifying the user of this fact.
Advanced blocks and scheduling are topics covered on AutoCAD Intermediate Training courses. Visit https://training.cadline.co.uk/ for more details.