Frequent tipster Danny Korem discusses how you can sync data between an AutoCAD table and a spreadsheet file.

"I've been using tables in my projects from the very beginning, especially those that are software-created, such as sheet lists created by AutoCAD sheet sets or those created by the data-extraction functionality. I seldom combine the extraction with Excel spreadsheets created by AutoCAD and take advantage of bidirectional AutoCAD–Excel links. It was a nice surprise to find out that when modifications take place within data creation and editing, the update table data links offer this option:



"In the picture, one can see that I modified the title and headers of my table, introducing text that has nothing to do with the attributes within the blocks used to extract the data (in this case, in a right-to-left Hebrew language).

"In older versions, I had to find a workaround, but now that the option to retain the overwritten contents is available, I no longer have to worry about the links update. The extract data function is much more flexible and efficient."

Notes from Cadalyst Tip Reviewer Brian Benton: When you use the DataExtraction command (formerly eattext), the data can be extracted to an external spreadsheet file. That file can also be linked and inserted into your AutoCAD file. With this link, the data is updated in the AutoCAD table and the spreadsheet file.