Inserting excel files into AutoCAD

Here's a handy set of insctrucions that really came in handy the other day. I was struggling to insert an excel spreadsheet into autocad as an ole object. I wanted to be able to view and print the spreadsheet along with the rest of the information in my drawing. I also wanted to retain the link to the excel file so that any updates to it would automatically update in my cad file. Civil3D 2010 wasn't cooperating and I was getting unexpected unsatisfactory results. Fortunately I came across this set of instructions from "CAD Geek". Instructions were written for Civil3D 2008 but will also work in 2010 version. Here's a link to the article, not sure how long it will be up on the site though so you might want to cut and paste it into a word file for safe keeping.

http://www.thecadgeek.com/blog/2007/04/13/linking-excel-and-autocad-with-data-links/

William

Civil 3D layer "0"

Recently I've begun to experience some problems with layer visibility in AutoCAD 2010. Trying to find the correct layer to freeze in a viewport or freezing layers in xrefs has been a real headache. I never seem to get the results I want or expect. I tracked the problem to entities being drawn on layer 0 and did more research on the web and various softdesk resources. It seems to be a common problem mainly because 2010 relies heavily on styles. The recommended solution.....Reserve layer 0 for insertion of blocks and xrefs only. Don't draw anything in this layer. Every line, polyline, circle, arc, text, etc... needs to on a layer other than 0. I was trying to avoid posting a long, wordy explanation of this, so if you need more info just let me know.
Thanks,
William

Civil 3D 2010 ctb files

Back when Autocad Civil 3D 2008 was our only CAD application, we learned that Autocad stores all ctb files on folders located on our computer C: drives. Problem with this was that if we were part of a group working on a project the only way we could share ctb plot style tables was to e-mail them to each other or place a copy on the network that we could then copy into our C: drive. After a while we also learned that if we placed all of our ctb files in one central location on a network drive and redefined our search path in Autocad we could all have access to the latest project ctb files.
Now that we are all hopefully using Civil 3D 2010 we need to be sure and make the same adjustments to our ctb file search path. Here is a reminder on how to do this.

Open up Autocad Civil 3D 2010 and type in "options" at the command prompt. In the Options pop up window click on the Files tab. In the list of "Search paths, file names, and locations", expand the "Printer File Support File Path" item. On that list expand the "Plot Style Table Search Path" item. Once there you should see the path and name to the default folder that Civil 3D is using to search for ctb files. Click this path to select it then click on "Remove" to remove it.
You'll be left with an empty box where you can type in the new search path. In this box type in, W:\dwgs-1\projectCTBfiles. Click "add", "Apply" and "OK". That's it, you should now see all ctb files that we have saved in that folder. If you create any new ones that need to be shared with others on a project remember to save them to this location.
Thanks,
William

Recent developments

Last week I attempted to develop a list of steps required to prepare roadway plan and profiles. If anyone has ever tried doing this I'm sure you've realized that you can soon get lost traveling through a maze of Civil3D help topics. Starting with one topic which then leads to another and another. You soon forget what you were trying to research in the first place. My goal was to work through all of the civil3d instructions and help menus then compile them and simplify them into one word document that would hopefully be easier to understand. Things were progressing well until I reached the point where I was attempting to create section views at various stations along the roadway. In order to do this you first need to create a corrridor. No problem except that upon trying to do so, I discovered that all of the corridor model tool palettes were missing. Time do to some investigating. Using the internet I soon figured out that others were having the same problem, this eventually led me to this autodesk website.

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/item?siteID=123112&id=13326059&linkID=9240697

Sounds like an IT issue to me. I forwarded the problem and the recommended solution to our friends in IT department who promised to re-install Civil 3D sometime next week. At that point I'll complete the Roadway plan/profile and cross section instructions and get them out to everyone to tryout and critique.

William