I am currently on vacation but wanted to share a great AutoCAD Tip from my friend the AutoCAD Trainer Guy Michael Beal. Michael always has great tips and clear instructions in his monthly “Michael’s Corner” available on the web as well as a monthly newsletter.
The following tip is from Michael’s Corner May 2009.
Prerequisite: The X and Y values need to be in a single cell in the format of X,Y for this to work. If X and Y have their own column, you will need to make the necessary adjustments to get them to X,Y format.
Instructions to Create a Drawing with X,Y Coordinates from Excel
- In Excel, highlight and Copy the column of X,Y coordinates to be used to generate the drawing.
- Open Windows Notepad (Start
All Programs
- Before pasting the coordinates, type LINE as the first word in the file (this will launch the Line command when the script is run), then press [Enter].
- Now Paste the column of coordinates into the file and you should see something like that shown in the figure.
- Close and save the .SCR file (remember where you're saving it).
- In AutoCAD, launch the SCRIPT command, then navigate to where you saved your file in the previous step, then select it and click Open. AutoCAD will launch the Line command then, beginning at the first set of coordinates entered, will draw line segments from one point to the next.
You may also want to consider…
- Replacing the LINE command with the PLINE command.
- Adding the word CLOSE as the last word in the script to have the linework close back to the start point.
- Dragging the .SCR file out of Windows Explorer and dropping it into the drawing window.
Do you have an AutoCAD, AutoCAD Architecture,AutoCAD Mechanical, or AutoCAD MEP tips, tricks, or resources you would .like to share with the thousands of readers of this Between the Lines blog? Send me your favorite tips, tricks and resources