Copy and Paste 1

[macduff]

Help! What is the best to copy and paste drawing views into an Excel document? I tried rubberbanding/copy and doesn't work. The only way its been working is filing it as a jpeg or tiff. The reason I'm asking is we do our ECO's in Microsoft Excel and show our proposed changes in a "From" and "To" format.

Any input will help.

 

[Theophilus]

Can you right-click to copy the view? Maybe not. I would think SW has its own way of displaying content on the screen so Excel would probably not understand lines that represent edges of solid objects.

Do you need associativity?

If not, use a screen capture program and capture a view to your clipboard in JPEG (or GIF or whatever) format, then simply paste it into Excel. I use a capture program called SPX (inexpensive), but you could use a variety of others.




Jeff Mowry
Industrial Designhaus, LLC

http://www.industrialdesignhaus.com

 

[ShaggyPE]

I've inserted drawings into word and excel by the following technique. Within excel, insert>Object>create from file>and select the drawing file. Excel and word will insert the "picture". This will only work with the entire sheet, not a single view. Also, the sheet that is inserted is the sheet that was current when the drawing was saved.

 

[JNR]

We use TIFF. JPEG is usually not good enough resolution for drawings (however it is usually best for shade images). JPEG from SW is apparently based on screen image, whereas TIFF can be set from print rather than screen. That way it is all nicely recomputed. However, we found something very interesting. Depending on exactly what sheet size and TIFF resolutions (dpi) you choose, you can get very different results. Higher dpi does not necessarily give you a better looking resolution by the time you get it into Word or Excel or whatever. Sometimes it can be markedly worse. So experiment with dpi and sheet size combinations until you get some thing that both looks good and does not take up your entire hard drive (TIFF's can be notorious for that). We use this a lot in MS Office documents. What I do these days when a new application comes up is just make a whole set of combinations of a test file. I then give them all to tech pubs and tell them to choose the one that works best. We then make a note for future reference. (OK sometimes I have to do it myself...) Powerpoint can be the worst one to deal with depending on circumstances.

If you do not really need linked or embedded objects it is best to avoid them and go with an image format of some kind.

Just to demonstrate that this is not all SW fault - get this one. The other day I needed some Excel worksheets in a Word document (preformated template too). SOB would not cooperate at all even with tech pubs' help. In the end I pasted the Excel into Adobe PDF then TIFF'ed out from there and into Word!!!! I wonder if Mr. Gates ever reads this forum......................

Be naughty - save Santa a trip.

 

[MouseTrap]

Another way - not sure whether it is a 'better' way (or how well it would work 'redliing' for ECOs and such....
1. Arrange your screen to see your intended image
2. Press the 'Prnt Scrn' key on your keyboard
3. Open 'Paint'
4. Use 'Edit', 'Paste' to place the image within a Paint file (maybe even add some 'Paint' text for the ECO)
5. Export as either a tiff and/or a jpeg.
6. Use the jpeg (or tiff) however you wish.
Mousetrap

 

[macduff]

MouseTrap,
Great idea and also works perfect for what I'm doing. Here is a couple of mods I did:
1. Arranged image
2. Press alt print
3. Open PhotoEd (Microsoft)
4. Paste and crop (if needed)
5. Copy from PhotoEd
6. Paste Excel
All this without saving a hardcopy, cool

Have a nice holiday all and thanks for your help!

macduff

 

[linqur]

Addition to Shaggy18VW: You should try yourself how the link option works on updated drawings and if you like this behaviour. My excel asked for update but Word did it silently. Then open picture toolbar and use crop tool (zig-zag icon) to crop drawing view to wished size.

 

[badboggs]

Wouldn't it be possible to print to pdf and import that into excel? Might save some steps.

Boggs

 

[JNR]

bagboggs: No, pdf's don't like going into excel very well - it's ugly unless you want an icon to click on and open Adobe viewer. But you can use it as a pipeline to get another format if you have full-up Adobe.

BTW: A repeat comment. JPEG's are generated from current screen resolution. They don't tend to give you very good resolution for DRAWINGS. They are however usually fine for shaded pics from PARTS and ASSEMBLIES. TIFF's using the print option (verses screen) are recomputed to the resolution you request and will give excellent resolution. However read my previous post on that subject.

Be naughty - save Santa a trip.