How to Hide a Row in a Table

[Sparweb]

I seem to have taken this for granted in other software. How do I hide one row in a table in AutoCAD?
It's easy to do in Inventor and Solidworks... pretty obvious in Excel... is it even possible in AutoCAD?

I want to add a pre-formatted list to a title block, ready for my team of designers to choose from when preparing the drawing, yet concealed until they need it (and not wasting space if they don't). I've got this working in Solidworks already, and previous to this employer, I did the same in Inventor. I am able to hide/show any line with a few clicks. In AutoCAD all I think I can do is delete the row entirely.

Another example of the use of this feature is to hide revision history older than, say, the last 3 or 4 revisions. If the lines are hidden, but not deleted, then one can RETAIN the entire history in the file. Yeah, I know, not many of us are that meticulous/picky/paranoid with our rev blocks...

STF

 

[TerryScan]

To add a pre-formatted list to a title block entry:
In the block editor:
Create a Block Properties Table containing your list.
Use ATTDEF to create an attribute in the title blcok
In the Attribute Definition dialog box-
Be sure "Preset" and "Lock Position" are set.
Enter a tag name
Select the button next to "Default"
Select BlockPaceholder->select the BlockTable

NOTE: The attribute value won't update to the value you pick until you save, or regen

The revision history is another matter. One idea would be to use an xref for the revision block. Create text with a lower left justification at 0,0, Clip the xref in the title block. If one has more revision lines than the xclip, then the older lines should get clipped out (but still be in the xref for reference).

 

[Sparweb]

Thanks Terry,
That's a lot of work for each designer on each drawing, even if set up in advance. There are lots of attributes and properties set in these drawings and title blocks already, so let me clarify. Try to bear in mind that what I'm talking about works in SW and Inv requiring about 12 seconds to complete, no exaggeration.

A few screen captures to clarify what I want to do:

Image 1 shows the whole table as the user discovers it upon opening the drawing. The text entries do not matter for this discussion. The images are taken from Solidworks.

The table takes up a large portion of the drawing. My designer only needs a few lines, representing only the processes required to complete the work shown in the field of the drawing.
The next step is to hide the unused lines and columns.

The blue cells will be hidden, and the result is the following:

A small tidy table showing only the relevant data.
Nothing was deleted.
This took 12 seconds to do.
If the design changes later, showing a hidden row will just take a few seconds.

Are there ways to do this in AutoCAD that don't take a long time, memory, cross-checking, and retyping to complete?


STF

 

[maripali]

In Autocad you'd rather make a copy of the table and simply delete all these rows and columns to be hidden.
Original copy of table move somewhere in the non-printable area and keep it for later table editions.

Another way could be using MS Excel.
When table in Autocad is inserted as Excel file it is available to edit table from Excel and then update it in Autocad.

 

[TerryScan]

STF

Ah yes... a picture is worth a thousand words. I do not believe there is any simple native method in Autocad to do this.

The closest thing I can think of would be if the table was in Excel, one could hide the columns and rows before copying and doing PASTESPEC as a table entity into Autocad.

 

[Sparweb]

Yeah.
I tried to avoid the Excel route. But it seems to be inevitable.
Once I committed to the Excel spreadsheet inserted into the title page, it didn't take long to get all the rows and columns populated and organized like I wanted them, and rows hidden as required... Well that must explain why Autodesk hasn't bothered to improve their own tables in >10 years. Why bother when the solution from Microsoft is always going to be better?

But one can always hold out some faint hope... thanks everyone!

STF

 

[TerryScan]

https://www.augi.com/wish-list

 

[IFRs]

You can change the text height to 0.00001 and the cell height to 0.00002. The text stays there but it mostly hidden.
You can change the text color to the background color - it will "hide" the text but leave the row there.

 

[Pinwards]

You left the second U out of "Laser Beam ManufactUring", sorry spelling errors are a pet peeve and jump out at me.

#

 

[Sparweb]

Terry,
Interesting suggestion. My ideas never got much traction on the Autodesk proper Ideas group, however.

IFRs,
I saw that suggestion somewhere else, and tried it a little. I couldn't find a way to streamline it, and it is clearly a "workaround".
IMHO a workaround should not be designed into your titleblock for routine use. Your coworkers start planning retribution against you...

For almost the same reason, I'm still reluctant to include the Excel spreadsheet insert. What happens when somebody (whose strings I do not pull) forgets to pay the license fee to Microsoft? Even though Autodesk works, the Excel piece stops. Broken drawing. What about sending drawing to the customer? Do they have the current version of Excel? What if they use Excel 2010 and have AutoCAD 2019. Broken again. I have never actually had such problems, so I know I'm just being negative, but it's worth figuring out the downside before making up a "NEW STANDARD".

STF

 

[chicopee]

You can make your table in excel, then insert the full table into the acad drawing. Now when you are ready to modify your table, do the modification in excel, then remove the original table from ACAD and reintroduce the modified table.

 

[Sparweb]

Thanks chicopee,
Another thing I've noticed is that once the table has been inserted from Excel into AutoCAD, it is forced to obey a THOU SHALT have only X rows and Y columns. Not changing the number without re-inserting it again. If you add a row to the bottom, it won't appear. If you insert a rows in the middle, the bottom row disappears. Same for columns.
The trick to solve that is to include lots of extra rows and columns and HIDE them. This allows you to un-hide some extra columns/rows if you need them, without having to delete/reinsert. Not that it's a difficult process to do that, either...

STF

 

[maripali]

Do you talk about excel table as OLE object in Autocad?
If I remember, after editing such Excel tables from Autocad it was possible to drag the bottom or right border to adjust additional rows and columns.

But later I more liked inserting original Autocad tables linked to Excel. This allows to modify tables in Autocad from Excel as well.

 

[Sparweb]

The ones I'm using are inserted as OLE, yes.
Having two separate files for every drawing would be burdensome to manage. Consider how revisions are made, and the reasons for keeping the integrity of "A" after moving on to "B", also, moving files from one folder to the next, and so on. I experimented with the use of image files inserted into drawings, and having separate image files allowed to much chaos when the drawing was turned over to other designers.

STF

 

[maripali]

It is difficult to say how to make tables in Autocad with such functionality and up to date relations between changes like other programs do.
What ever you try after each change in the table, you will be required do updates manually in every drawing.

I never tried Autocad dynamic block functionality. Maybe this could be a clue?
Insert the table within block an try to change it with dynamical actions.

 

[IFRs]

I thought one answer may be to insert a table in your drawing, selecting the "from a data link" option and pick the file ( and range ) you want to make the table from. AutoCAD treats it like an XRef. If you change the XLS file, just as if you changed an XRef file, AutoCAD reports the change and prompts you to update it in the drawing session. Of course, when AutoCAD first opens the drawing it updates all external data links. I tried this and it works as expected but it does not respect hidden rows. It does respect deleted and inserted rows. Note: this is not an OLE object and can not be edited like one nor does it behave badly like one. Unfortunately it only displays the entire range or file, it does not hide hidden rows or columns. Still, it may be an option for you.