Drawings in Excel

[meca]

Does anybody know how to create a drawing or sketch in Excel which is dynamically driven by values in the spreadsheet? In other words, if I have a spreadsheet which designs a certain component, is it possible to create a sketch of that component within excel where the dimensions of the component are changed in real time based upon what the user enters?

Thanks,

Chris

 

[BillPSU]

meca
Now you want a spreadsheet to be a parametric CAD program.

Link your Excel spreadsheet with your CAD program. Its probably already been done by somebody.

 

[SWComposites]

You can probably do it using Visual Basic, either using Excal drawing commends (rather primitive) or by calling Visio funtions.

 

[johnwm]

Visio has just that functionality built in

Good Luck
johnwm
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[CarlB]

I've use an Excel chart to dynamically draw an irregular object. It basically uses x-y scatter plot using lines, for which endpoints are calculated from the spreadsheet data. Not too difficult for straight-line objects.

 

[ivymike]

you can also embed a drawing object (like smartsketch) in a spreadsheet, and drive drawing parameters from the sheet and vice versa.

 

[meca]

Thanks for the helpful suggestions. The links to smartsketch on the intergraph website are not working, so I'm not sure if this product is still on the market.

I have done some small experiments with the X-Y scatter plot, and this seems like a good and simple solution. I'm assuming I can also place text and autoshapes on the chart, but I haven't figured this part out yet.

 

[cummings54]

If only the dimension figures change on your sketch you can create a textbox with a formula reference to a cell on the worksheet. Add a textboxt to the worksheet and instead of writing in the textbox position your cursor in the formula bar, then add your cell reference.

=$a$1

for example

 

[rtcsp]

meca,

here's a link to smartsketch that should work.

ppm.intergraph.com/smartsketch

 

[jhardy1]

It can be done. For example, check out:

http://www.structural-engineering.fsnet.co.uk/

and follow the links to "Spreadsheets". Download the application called "PlanSketch". This is a very clever spreadsheet which allows you to enter a table of column and beam locations and sizes, including floor penetrations etc, and produces a scaled drawing of the resulting floor layout. You might be able to examine the coding to see how it is done.

Hope this helps!

 

[gearguru]

When you buy Mathcad, you'll receive also the parametric 2D drfting package SmartSketch. It is a nice CAD program, can be used also with Excel (I did it, it works nice). But as I said, you have to buy the Mathcad or SmartSketch alone.

 

[CTruax]

You can use the built-in visual basic functions;
Line, Polyline, Rectangle, Curve, etc.

Here are some examples:

Private Sub Worksheet_SelectionChange(ByVal Target As Excel.Range)
Dim triArray(1 To 4, 1 To 2) As Single
triArray(1, 1) = 25   'Assign values in code, Or
triArray(1, 2) = 100  'Read a table of values in the sheet
triArray(2, 1) = 100
triArray(2, 2) = 150
triArray(3, 1) = 150
triArray(3, 2) = 50
triArray(4, 1) = 25     ' Last point has same coordinates as first
triArray(4, 2) = 90     ' else not filled as a solid
Set myDocument = Worksheets(1)
myDocument.Shapes.AddPolyline triArray

Set myDocument = Worksheets(1)
With myDocument.Shapes.AddLine(10, 10, 250, 250).Line
    .DashStyle = msoLineDashDotDot
    .ForeColor.RGB = RGB(50, 0, 128)
    End With

With myDocument.Shapes.AddShape(msoShapeRectangle, 144, 144, 72, 72)
    .Name = "Red Square"
    .Fill.ForeColor.RGB = RGB(255, 0, 0)
    .Line.DashStyle = msoLineDashDot
    End With
End Sub