Excel / Design Table

[MoynoGuy]

I have an excel table (20 columns wide) that I want to display in a drawing.
Most of the information is gathered by "looking up" information in other Excel tables in the worksheet or driven by formulas.
The exceptions are three columns, one being the part number and the others, dimensional variables. All three varaiables are from a part design table that lists 6 configuratios.
I am looking for a method to drive the this part information from each configuration into the excel table. The information in this case is the part number for each configurations and two dimensional variables.
I want to marriage the Excel table and the design table. I have tried linking the design table to an Excel table but since this is a template part and drawing that will be used many times over, I would rather not manage an additional Excel table for each reuse of the templates.

Thanks for any advice

 

[Regg]

MoynoGuy,

Look in thread559-135519 for a post by krywarick6 on 29Sep05. He mentions an article that might help you.

Regards,

Regg

 

[TateJ]

I can't quite follow what you want to do. Try (for me) telling us what your drawing will be used for. It sounds like this will be one drawing - for many variations of a part - with key dimensions in a table - rather than in the drawing views. I have drawings like this & I came up with a different solution. So clarify if this is what you want & I'll explain what I did.

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SolidWorks 2006 SP01.0 / SpaceBall 4000 FLX
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[MoynoGuy]

I am interested in your response so I hope this helps.
I have a tube with rubber injected in the inside that creates a spiral shape.
This tube asesembly can be made to variable lengths, variable tube materials and variable rubber materials.
My general approach was to generate an excel table of all of the material variations and related specifications for both the rubber and tubing. I generated a second table for display on the drawing that reads data from specifications in the first excel table and controls the variables.

My issue / decision at this point was whether to go with a drawing driven process or a model driven process. In the drawing process, I have one single master model but many drawings from that one model that are simply altered to account for the material variations. The basic model geometry for each drawing is the same, only materials change. This is easily automated in excel.

The approach I was questioning was how to bring in a design table and achieve the same results. This allows a model driven process, where most of the information is embedded in the model versus the drawing. The problem I had with this is that in many cases the DT must be deleted from the drawing and replaced to get the necessary update results after copying of the model and drawing. I was searching for a work-round to this by possibly bringing two tables together, one DT and one external excel table.

 

[TateJ]

I have one part - with many configurations. That part has one drawing. I open the drawing - select the part configuration - rebuild & watch all the dimensions & title block & BOM information change to match my part. Then I make sure there are no overlapping notes & dimensions. Then I print. Does this sound like it would work for you? It might be trick to set it up the first time, but it's worth the effort.

Windows 2000 Professional / Microsoft Intellimouse Explorer
SolidWorks 2006 SP01.0 / SpaceBall 4000 FLX
Diet Coke with Lime / Dark Chocolate
Lava Lamp​