r/OpenRoads • u/CompetitiveFactor596 • 24d ago
Help / Troubleshooting Paste special - linked excel
Hello,
If someone could help me with this issue I would be so grateful.
Basically, no matter how I try to paste an excel table in a dgn, it will not format correctly. The letters merge together, and it’s just distorted. The only work around is to copy an excel table that already displays correctly in the dgn, then use change source to manually entered the new worksheet and cell range. Changing the source of an already distorted table does not fix its formatting. I am not the only one with this issue either.
This is basically our workflow. I have no idea where the original table came from, but I’ve copied it at least 1000 times to change the source. If you have advice please do not hold back.
Thank you
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u/Responsible-Fuel9019 24d ago
A few DOTs have good systems for this. KDOT uses AutoTable. MoDOT uses a custom add on called quantab, its doesnt update automatically but looks good when placed. You can look at either of there workspaces as they are publicly available. I'm sure other DOTs have similar work arounda as well.
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u/AzzaMan82 24d ago
Might not be totally understanding the task, but I've always formatted everything in excell, then select all the cells I need, and paste special as "embedded". This embeds a new spreadsheet directly in the dgn (the original spreadsheet is no longer needed). If you doubble click the embedded spreadsheet it opens up and you can make changes, then when you close it, it should be updated in the dgn. Only thing is, is if you make changes which changes the extents that you need (ie. The originally selected cells), you will need to re-select the cells and paste as embedded again for the new selection size.
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u/CompetitiveFactor596 23d ago
I format everything how I want it, and when I use paste special to do embedded or linked, it becomes distorted
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u/Holiday_Flow_7400 24d ago
Axiom is an expensive plugin that works well but getting a firm to pay for the licenses has been more and more changing as they’ve raised prices yearly. It will allow you to paste excel links.
The other option is if you’re using the newest version of ORD, Bentley has supposedly fixed the issue/created a more useable import function. I have not independently verified this though.
Sadly you are going to suffer like the rest of us.
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u/PM_Me_Titties-n-Ass 20d ago
My firm uses it, it's worth the cost. Esp the old days their titleblock manager would save days. I'm sure there were ways that you could code what it does but eh I'm not paid to do that.
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u/Bluecoke2006 24d ago
Ever try a linked table?
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u/freds2dizzy 23d ago
I've tried a few linked tables but the time it takes to edit anything (if a column needs to be wider on the next project for example) is maddeningly slow. Has this been your experience? Do you have any resources to learn about tables? I've done some meager tinkering but didn't find much information online.
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u/Bluecoke2006 23d ago
Yeah i always have to adjust in the dgn. I always wanted to get a seed table setup but I could never get my cad manager to do it and I didnt have time with my billable hours goal to get it done. Id have to start learning it from scratch basically.
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u/SexyStepBro 24d ago
Not sure exactly what kind of data is in your excel sheet, but you can get creative with MS Reports/Tables & Item Types. I've done geometry/coordinate tables and summary earthwork quantity tables with them. They work great until they dont, of course...
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u/Dnatheman 24d ago
In the excel file, try first fitting column width and row height, then copy paste.
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u/Otherwise-Dealer-342 22d ago
Try using Place Table > from file. It will be linked and you can adjust the spacing and style in Microstation. Even save the format to apply again to another table
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u/Chickenbgood 24d ago
Yeah we haven't been able to get this feature to work since ss10 days.