Extract Data

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Keyboard: DATAEXTRACTION

Alias: DX

Extracts data from entities in one or more drawings and exports it to a table or external file.

BEGIN (Page 1)

Create New Report Template Select to extract data and create a report based on a new report template. When you click Next, the Save Data Extraction As dialog box displays where you enter a name for the new report template (.idxe) file.

Start with Existing Report Template Mark to create the new report template based on an existing one. Click [...] to select the report template (.idxe) file that has the settings you want to prefill/use in the new report template, save it with a new name and optionally modify when continuing.

Edit Existing Report Template Select to extract data and create a report based on an existing report template. Click [...] to select the report template (.idxe) file that has the settings you want to prefill and optionally modify when continuing.

Reuse Existing Report Template Select to extract data and create a report based on an existing report template without modifying it. Click [...] to select the report template (.idxe) file that has the settings you want to use for data extraction.

DEFINE DATA SOURCE (Page 2)

Drawings Select to extract data from all entities in the drawings and folders you specify.

Include Current Drawing Mark to extract data from entities in the current drawing. If additional drawings or folders are selected, the current drawing may contain no entities.

Select Entities in the Current Drawing Select to extract data only from entities in the current drawing. Click () to switch to the drawing temporarily and select the entities that you want to extract data from. If this option is selected, the next three options are unavailable.

Drawing Files and Folders Lists the folders and drawings to extract data from.

Add Folder Click to select a folder that contains the drawing files to extract data from. After you select the folder, the Add Folder Options dialog box displays where you can specify additional options for adding files.

Add Drawings Click to select a drawing file to extract data from.

Remove Click to delete the selected drawing file from the Drawing Files and Folders list.

Settings Click to open the Data Extraction - Additional Settings dialog box where you can specify which entities to extract data from.

SELECT ENTITIES (Page 3)

Entities Lists all entity types available for data extraction based on the source files selected on the previous page. Mark the entity types you want to include in the report. The Display Name is prefilled with the name of the entity and can be edited.

Display All Entity Types Mark to include all entity types in the Entities list. When unmarked, the following options are available:

• Display Blocks Only Select to include only blocks in the Entities list.
• Display Non-Blocks Only Select to include all entity types except blocks in the Entities list.

SELECT PROPERTIES (Page 4)

Properties Lists all properties available for data extraction based on the entity types selected on the previous page. Mark the properties you want to include in the report. Each row displays a property, its display name (which can be edited), and category.

Category Filter Lists categories based on the available properties. Mark the categories of properties that you want to display in the Properties list.

REFINE DATA (Page 5)

Report Preview Displays a preview of the data to be inserted as a table in the drawing or saved to an external file. Click and drag the columns to reorder them, and click a column name to sort column data in ascending or descending order.

Combine Identical Rows Mark to include only one row for rows with identical data. If marked, the Count column updates with the sum of all combined rows.

Show Count Column Mark to display the Count column in the report preview and include it in the report.

Show Name Column Mark to display the Name column in the report preview and include it in the report.

CHOOSE OUTPUT (Page 6)

Insert Report Data As Table in Drawing Mark to create a table containing the extracted data. If marked, you are prompted for an insertion point in the drawing after you click Finish on the Finish page.

Output Report Data to External File Mark to create an external .xls or .csv file containing the extracted data. Click [...] and in the Save As dialog box, specify a name, file location, and file format for the external file.

TABLE STYLE (Page 7)

This page displays only if you chose to insert report data as a table in the drawing.

Table Style Choose a table style from the list of table styles available in the current drawing, or click () to open the Table Styles Manager dialog box.

Title Cell Style Choose a cell style for the title cell.

Header Cell Style Choose a cell style for header cells.

Data Cell Style Choose a cell style for data cells.

Use Property Names as Additional Column Headers Mark to include a header row with display names of properties that were specified on the Select Properties page.

FINISH (Page 8)

Click Finish to extract data and output it to a table in the drawing and/or an external file.

Tell me about...

Data Link Manager

Table

How do I...

Reporting information about entities