TE! TABLE EDITOR VERSION 1.8 LIMITED DEMONSTRATION COPY Condensed User's Guide QUICK START GUIDE TO THE DEMO VERSION OF TE! TABLE EDITOR 1. Copy the files from the TEDEMO directory into the directory that contains your AutoCAD(TM) files. COPY A:\TEDEMO\*.* C:\ACAD 2. Enter a drawing within AutoCAD. 3. Load the AutoLISP routine TESTART.LSP. Command: (load "testart") 4. The TE! Table Editor Demo will work with any 4-row by 4-column table that you create using AutoCAD LINE entities that are perfectly horizontal or vertical. You may also create your table with MAKETAB. Type MAKETAB from the AutoCAD Command: prompt and follow the prompts. 5. Type TEDEMO from the AutoCAD Command: prompt and select any line on the table you wish to edit. Then, any cell in the table can be highlighted by picking it with your cursor. 6. To enter text into a cell, highlight the cell and start typing. To change your text height and offsets from the edges, press ALT-T (for Text) and answer the prompts. To change the text justification, press ALT-J (for Justification). To edit text within a cell, press ALT-E (for Edit) and follow the instructions on the screen. For on-line information on other TE! Table Editor commands, press ALT-H (for Help). 7. For more details, refer to this guide. 8. For technical support, or to order a live copy of TE! Table Editor, please call (416) 662-5413. AutoCAD is a registered trademark of Autodesk, Inc. INTRODUCTION TE! Table Editor is a set of programs designed to allow you to create and edit tables, schedules and bills of materials quickly and easily within AutoCAD. TE! Table Editor consists of three main programs: MAKETAB, TE! and TEBOM, in addition to a number of utility programs (CHGSTYLE, CHGTXTHT, CHGJUST, INSBLOCK, MATCH, READTXT and TEXTEDIT). This limited demonstration copy of TE! Table Editor will allow you to experience firsthand all of the features of the live version, with the exception of the utility programs mentioned above. The demonstration version is "limited" in the sense that it will allow you to work only with tables that measure 4 columns wide by 4 rows deep. If you have any questions about TE! Table Editor or about TEDEMO, please call our technical support department at (416) 662-5413 during normal business hours (EST). REQUIREMENTS FOR TE! TABLE EDITOR The only requirement is that you must be working with a "386" specific version of AutoCAD (AutoCAD Release 10/386 or AutoCAD Release 11/386). INSTALLING and LOADING TEDEMO To install your TE! Table Editor demo, simply copy the files from the master diskette to the directory in which your AutoCAD program files are located. For example, if your AutoCAD program files are located in the C:\ACAD directory, insert the TEDEMO diskette into drive A: and type the following: C:\> COPY A:\TEDEMO\*.* C:\ACAD Before using any of the TE! Table Editor demo routines in AutoCAD, you must first load them by typing the following line from the AutoCAD Command: prompt: Command: (LOAD "TESTART") Be sure to include all parentheses and quotation marks exactly as shown. USING TEDEMO Creating a Table with MAKETAB TEDEMO will work with any 4x4 table that you create. The rules are that the table must be made of AutoCAD LINE entities, the corners of the table must all be closed, and all lines in the table must be either perfectly vertical or perfectly horizontal. Tables created with polylines or blocks will not be recognized by TEDEMO. To make the creation of tables easier than with manual methods, TEDEMO includes MAKETAB. To create a table, simply type MAKETAB from the AutoCAD Command: prompt. You will be asked for the following information: Pick point for top left corner of table: [Pick a point] Number of rows <4>: [TEDEMO defaults to 4 rows] Distance between rows <0.3>: [Desired height for each row] Number of columns <4>: [TEDEMO defaults to 4 columns] Length for column 1 <2.0>: [Desired length for column 1] Length for column 2 <2.0>: [Desired length for column 2] {etc.} Selecting a Table to Edit with TEDEMO Now that you have created the table, use TEDEMO to add and edit information in the table. Type TEDEMO from the AutoCAD Command: prompt. For example: Command: TEDEMO Select a line on the table to be edited: [Pick a line] Calculating matrix. Please wait. Rows: 4 Columns: 4 NOTE: The current text height is 0.2000 Options: ALT-Help, ALT-Text setup, ALT-Edit, ALT-Justify. Use CTRL ->, CTRL <-, CTRL PgUp & CTRL PgDn to move cursor. Press ESC to Exit. TEDEMO has calculated the rows and columns that make up your table and is ready for you to begin editing. TEDEMO has highlighted in red the cell that you selected (unless the line that you picked was red, in which case, cyan is used). To select a new cell, simply pick the desired cell with your cursor, or use the following keys from your keyboard to move around your table: CTRL --> or Moves the highlighted cell one right. CTRL <-- Moves the highlighted cell one left. CTRL-PGUP Moves the highlighted cell one up. CTRL-PGDN Moves the highlighted cell one down. The TEDEMO HELP Screen For help with TEDEMO, refer to the TEDEMO help screen by typing ALT-H after you have selected a table to edit. TEDEMO will perform a flipscreen (on single monitor systems) and display the following text: TE! TABLE EDITOR HELP SCREEN To move to a new cell, pick the cell with your cursor or use: CTRL --> or Move one cell to the right. CTRL <-- Move one cell to the left. CTRL©PGUP Move one cell up. CTRL©PGDN Move one cell down. To enter text into the current cell, simply start typing. Other options: ALT-A ADD rows or columns to the table. (This feature is disabled in TEDEMO.) ALT-D DATABASE import/export. ALT-E or F2 EDIT text in the current cell. ALT-F Zoom to FULL view of table. ALT-J Set text JUSTIFICATION of a column for editing session (Left, Right, Center). ALT-N NUMBER Generator (e.g. line numbers). ALT-P Zoom PREVIOUS ALT-R 'REDRAW ALT-T Adjust TEXT size, offsets and style. ALT-U UPDATE format of text to new settings. ALT-W Zoom WINDOW ALT-Z Interrupt TE! for 'ZOOM, 'PAN and 'REDRAW from menus. ESC Exit TE! Press any key to continue... Setting the Text Height, Offset from Edges and Style Before you enter data into a table, you should set the text parameters that TEDEMO uses. The first time you use TEDEMO, it establishes the text height as the same height as the last string of text that you entered within your drawing. TEDEMO allows you to offset text from all 4 edges of a cell; the offset from the edges of the cell are initially set to 1/4 of the text height. To change the text parameters, simply type ALT-T from within the TEDEMO routine and follow the prompts. ALT-T The available styles are: STANDARD ROMANS Enter new text style : New text height <0.2000>: 0.5 Text offset from left side of cell <0.0500>: 0.20 Text offset from right side of cell <0.0500>: 0.20 Minimum offset from top and bottom of cell <0.05>: 0.20 Center text vertically? : Continuing TE!. Press ALT-H for Help with command options. Use CTRL ->, <-, PgUp & PgDn to move cursor, ESC to exit. If there is only one style defined within the drawing, you will not be given the option to choose a new text style. Entering Data into the Table with TEDEMO To enter data into your table, simply select a cell on your table and start typing. As soon as you start typing, TEDEMO issues the prompt Enter text: and allows you to continue entering text into the cell. When you are finished, press to have TEDEMO place the text into the cell. Note that TE! will never allow the text to extend beyond the limits of the cell; it will use AutoCAD's fit justification. To force a cell to be either left, center or right justified, enter a leading \L, \C or \R. For example, you can enter the text "TE", making it right-justified by typing "\rTE". To overwrite text that has already been placed within a cell, highlight the cell and begin typing. If you decide that you did not want to overwrite the cell after all, press to recover the previous text before you hit . TE! will also allow you to enter long lines of text that will automatically split into an appropriate number of lines, if there is sufficient depth in the cell. If you set your text height to 0.25 units and your top and bottom minimum offset to 0.15 units for a cell that is 1.0 units deep, you will create room for 2 lines of text in a cell. Try this feature out by changing your text parameters and entering a long word or phrase in one of your cells. Adding a Column of Numbers with TEDEMO TE! will create a column of numbers within your table very easily. To use this feature, pick a cell and press ALT-N. ALT-N Loading module. Please wait.... Starting number <1>: Number of rows to fill <4>: Increment <1>: Prefix to number: Part Suffix to number: Note that TE! allows you to add a prefix or suffix that will appear before or after each number. You can also use TE! to generate a column of letters (A,B,C) or real numbers (1.1,1.2,1.3). Setting a Column's Justification with TEDEMO To set a column to be left, center or right justified, simply highlight a cell in the appropriate column and press ALT-J. For example: ALT-J Left, Right or Center justification /R/C: R Columns for this justification or ALL <2>: When you set a column's justification, any new data that is entered into that column will be justified accordingly. This option does not change the justification of data that already exists in the table. You can set the justification for an individual column (e.g. 2), multiple columns (e.g. 1,2) or all columns in the table (e.g. ALL). Note that this justification is set only for this drawing session, and will be set for any table in your drawing with the same number of rows and columns as the one in which you are currently working. Updating a Cell's Justification with TEDEMO To change a cell's justification after you have entered text, simply highlight the cell, set the justification, text height and offsets with ALT-J and ALT-T, and execute ALT-U. Editing a Cell with TEDEMO If you need to edit a cell of text within TE!, simply highlight the cell and type ALT-E. In AutoCAD Release 11/386, each line of text in the cell is brought into the DDEDIT dialogue box for editing. In AutoCAD Release 10/386, the text appears at the base of your screen, with a "_" representing a cursor. To get a full list of the functions available within this text editor, press ALT©H. Notice how the TE! text editor highlights each string of text with an X as it is being edited. Other TE! text editor functions are as follows: TAB and SHIFT-TAB Move one word to the right or left. BACKSPACE and DEL Delete characters. CTRL-HOME Move to the front of the line. CTRL-END Move to the end of the line. Accept the text and return to TE!. Return to TE! without saving modifications. Adding Rows and Columns with TE! Note that this feature is disabled in TEDEMO. With TE! Table Editor, you can add rows and/or columns to your table by highlighting a cell next to where the new cells are to be placed and pressing ALT-A. Just enter the number of rows or columns to be added, and tell TE! whether to add them above or below or to the left or the right of the highlighted cell. Zooming with TEDEMO Within TEDEMO, normal access to the tablet and pull-down menus is suspended; thus, to access zoom commands, TEDEMO has embedded some of the more common ones. You can zoom to see your full table by pressing ALT-F. This command is especially useful if you add new rows or columns that are displayed beyond your current viewing area. It has been designed to zoom in such a way as to not force a REGEN if possible. To zoom in to a smaller area of the table, use the Zoom Window option, ALT-W. To perform a 'Redraw, press ALT-R. To perform a Zoom Previous, press ALT-P. While these options give you a lot of zooming flexibility, there may be times when you need AutoCAD's own zooming capabilities. You can interrupt TEDEMO temporarily to perform transparent zooms (i.e. zooms that will not force an AutoCAD REGEN) by pressing ALT-Z. Selecting Irregular Tables with TE! You will likely have the need from time to time to work with tables that are "irregular" (i.e. tables with split rows or columns). This feature is not available in TEDEMO; however, TE! Table Editor handles this situation very simply and easily. Whether your table contains cells that extend across more than one column (e.g. headings), or more than one row, TE! works exactly the same way as it does for "regular" tables. DATABASE AND BILL OF MATERIALS WITHIN TEDEMO So far, we have covered all but one feature in TE!: ALT-D. Before invoking this feature, you will insert a block containing AutoCAD attributes; then you may use the TEBOMDEMO routine to extract bill of materials information, and TEDEMO to import bill of materials data into a table and export data to a text file. Creating BLOCKS with ATTRIBUTES An attribute is a special AutoCAD drawing entity that contains text. Attributes are contained within BLOCKs in your drawing, are usually entered as the block is inserted in the drawing and can be visible or invisible. You can associate more than one attribute with a block, provided that each attribute has its own unique identifier. For the purposes of this demonstration, we have provided a block for you called TAG with three attributes (part number, quantity and price). INSERT this block into your drawing and answer the attribute prompts, bearing in mind that the demo version of TE! Table Editor's quantity take-off will only count the first 10 occurrences of this block. Creating a Template File for Attribute Extraction Before extracting information contained within these blocks, you must first create a TEMPLATE file to tell AutoCAD what information to extract and how you want this data displayed. A template file is a text file that tells which tag names to extract information for and what other block information is to be extracted. For the purposes of this demo, we have provided a template file for you, which will be called automatically when you invoke TEBOMDEMO. Performing a Bill of Materials Extraction with TEBOMDEMO To perform a bill of materials extraction, type TEBOMDEMO at any time from the AutoCAD Command: prompt and follow the prompts. Command: TEBOMDEMO Perform extraction for Whole drawing or specific Entities? /E: Template file name for attribute extraction : File name for bill of materials data : TEST x records in extract file. Quantities will be placed in column 2 Costs/prices will be placed in column 3 Do you wish to perform a quantity take-off? : Y Do you wish to sort output in alphanumeric order? : Retrieve total costs based on quantities? : In which column would you like the total costs listed? <2>: 4 Place sum at the bottom of the total costs column? : Tag names as headings for the bill of materials? : Importing the Bill of Materials Information into a Table Now that you have created the bill of materials data, you can use TEDEMO to import the data into a table. Invoke TEDEMO, and select your table. Import your bill of materials data using ALT-D. Note that the text height and justification parameters should be set before importing the data, and that the data is imported starting at the highlighted cell. Any text that exists where the table data is imported will be overwritten. Note also that in the demonstration version of TE! Table Editor, you are constrained to 4 rows and 4 columns -- data that exceeds these limits will not be imported. Exporting Table Data with TEDEMO To export the bill of materials data to a text file for use in reports, database or MRP programs, simply type ALT-D from within TEDEMO and answer the prompts: ALT-D Import or Export table data (/E): E ASCII text file or Comma Delimited file? (/C): Spaces between columns <3>: Output file name : BOM Retrieving data from table. Please wait... OTHER FEATURES OF TE! TABLE EDITOR The live version of TE! Table Editor also includes three sample blocks and template files on which you can base your bill of materials customization, and a routine to allow insertion of these blocks at a scale factor corresponding to your DIMSCALE drawing variable, allowing consistent sizing no matter what scale of drawing you are working in. Also included with TE! Table Editor are several routines designed to make working with AutoCAD text a little easier. All of these routines will work anywhere in your AutoCAD drawing, on any text, whether it was entered with TE! or not. These routines will allow you to change the style, height, and justification of text in your drawing, edit multiple lines of text, match the layer, colour and linetype properties of one or several entities with those of another entity, and import ASCII text into your drawing, placed either line by line into your drawing or formatted to fit within a box. TE! Table Editor has been developed as a general program for creating tables and bills of materials. Automated Design Systems offers TE! Table Editor customization services at a rate of $50 per hour with a 2 hour minimum charge. Please call us at (416) 662-5413 if you would like to discuss customization of this program to meet your specific requirements. And now if you're ready to start working with tables of any size, and creating bills of materials from your own blocks, just call us at (416) 662-5413 to place your order, or fax us at (416) 662-4842. At a cost of only $245 ($285 Canadian) plus $5 for shipping, your investment will be recovered quickly. We accept VISA, MasterCard, company purchase orders, and checks. Automated Design Systems - Making You More Productive! Copyright (c) Automated Design Systems 1991