Paste To Table (PTT)

The first step is copy any text to the Windows clipboard. It may be several Excel cells or SAW results or any other text with TAB symbol like column separator and “new line” symbol like rows separator. In the text, there can be lines from one column - they will be perceived as the titles of the table or sections.

The next step is to select table in AutoCAD. Table may be in MODEL or PAPER space. 

Call PTT command. If before calling the command nothing is selected, then the program asks to select table. The table selection dialog is displayed.

In the window, you will see up to four options for selecting a table:

Find - this option appears when the table title from the buffer (just the first line) is found in one of the tables in the current drawing. Then the program will prompt you to use this found table. Note that the first table with this title will be used.

Choice - choose one of the available tables of the current drawing. All tables are in the drop-down list. The list contains the name of the layout, the title of the table and the size of the table. If you have configured the template file in the general settings of the A>V>C> plug-ins or in the AutoCAD options (DWT template for the _QNew command) you can select the table from there and the program inserts a new layout in the current drawing.

Select - select the layout from the list and click on one of the tables on it. You can also select a layout from the template. In the list, there will be only those sheets on which there are already tables. To select a table from the current layout just click on the icon.

New – create a new table based on the style of the tables. You can select any layout or model to insert in the new table. You can select from the list of copies of existing layouts and layouts from the template. You cannot create new tables on sheets where there is already a split table. To create a table on the current layout just click the icon.

Options – in same dialog you can tune options of paste command. For a description of the options see below.

You can block the call to the table selection window. Then the program will try to find the table in the drawing by its title (the first line). If the table is not found, the program will offer to click on the table on the current space. During the selection of the table, you will see the options in the console: SwitchSetOfOptions, Tune and New. 

SwitchSetOfOptions: Quickly switch between SAW and PTT options-set by number of set. 

Tune: This option opens a dialog window.

New: Creates a new table.

Thus, you can control the behavior of the program from the console without dialog boxes.

AutoCAD does not allow you to select one cell from the table. Therefore, the program is forced to overwrite all data in the table starting with the first row and column. But if your table has the TITLE or HEADER style rows and you did not configure the program to record the headers, the program will skip them and start inserting the data below. 

The program does not format cells in any way. To adjust the font, text height, alignment or borders you must use the table style. Call _TableStyle command beforehand.

If extra columns remain in the specified table (and they are not blocked) - they can be cleared (depending on the settings). If there are extra lines left - they can be deleted. If there are not enough rows or columns - they will be added. The height and width of the new cells will be the same as the last one, and the remaining settings will be taken from the table style.

Follow the messages in the console. There may be error messages. 

The installer that ran when you downloaded this app/plug-in from the Autodesk App Store will start installing the app/plug-in. OR, simply double-click the downloaded installer to install the app/plugin. You may need to restart the Autodesk product to activate the app/plug-in. To uninstall this plug-in, exit the Autodesk product if you are currently running it, simply rerun the installer, and select the "Uninstall" button. OR, click Control Panel > Programs > Programs and Features (Windows 7/8.1/10/11) and uninstall as you would any other application from your system. 

Please read the FAQ if there is any problem.

TableSplit

The command does not work in model space. It is intended only for splitting tables on layout sheets. 

First, fill in the table with all the data. If the rows of the table go beyond the printed area of the layout.  Then select the table and call the TableSplit command. You can select the table after the command is called.

The program will search for lines below the first row of the table. It can be a layout frame polyline a block or any drawing. The topmost of these obstacles will be considered the end of the free space for the table. If nothing is found on the layout then the program uses the whole printed field of layout.

Next, the program starts creating full copies of the layout with all the drawings and objects. The extra rows of the table will be moved to the new layout. A digital index will be added to the name of the source layout.

The program looks for rows in the table with the "Title" style and considers them to be the beginning of a string group. The groups will be moved to the new sheet as a whole if possible.

If at the beginning of the table, there is a line with the style "Header" then this line will be repeated at the beginning of each sheet.

An additional bonus is that the program looks for the main title block on the sheets and if there is an attribute of the sheet name in it, then the table name will be written in it. For this to work, the attribute must be named "TITLE" or "SHEETNAME" or "SHEETTITLE" or "PAGENAME" or "DRAWINGNAME" or "NAME". If you have the "Sheet Numbering" plug-in (AVC_PageNo) installed, you can configure the attribute search.

Split Updating

You can apply a TableSplit command to a previously divided table. Then the program will collect all data from all layouts to the first sheet and then split the table anew. This way you can easily update the partition after inserting new rows or after deleting the rows on any part of the table. You can select a table for this command on any of the layouts - the program will still find the first one and will work with it.

Updates

Follow my news on Facebook or Twitter. If you have an interest in the new version, just download it from my website and unpack it into the same directory with the replacement of all files. AutoCAD must be closed. Updates are free of charge. Reactivation is not required.

• Keep in mind that when you update a partition, all but the first sheet is destroyed! And copies of the first sheet are created. Therefore, never edit anything on layouts with a divided table - all this will die at the first update. Also, never insert other tables on a layout together with a divided one. The program cannot adequately work with such layouts and you will inevitably lose data.
  
  
• Not recommended to break a table on a layout with drawings. Drawings will be repeated on all sheets. This will not only clutter documentation, but also increase the chance that you will begin to edit the drawings on the second sheet and lose all the corrections after a new split of the table. Select a separate sheet for long tables.
  
  
• Do not make copies of a divided table. The program writes a special label in the xData of each part of the table to further know that these are parts of the same table. The label will be saved when you copy the tables and this can lead to confusion. The dialog for selecting the tables in the Paste to Table command displays only the first layout of such labeled tables and does not allow inserting new tables on these layouts.