This plugin will come in handy if you want to count the number of materials for purchases or make a list of material tags with marked-on parts. First, you need to assign materials to parts (3D solids). This means the usual render material, which is in the properties of any drawing object in Autodesk® AutoCAD®. You can also assign materials to individual solid faces - these materials will be considered coatings (laminate, paint, edges). If you want to recalculate the amount of material in pieces (sheets or rods) or you need the weight of parts, and the cost of materials, then you need the program A>V>C>  Properties palette. It will add sheet dimensions, density, and price to the properties of common materials. Then you can call the MatTable command, and create and save the Table of Materials.

The program works on the basis of the Data Table, uses the same settings, and has the same capabilities. The dimensions of parts and their surfaces are extracted from the metrics of the solid.

Program features

• Filter only the necessary parts from all selected by layer, by type of object, and by manufacturing technology.
• Process all parts and assembly blocks visible through the viewport.
• Read parts from inside assembly blocks, arrays, xrefs, and dynamic blocks.
• Index materials, assign them non-repeating letters so that you can then use these indices on Smart Leaders for short designation of materials for surfaces and edges.
• Consider the necessary stocks (scraps) of materials for the manufacture of each part.
• Count the number of different types of materials in different ways, depending on their purpose: by volume (for solid wood/metal), by area (for sheets and coatings), by length (for rods, moldings, and edge bandings).
• Customize any kind of table, with any columns, using the lookup system.
• Create combined columns from multiple materials or part parameters.
• Format numbers and any data using substitution formats. Each column can be formatted differently.
• Group table rows into sections and record section names.
• Sort rows in ascending or descending order.
• Count sums in concatenated rows.
• Multiply the number of parts by a given factor. This will allow you to calculate the number of materials for a series of products in one drawing.
• Calculate mathematical formulas from single-line data.
• Calculate totals by the group and across the entire table.
• Save results in drawing in DWG-tables or texts.
• Split long DWG tables into multiple layouts.
• Save results in Excel, CSV, and XML files.
• Automatically pick the folder and name for the spreadsheet file according to your settings.
• Save results to the clipboard for pasting into any programs.
• Quickly switch between multiple presets (styles).
• Work in 1 click - select a viewport and table to insert data along with objects to retrieve data.
• Customize all these features in a convenient dialog box. 

 Program Limitations  

• The program extracts materials only from solids, it does not work with surfaces, meshes, and other objects.
• The program does not work with specialized materials Mechanical, BIM, or Architectural.
• The program is optimized for working with millimeter or inch drawings. You can use other units, but the program will not be able to display their name.

The Material Table program comes with commands for working with tables "Paste to Table" (PTT) and "Split Table" (TableSplit). As you know, the built-in AutoCAD tables have limited functionality. It will not work just to copy cells from Excel and paste them into AutoCAD. This flaw is partially compensated by the "Paste to Table" command. With its help, you can insert any text into the AutoCAD table, separated by tabs and line breaks, including data copied to the clipboard by the "Data Table" command. The "SplitTable" command will help to send a table that does not fit into one sheet (layout) to the printer.

Regardless of the AutoCAD language, you can switch the plugin's dialogs and messages into the following languages: English, German, Italian, Russian, and Chinese.

If you have not found the property you need or you need help setting up - write to avc.programming@gmail.com and offer your price for finishing touches or consultations. If you need to export a table to a SQL database or web application, this can also be done.