Creating Custom Reports and Tables with Project Explorer– Practice Exercise
Task 1: Create a report configuration
- Open the practice file, 001-Reports and Tables-Exercise.dwg.
- Open the Add-ins ribbon tab, in the Project Explorer tab select Launch Project Explorer.
- In the middle window scroll-down and select South Santa Fe Drive.
- Be careful not to select the profile entry which trees-out below the alignment.
- In the lower window switch to the Alignment PIs tab.
- In the middle window right-click on South Santa Fe Drive. Choose Add to Object Set > New Object Set.
- Change the Object Set Name to S Santa Fe PI Report.
- Change the Object Set Action to Report to HTML File (*.htm).
- Under Layout Style select Use Specific Layout Style and click the Edit Style button.
- Make sure the Alignment tab is selected at the top.
- Set the Alignment/Profile Column Chooser to Set Column Layout for Alignment PIs
- At the far right select the Unselect All button.
- Turn on the checkmarks for Station, Easting, Northing, Distance In, Direction In, PI Included Angle, and Curve Radius.
- Select the Northing row, then click the up arrow at the right of the dialog once so it appears above the Easting row.
- Click OK. Browse to the folder where you saved the exercise dataset and save the Layout Style as Exercise PI Report.xmpt.
- At the top right make sure the File Output Options tab is selected.
- Change the Filename Template to {ObjectSet_Name} (without the Drawing_Name) included).
- Next to the Output Path click the Browse button.
- Browse to the folder where the exercise dataset is located. Click OK.
- Under Report Styles select the Use Specific Report Style. Then click Edit Style.
- In the Page Options tab change the Layout Units to inches. Change the Report Header to {Report_Name}.
- In the Table Options tab turn off the Use Background Colors.
- In the Report Header tab double click in the Drawing: field and change the text to Report Name: and change the Field Value for that row to {Report_Name}.
- Select the Drawing Path row, right-click and choose Delete Row. Click OK.
- Browse to the folder location where the exercise dataset is located and save the report style as Exercise Table Style.xmpr.
- Click OK to close the Create Object Set dialog. Click OK to confirm the object set was successfully created.
Task 2: Create a report
- In the Project Explorer window switch to the Object Sets tab (at the left).
- In the top window select the S Santa Fe PI Report object set.
- In the middle window, in the South Santa Fe Drive row, double click on the Object Table field (currently reads Yes).
- Turn off the Use Object Table? Option. Click OK.
- In the top window, make sure the S Santa Fe PI Report row is selected.
- Above the top window select the Run Selected Action button.
- When prompted Do you wish to open this file now? Click Yes.
Task 3: Switch report settings to produce a table.
- In Project Explorer Object Sets tab top window, right-click on S Santa Fe PI Report and choose Copy.
- Right-click on the S Santa Fe PI Report row again and choose Paste.
- Double click on the name of the new S Santa Fe PI Report - Copy.
- Change the Object Set Name to S Santa Fe PI Report Table.
- Change the Object Set Actions to Export to AutoCAD Table(s) in MODEL Space.
- Change the Object Set Action type to Dynamic.
- Make sure the Layout Style is set to Use Specific Layout Style and is still set to Exercise PI Report.xmpt from the previous exercise task.
- At the top right make sure the AutoCAD Table Output Options tab is open.
- Click the Pick Insertion Point icon. Wait for the dialogs to temporarily close so you can select an origin point for the table in the drawing file.
- You are selecting the upper left corner of the table.
- Change the Title Cell Text Template to [ObjectSet_Name}.
- Click OK.