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Creating Tables

Tables, often called schedules, are very common in drawings. Since the beginning of time, it seems, you had to build your own tables by drawing horizontal and vertical lines and fitting text in the resulting boxes.

New	Finally, there is a table feature that lets you create and edit fully formatted tables. You can
Feature	save your formatting in table styles for consistency among drawings. Like text styles, you
	should save table styles in your templates.

Inserting a table

To insert a table, choose Table from the Draw toolbar to start the new TABLE command. The Insert Table dialog box opens, as shown in Figure 13-21.

Figure 13-21: Use the Insert Table dialog box to create a table in your drawing.

On the left side of the Insert Table dialog box, you see a preview of how the table will look. By default, you see the Standard table style or the last table style you used. Choose the table style you want from the Table Style Name drop-down list. In the next section, I explain how to define a table style.

In the Insertion Behavior section of the dialog box, choose from one of the following options:

Specify insertion point: You place the table in your drawing by specifying an insertion point. You use the Column and Row Settings section to specify the number of columns and their width as well as the number of rows and their height (in terms of lines of text).

Specify window: You pick a point at the upper-left corner of the table and then move the mouse to specify the lower-right corner. You use the Column and Rows Settings section to specify the number of columns and the line height of the rows. As you move the mouse to the right, the columns widen and as you move the mouse downward, additional rows are added. Click when you see the size that you want.

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	If the table style shown is what you want, click OK. Then specify an insertion point or a win-
	dow to place the table.
Cross-		You can also create a table using a table tool on a tool palette. For more information on tool
Reference		palettes, see Chapter 26.

	Specifying a table style
	You have a great deal of control over how your table looks. You can make it plain or fancy. To
	design your table, you create a table style by choosing Format Table Style to open the Table
	Style dialog box, shown in Figure 13-22.
Tip	You can also access the Table Style dialog box by clicking the Ellipsis button in the Table Style
	Settings section of the Table dialog box (see Figure 13-21).

Figure 13-22: The Table Style dialog box gives you the tools to create tables with style.

On the left side of the Table Style dialog box, is a list of styles. From the List drop-down box, you can choose to display all styles or only styles that are in use in your drawing. To make a table style current., choose the style that you want and click Set Current.

New	An easier way to make a table style current is to choose the table style from the new Table
Feature	Style drop-down list on the Styles toolbar. Choose your table style before you start to create
	a table. You can also import table styles from the DesignCenter. (For more information on
	the DesignCenter, see Chapter 26.)

To create a new style, click the New button. In the Create New Table Style dialog box, enter a Name in the New Style Name text box. From the Start With drop-down list, choose an existing table style as a basis for your new style. The new table style inherits the properties of this existing style so that you have to specify only the differences that you want. Then click Continue to open the New Table Style dialog box, as shown in Figure 13-23.

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Figure 13-23: The New Table Style dialog box is the place to define a new table style.

As you define your new table style, the preview panel at the right shows you the results. In this dialog box, you use the various tabs to define the formatting for the data in the cells of the table, for column headings, and for the table’s main title. The three tabs are exactly the same, although they have slightly varying defaults. On the Column Heads tab, uncheck the Include Header Row checkbox if you don’t want to create column heads. On the Title tab, uncheck the Include Title Row checkbox if you don’t want a title cell.

Define your table style using the sections of the New Table Style dialog box.

Cell properties

Choose a text style from the Text Style drop-down list. If you don’t have a suitable text style, click the ellipsis button to the right of the drop-down list to open the Text Style dialog box. You can then define a text style. When you’re done, close the Text Style dialog box and your new text style is available in the New Table Style dialog box.

Enter a text height in the Text Height box. Choose a text color from the Text Color drop-down list. The default is ByBlock which means that the text color is the same as the table itself — which is a block. (I explain blocks and the ByBlock attribute in Chapter 18.) You can also choose ByLayer which gives the text the properties of the current layer.

Use the Fill Color drop-down list to specify the background color of the cells. The default is None, which shows the background color of your drawing area.

Use the Alignment drop-down list to specify the text alignment within each cell. For example, you might want to use Middle Center for the table and column headings, but Middle Left for the data cells.

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Border properties

Choose one of the border buttons to specify which borders you want to see. For example, for the data cells, if you choose Outside Borders, the data area of the table will not have any grid lines between the cells, only around the outside of the data cells.

Caution	If you inadvertently create a table style with outside borders or no borders, you may not
	notice the absence of borders in your drawing — grid lines show between the cells so that
	you can more easily fill in the table. Choose Plot Preview on the Standard toolbar to see the
	final result more accurately.

Choose a grid lineweight from the Grid Lineweight drop-down list. For example, you may want a slightly thicker lineweight for the title cell. Then choose a color from the Grid Color dropdown list. You can leave the ByBlock default and the color will match the layer of the table.

General

In the General section, choose a direction for the table. The default direction is Down — the table title is at the top, and you enter data from the top to the bottom. You can choose the Up direction, in which case the title is at the bottom of the table, and you enter data from the bottom to the top.

Cell margins

The cells margins are the space between the text and the cell borders. The horizontal margins affect the left and right sides of the text. The vertical margins affect the top and bottom of the text. Enter a value in the Horizontal and Vertical text boxes.

When you’re done, click OK to return to the Table Style dialog box. Click Close to return to your drawing.

Entering data into a table

After you’ve placed a table, you enter data into the table. The cursor is automatically placed in the first cell and you just start typing. Press Tab to move to the next cell. Continue in this way until you have completed the table. Figure 13-24 shows an example of a table.

Figure 13-24: A nicely styled schedule of parts.

Tip	You can create a complete table on the fly by importing data from Microsoft Excel. Select the
	data in Excel and copy it to the Windows clipboard. In AutoCAD, choose Edit Paste Special.
	In the Paste Special dialog box, choose AutoCAD Entities and click OK. At the prompt, pick an
	insertion point.

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You can insert a field into any cell in a table. For more about fields, see the “Inserting Fields” section, later in this chapter. You can also insert blocks into a table. (I explain blocks in Chapter 18.) After you’ve finished entering text, click a blank cell to select that cell. Then rightclick and choose Insert Block.

Modifying a table

You may need to change the data in a table or you may want to change the way the table looks. Either way, you can modify a table easily. However, you need to know some of the techniques involved, because tables in AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT are a little different from tables in your word processor.

Changing the text

Changing the text of a table is like changing any multiline text. Double-click the text inside a table, being sure not to double-click the grid lines; the Multiline Text Editor opens. You can use any of the techniques for editing text that I discuss in the “Editing paragraph text” section earlier in this chapter. You can change the properties of the text so that they don’t match the table style. For example, you can change the height or font of the text.

Changing table properties

You can also change properties of the table itself. If you double-click the table itself (that is, any of the grid lines), the Properties palette opens. Here, you can modify any conceivable table property, including its layer, its color, the number of rows or columns, or any of its style properties. If you want to revert to old-fashioned lines, you can explode the table. Of course, you can no longer edit the table as a table any more. You just have lines and text.

To select the entire table, click on any gridline of the table. You see grips at the corners of the table and at several other cell junctions. If you select the table and right-click you can use the shortcut menu to make additional changes to the table. For example, you can size columns or rows equally or remove property overrides. If you make a change to a cell, such as the cell’s alignment or color, you can use the Remove All Property Overrides item on the shortcut menu to change the cell’s properties back to match the rest of the table.

To select a cell, click inside that cell. You can then right-click and use the shortcut menu. Some of the more-useful items are:

Cell alignment: Changes the alignment of the text in the cell, using the standard textalignment options available for multiline text.

Cell borders: Opens the Cell Border Properties dialog box, where you can specify border properties for that individual cell.

Match cell: Matches cell properties. At the Select destination cell: prompt on the command line, pick another cell that you want to have the same properties. The prompt repeats until you press Enter.

Insert block: Opens the Insert a Block in a Table Cell dialog box, where you can select the block that you want to insert, specify the block’s alignment in the cell, as well as set its scale and rotation angle. If you select the Autofit checkbox, the block is automatically scaled to fit the table cell.

Insert columns: Inserts a column. You can choose to insert the column to the right or to the left of the current cell’s column.

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Delete columns: Deletes the column that the current cell is in.

Insert rows: Inserts a row. You can choose to insert the row above or below the current cell’s row.

Delete rows: Deletes the row that the current cell is in.

Size rows equally: Makes all your rows an equal height.

Remove all property overrides: Removes any formatting that you applied to the selected cell.

Delete cell contents: Deletes any text or block in the current cell.

Merge: Merges two or more cells together. You can choose to merge all the selected cells into one cell, to merge them by row, or to merge them by column.

Unmerge cells: Unmerges merged cells and recreates all the original cells.

You can select multiple cells and apply changes to those cells. To select multiple cells, use one of the following techniques:

Click inside one cell and drag over the other cells that you want to select. Release the mouse button at the last cell.

Click inside one cell, hold down Shift, and click inside the last cell that you want to select.

Tip	To enter the same text in multiple cells, select the cells. Then open the Properties palette and
	enter the text in the Contents item. The text appears in all the selected cells.
	When you select multiple cells, you can also merge the cells. Right-click and choose Merge Cells
	from the shortcut menu. By merging cells, you can create fairly complex table structures.
	You can also edit tables using grips. To understand editing tables with grips, imagine that the
	left side of the table is the stable side, while the right side of the table is the flexible side. The
	top-left grip is the base point for the entire table. You can do the following edits with grips:

Upper-left grip: Moves the entire table.

Upper-right grip: Stretches the table horizontally. As you change the width of the table, the columns also stretch proportionally.

Lower-left grip: Stretches the table vertically. As you change the height of the table, the rows also stretch proportionally.

Lower-right grip: Stretches the table both vertically and horizontally. The columns and rows adjusts proportionally.

Top of column grip: Adjusts the width of the column to the left of the grip. The entire table adjusts accordingly. If you press Ctrl while moving a column grip, the adjacent columns adjust but the width of the table remains unchanged.

You can export a table to comma-delimited (.csv) format. You can then open the table data with a database or spreadsheet program. To export a table, follow these steps:

1.Select the table.

2.Right-click and choose Export.

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On the

CD-ROM

3.In the Export Data dialog box, choose a name and location for the file.

4.Click Save.

The drawing used in the following Step-by-Step exercise on creating tables, ab13-05.dwg, is in the Results folder on the CD-ROM.

STEP-BY-STEP: Creating Tables

1.Open ab13-05.dwg from the CD-ROM. If you did the last exercise, you can open the drawing from your AutoCAD Bible folder.

2.Save the file as ab13-06.dwg in your AutoCAD Bible folder. This is the same plat drawing used in the preceding Step-by-Step exercise.

3.Choose Table from the Draw toolbar. In the Insert Table dialog box, click the Ellipsis button to the right of the Table Style Name drop-down list.

4.In the Table Style dialog box, click New. In the Create New Table Style dialog box, enter AcreageSchedule in the New Style Name text box. The Start With text box should read Standard. Click Continue. The New Table Style dialog box opens.

5.From the Text Style drop-down list, choose ROMANS. In the Text Height text box, enter

12.5.Because you want the numbers in the table to be right-aligned, choose Middle Right from the Alignment drop-down list. In the Cell Margins section, change both the Horizontal and Vertical text box values to 5.

6.Click the Column Heads tab. Make sure that the Include Header Row checkbox is checked. Again set the Text Style to ROMANS and the Text Height to 12.5. Leave the alignment as Middle Center.

7.Click the Title tab. Make sure that the Include Title Row check box is checked. Make the following changes:

•Text Style: ROMANT (for a different look).

•Text Height: 13.5 to make the title text bigger than the rest of the table text.

•Text Color: Click the Text Color drop-down list and choose Select Color. From the Select Color dialog box, choose the lightest gray color on the Index Color tab. Click OK to return to the New Table Style dialog box.

•Fill Color: Click the Fill Color drop-down list and choose Blue.

•Grid Color: In the Border Properties section, click the Grid Color drop-down list and choose Blue to match the fill.

8.Click OK to return to the Table Style dialog box and click Set Current. Then click Close to return to the Insert Table dialog box.

9.In the Insertion Behavior section of the dialog box, make sure that the insertion behavior is set to Specify insertion point. In the Columns & Rows section, set the number of columns to 2 and the column width to 100. Set the number of data rows to 4. The row height should be 1. Click OK.