forum.datacad.com

Hi all,
I want to create a symbol with an attribute that has a drop down menu for the text. I have created the .csv file using Excel and the drop down works correctly on the spread sheet. In Datacad 22, symbol browser, create symbol attribute, Database Linkage, Database Name, Lookup field. I do not know what goes in the "Lookup" field. Are there any detailed instructions for this? I saw nothing in the online manual. Any help is appreciated. Thank You

So as far as I know, there is still not anything in the manual on how to create these specifically. At one point that part of the manual was started which you can find that part here. https://www.datacad.com/temp/Symbol_Att ... e_Link.pdf

Here are a few screenshots and a few quick tips on how I set mine up.

- First thing is, I use TXT (tab-delimited text files) database files to create my symbol attribute databases to use for lookups. CSV files are supported but if I recall there was some slight difference in how TXT and CSV files worked from within. Found this really old post about it but I switched to TXT files and never looked back. viewtopic.php?p=34333#34333

- You don't actually create the drop downs in Excel, you just create your database tables of plain text information in the TXT file. The drop down setup is done when creating the symbol attributes. You set one Lookup Field per database referenced in your symbol. Then other symbol attributes are set to 'Field filled by lookup' and then those will be auto populated by selecting the lookup field when using the Edit Symbol Attributes dialog in the drawing.

Here are some screenshots of a symbol I have setup to fill in some predetermined mechanical system info based on a simple drop down for selecting the desired tonnage of the system. I don't have much time right now to get into the weeds of things but hopefully this will help you get started. If you need more help, come on back and ask more questions here and we will try to help get you going. They really are a very powerful tool for sure and worth getting the hang of!

Also for my setup I have the following Program Preference set. Makes selecting the columns easier to distinguish from each other when setting up the lookups and I can put helpful information in the title of each column if needed in Excel.

Hi Josh,
Thank you for all this information. I will review it and set it up.
Have a great day!