Update Tables

If you frequently use the data extraction commands: Data Table, Sawing Table, Material Table, and Drill Table, you may find the Update Tables command useful, which refreshes selected or all drawing tables without unnecessary queries. Call this command at the end of your work to be sure that all tables are filled with current data.

The TableUpdate command is not provided as a separate plugin. You can use this command only if you purchase a license for the Data Table or AVC Pro plugins.

How to use

First, you need to fill the tables using one of the data extraction commands. These commands save information about which command and which style number were used to fill the table and save a list of selected objects, or a list of DWG files. This information is stored directly in the drawing in hidden table data (xRecord). You can see that the table is associated with one of the data extraction commands if you open its properties in the AVC Properties Palette.

Do not change the Data Table settings after filling the table. If you change the settings, the TableUpdate command will work with other settings. The only setting that is saved in xRecord is the data source. Thus, if you need to use different settings in different tables, you will have to create several Data Table styles and switch them before filling the tables.

If the settings specify the data source "selected objects", the list of these objects will be saved in xRecord. If you delete some of the objects, the data about them will disappear when you update the table. But you won't be able to replace or add objects - you'll have to call the original command again and select all objects again. That's why the TableUpdate is better suited for extracting all data from the entire model or all objects from the sheet viewports. In these cases, all changes will always be reflected in the updated table.

You can select the tables to update in advance, before calling the TableUpdate command. If the tables are not selected, the command will ask you to select. The request will include an option to update all tables in the drawing.

If you call the program to update a table that is part of a table divided into several sheets, the program will replace the selected part with the very first part of the table. In this case, if the data is extracted from viewports, the viewports on the sheet with the first part of the table will be used.

If the tables have not yet been filled with any AVC commands or were filled in old versions of the plugins (when the data was not yet saved in xRecord), such a table will be skipped.

Do not update all tables at once in very large projects - this increases the risk of a fatal AutoCAD crash.

If you use a quantity Multiplier, you need to set it up to be saved in the drawing properties, because TableUpdate will not ask for it. When retrieving data from a list of DWG files, the multiplier is always considered 1.

TableUpdate will not call part Numbering, even if it is set up in the Data Table style. If necessary, call renumbering with the AvcNum command before calling TableUpdate.

At the end of the program will display the number of updated tables.

Watch the messages in the command line - there will be information about why some tables could not be refilled.