I need a xls coverter to convert to cad.

[knight_toolworks]

I had one years ago but no clue what it was I have a excel speadsheet that is just simple width and length I need the parts off of it and the one I had nested them too any ideas?

[Davo]

You want to just open it in cad?

Autocad lets you important excel files

Tools / data links

But not sure if it is what your looking for

[knight_toolworks]

ok I was wondering. I don't have autocad but Know who does. it is just a lot of rectangles that it is too easy to goof up having to type them in one by one. Hey only 20 sheets of plywood to cut.

[Davo]

Another possible method is printing to PDF and export a high DPI image for tracing

Aside from using aspire to trace, Inkscape is free and can vectorize the image plus export to dxf and svg

[donek]

Not sure exactly what you want to do. It's very easy to write sb code from within excel and export it as a comma delimited (.csv) file. All sbp files are camma delimited files anyway. You can also write svg files and dxf if you want. If you want to import a set of data points into your cad software, that is also sometimes possible.

simply googling convert data points to dxf yields a number of results as well. This one looks like it might do what you want: http://www.delicad.com/en/rapiddxf.php

[donek]

video on how to do it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzuPGS0xevg

[knight_toolworks]

that looks like it will only do one shape at a time? more complex then my brain may be able to handle. http://www.cutlistplus.com is the app I remember using it years ago. but I could not get it to import the cvs file it seems to work then tells me none of the parts look right. but looking at 500 to get it to export a dxf is too much. if I could figure out how to get it to import I could copy and paste. but spending too much time on it I could have typed it all in.
I wonder if there is a faster way to type in rectangles in aspire?

[Davo]

I would just let aspire trace a high res image and then scale it

In aspire for rectangles I draw a box and type in the dimensions

[Designer]

If you know someone who has SolidWorks you can get them to copy the excel into it and then they can generate .dxf files from the model it creates. These .dxf files can be imported into Aspire and used to drive a tool path. The trick is knowing someone who has SolidWorks. It is too pricey for most of us to afford at $4,000.00 plus a license. Just a thought.

[knight_toolworks]

how would you export it as rectangles into a pdf.
I sould hire someone with autocad to do it.

[Davo]

Print to PDF and choose a large DPI in case you desire to export from PDF back to an image for tracing in aspire to create the path

Inkscape also does this by creating vectors from the image

There are free autocad programs out there, Check techsupportalert.com

I have solid works, inventor, autocad etc.. It's what I do for a living but from what I gather your trying to do, you don't need those to get the shape into aspire, bringing the image in and tracing would accomplish the same as the dxf... Maybe even try sketch up?

[knight_toolworks]

the xls file is just width and length measurements and the amount. how would that work?
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1939753/CDK%20PREFINISHED%20MAPLE.csv

[Davo]

Ah I get it now

extremely easy in aspire, Just hit the box button in aspire and punch in the dimensions

[knight_toolworks]

ya thats what I was planning. a little slow but works. but also prone to error. thats why I wanted to import it so I would not make those errors

[Davo]

What types of errors does it cause?

[donek]

ya thats what I was planning. a little slow but works. but also prone to error. thats why I wanted to import it so I would not make those errors

e-mail me the excel file Steve. I'll see if I have an easy way to accomplish it once I see your data.

[donek]

Either my problems are so big I don't want to tackle them, or I'm very bored.

I have created an xls file that will write a script for draftsight. All you need to do is provide the length and width of your rectangles. To the right of those dimension are the lower left corner of the rectangle. All it does presently is to locate the next triangle 1 inch or unit to the right of the previous one. Just copy those cells so you have one to the right of each rectangle dimension.

The rectangle script tab or worksheet writes the script to tell draftsight how to create your rectangles. You will need to copy columns A, B, and C so that you have a line for each rectangle on sheet1. Then save the entire document to preserve your work. You will then save the rectangle script worksheet as a csv file, buy clicking file, save as, change the file type to csv, give the file a name and save it where you like.

Using windows explorer locate the file and rename it such that the filename is "your filename".scr. Just replace the csv with scr. This file will instruct draftsight to draw all of your rectangles.

Draftsight is free 2 dimension CAD program that is very much like AutoCAD. Just search for it on the web, download and install. Open Draftsight, click on Tools, Run Script and locate and open the file we just saved. You can then save the file as a dxf which can be opened by any other drawing package you like.

The excel document can be downloaded from the following location:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B09xTO5Y2SQjUU9NZENHSzVOUE0/view?usp=sharing

[knight_toolworks]

thanks so much I will give this to my customer he knows excel well. then I will convert it.