Michael’s Corner

Michael's Corner is a monthly publication written by Michael E. Beall, Autodesk Authorized Author and peripatetic AutoCAD trainer. Michael travels all over the USA, bringing his fantastic experience and great understanding of AutoCAD to his clients. Michael's Corner brings together many of the tips, tricks and methods developed during these training sessions for the benefit of all users.

Michael's Corner provides something for every AutoCAD user. Every month, a number of articles cover a wide range of topics, suitable for users at all levels, including "The Basics" for those just starting out. Essentially, the aim of Michael's Corner is to help all AutoCAD users work smarter and faster.

This month…

From the Vault

Originally published May 2009

Coordinates from Excel into AutoCAD

I received an email from a friend of mine at Nicholson Construction asking if there was an easy way of taking coordinates out of Excel and creating a drawing from those values, rather than inputting them, one set at a time. Yes, actually, there is… and it is amazingly simple if we create a script (.SCR) file.

Prerequisite: The X and Y values need to be in a single cell in the format of X,Y for this to work. If X and Y have their own column, you will need to make the necessary adjustments to get them to X,Y format.

Instructions to Create a Drawing with X,Y Coordinates from Excel

1. In Excel, highlight and Copy the column of X,Y coordinates to be used to generate the drawing.
2. Open Windows Notepad (StartAll ProgramsAccessoriesNotepad).
3. Before pasting the coordinates, type LINE as the first word in the file (this will launch the Line command when the script is run), then press [Enter].
4. Now Paste the column of coordinates into the file and you should see something like that shown in the figure.
5. Close and save the .SCR file (remember where you're saving it).
6. In AutoCAD, launch the SCRIPT command, then navigate to where you saved your file in the previous step, then select it and click Open. AutoCAD will launch the Line command then, beginning at the first set of coordinates entered, will draw line segments from one point to the next.

You may also want to consider…

• Replacing the LINE command with the PLINE command.
• Adding the word CLOSE as the last word in the script to have the linework close back to the start point.
• Dragging the .SCR file out of Windows Explorer and dropping it into the drawing window.

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