In this article, I have explained two different ways of importing the X, Y, Z Coordinates (Easting, Northing & Reduced Levels) from an Excel sheet to AutoCAD in the form of points.
In the first method, we will use only excel to compile data and then we will simply import the data in AutoCAD. In the second method we will transfer the date from excel to a simple script file and then we will import the script file in AutoCAD to make the points.
These methods are explained in the tutorial video as well shown below, but if you prefer the article then here it is.
As shown in this pic below, we have X, Y, Z coordinates, otherwise Easting, Northing & Reduced levels of more than 10000 points in an Excel sheet.
To create points using this data (to Export this data into an AutoCAD drawing), we have to convert this data into the language that AutoCAD can understand. We can convert this data in coordinate points and AutoCAD uses POINT Command to make points in AutoCAD.
In AutoCAD you have several possibilities to insert the points, for example: In the Command line type '3DP' (3DPOLY). From the ACII text file copy all X,Y,Z points in the desired order and paste these into the command line Create a script file (.scr) of the point file and drag and drop it into the AutoCAD. Jun 30, 2009 Import X,Y Coordinates from Excel into AutoCAD I am currently on vacation but wanted to share a great AutoCAD Tip from my friend the AutoCAD Trainer Guy Michael Beal. Michael always has great tips and clear instructions in his monthly “ Michael’s Corner ” available on the web as well as a monthly newsletter. Import CSV into AutoCAD. As when importing point type features using any other data provider included in the application, you can choose between Point objects or Block references and many other interesting drawing options through the import process You can also perform a coordinate transformation “on the fly” when importing.
Type in POINT in the command bar and hit the Enter key.
- Now we can import these points pretty easily in AutoCAD using SCRIPT command. Type SCRIPT then press Enter key in your AutoCAD command bar and then locate the scr file you created in the example above and click on Open button.
- Import Points into AutoCAD. When importing the Points, you can choose between AutoCAD Point objects or Block references as imported objects, and many other interesting drawing options through the import process You can also perform a coordinate transformation “on the fly” when importing the Points.
- Specify the Point Identity settings, which control the point numbers of the created points. Click Home tabCreate Ground Data panelPoints menuPoint Creation Tools Find. On the Create Points toolbar, click the Import Points button. In the Import Points dialog box, click, and select the point data.
Now we have a message at the Command Prompt, ‘Specify a Point’, There are two methods to specify a point.
- Feed the X, Y, Z Coordinates of the Point in the Command Bar.
- Click anywhere in the drawing area and an AutoCAD point Object will be created at that particular point.
Here I will go with the first method i.e feeding the X, Y, Z Coordinates of the Point in the command bar, let it be 1000,1000,1000.
Press the Enter key and an AutoCAD point is created at 1000,1000 with an elevation of 1000, see the animated gif above for reference. If you want to verify the coordinates of the point you can do that using the Property Palette.
Select the Point, Right Click, select Properties from the menu. Values which we used to create this point are shown against the labels Position X, Position Y, Position Z as shown in the image below.
The sequence of commands used to create the point can be replicated approximately 10,000 times to create all the points but obviously, it can’t be done manually and this is where the Excel formula comes into the picture. The flow of command for POINT looks like this on the command bar history.
Here is the flow of the command shown in the image above.
Command: POINT
Current point modes: PDMODE=0 PDSIZE=0.0000
Specify a point: 1000,1000,1000
In our Excel sheet, X,Y,Z Coordinates of Point 1 are in the cells B2, C2 and D2 respectively.
From the command history, it is clear that the syntax for creating a point in AutoCAD is POINT X,Y,Z. So for 10,000 points, this value should be repeated for as many times. The resulting data should look like data inside the red box of the image below.
For creating a point using the coordinates given in the cells B2, C2 and D2, we have to join the data in the cells B2, C2 & D2 preceded by POINT command and we can use CONCATENATE function in Excel to join the strings.
In the image above the CONCATENATE function is used to join the strings, for your reference I am writing the complete formula here as well.
=CONCATENATE(“POINT “,B3,”,”,C3,”,”,D3) is the formula to join the 5 strings listed below.
- POINT (AutoCAD Command)
- “ “(Space Character)
- B2 (the cell containing the X Coordinate)
- C2 (the cell containing the Y Coordinate)
- D2 (the cell containing the Z Coordinate)
And the result is POINT X,Y,Z, The formula can be copied into the downward cells using the fill handle feature in Excel.
Copy this data, Open an AutoCAD drawing and Paste it into the command bar as shown in the animated gif below.
And by doing that and we just created around 10000 points. To cross check the total number of points created, Select all (Ctrl+A is the shortcut for selecting all objects in an AutoCAD drawing), Right click for the Properties palette and there you can see the total number of points in the drawing.
We can also use Command Aliases in the formula, command Alias for Point Command is PO. The formula will then become, =CONCATENATE(“PO “,B3,”,”,C3,”,”,D3)
There is also another method which works in a similar way and it makes use of the script file of AutoCAD.
Again, let’s assume we have our coordinate data in an excel sheet in three columns namely X, Y and Z (or Northing, easting and elevation if you prefer). Now copy data from all of these cells then open Notepad or any other simple text editor and paste the complete data in it, this process is shown in the video below.
How To Import Points Into Autocad 2017
You data will look like the image shown below, with lots of spaces between the values of respective cells. We need to replace the spaces here with the comma. Select the space between respective cell entries and go to the edit menu of Notepad and select the Replace option.
Now in the replace with field, type “,” (without quotes) and press replace all button and close the replace window, take reference of animated gif shown below.
Now type _MULTIPLE_POINT in the first line of the notepad text just before the coordinate values and then go to file menu then save as option and save the file with .scr format. You can give it any name you want, in this example, I am using point.scr as the notepad file name.
Now we can import these points pretty easily in AutoCAD using SCRIPT command. Type SCRIPT then press Enter key in your AutoCAD command bar and then locate the scr file you created in the example above and click on Open button.
The points will be added in the drawing, the point command will also remain active which you can deactivate by pressing the ESC key.
That was all, I hope you have found this article useful. If you have questions related to the article feel free to let me know in the comments below.
References: Autodesk knowledge network article
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Import point data from an ASCII (text) file or a Microsoft® Access .mdb file into a drawing.
Importing points, such as survey point data collected by a data collector, is a quick and effective way to place points into a drawing.
Before you import points, you must create a point file format that describes the layout of the point data in the point data file.
For more information, see About Point File Formats.
Important: The highest point number allowed in Civil 3D is 4,294,967,295. You can use point names or User Defined Properties to reference numbers greater than 4,294,967,295. For more information, see About Using Custom Properties With Points.
You can add the imported points to a point group, make adjustments to the data as it is imported, including elevation adjustments, coordinate transformation, or coordinate data expansion, encounter how the imported points are numbered as they are created.
- Specify the Point Identity settings, which control the point numbers of the created points. For more information, see To Edit the Import Options Settings.
- Click Home tabCreate Ground Data panelPoints menuPoint Creation ToolsFind.
- On the Create Points toolbar, click the Import Points button.
- In the Import Points dialog box, click , and select the point data files you want to import. After you have specified a point file, the Specify Point File Format list is filtered by the file types that are potential matches for the file that you selected.Note: To toggle off or on the file format filter, click .Based on the specified point file format, the selected point file is parsed and a preview is displayed in the Preview area.
- Select the appropriate point file format. The display of the Preview area changes to reflect the currently selected point file format and the contents of the selected point file.
- Optionally, specify a point group to which the imported points are added.
- Optionally, specify advanced options for elevation adjustment, coordinate transformation, or coordinate data expansion.
- Click OK to import the points.