Useful and easy command: DATALINK

DATALINK is used to link table to data in Microsoft Excel files such as XLS, XLSX or CSV.

To put it simply, we insert a Excel table into the current drawing as an table object, this table is associated with the original Excel file, which means that if the Excel file changes the table inserted in the CAD drawing will change accordingly.

How to access DATALINK

Enter command “DATALINK”, as shown in the following picture,

After executing the DATALINK command, the “Data Link Manager” dialog box will pop up, as shown in the following picture,

We can create new Excel DataLink in this dialog box by clicking “Create new Excel DataLink”, then we’re prompted to enter data link name, as shown in the following picture,

After naming the data link, we’ll be prompted to select an Excel file in the popped up dialog box,

* From Table command

When we open the “Insert Table” dialog box using Table command, there would be a “From a data link” option where we can select a data link, as shown in the following picture,