Engineering question: macro & images

[123wc]

Hi there!

I have a structural post that's fixed. It accepts 2 type of clips: clips A and clips B.

Clips A can be located at a customized position, e.g.: 32" AFF (Away From Floor), 64" AFF, 72" AFF, etc.

Clips B are located 3" away from clips A, e.g. Clips A=32" AFF-->Clips B=35" AFF; Clips A=64" AFF-->Clips B=67" AFF; Clips A=72" AFF-->Clips B=75" AFF
BUT, Clips B are not always required! If Clips A=32" AFF for glass application, then Clips B are not required! If Clips A=32 AFF for solid application, then Clips B are required!

As you can tell every time the customer has a different wall elevation we have to make a new dwg's for the structural post so the floor staff know how to locate the clips! So far we have over 1,800 dwg's for this structural post just because of the different customized elevations!
I am wondering if instead of making a new SolidWorks assembly, then SolidWorks dwg, then save the SolidWorks dwg as a PDF dwg...I am wondering if I can just make it in Excel!

The structural post doesn't have to be in SolidWorks, we can insert an image of it in Excel, and insert images of Clips A and Clips B in Excel too. Then I can create a macro (with A LOT of your help of course) that places these images at the correct location (e.g. Clips A=32" AFF-->Clips B=35" AFF, etc) by the user filling up fields: e.g. FIELD 1=[32]" AFF, Glass option yes[] no [], etc.
And hopefully even "dimension" them! It doesn't have to be an accurate dimension as long as it is showing (32" AFF).

Is this even possible? Or am I asking too much?

Thank you for your help! Any tips is much appreciated

Years ago I worked as an engineering intern and I got a lot help from this forum. So I am back seeking help

PS: I don't even know how to start this project!

[MrShorty]

Does it have to use a macro? Perhaps only because I am not good at working with images and trying to figure out what pixel is where in a shape, I would be more inclined to do this without macros. I would be inclined to use a scatter chart with the main building picture as the background.

This is not something I do a lot of, but I would start by:

1) Create a scatter chart from some random data
2) Attach the picture to the plot area: https://support.office.com/en-us/art...8-EFE6CB858D10
3) I expect one would need to fix the axis limits so that the coordinates of the axis system will not change relative to the background picture.
4) Build you spreadsheet to calculate the location of the clips in the XY scatter chart.
5) Plot those values on the chart and attach the clip pictures to the data markers of those series (see above help file).

If you do step 4 right, you should then be able to make any changes to the requirements in the spreadsheet and the position of the clips should adjust accordingly in the chart.

Maybe one idea of how to approach this kind of problem.

[123wc]

Thank you. No, it doesn't have to be a macro. Any idea is welcome. I am researching this right now.

Here's my question. The structural post will be the background image. What will be used for Clips A and Clips B? Just dots? Or images of Clips A and Clips B?

[MrShorty]

As I indicated in step 5, I was envisioning that you would use pictures of clips A and B (the help file describes how to attach pictures to several different chart elements, including data series markers), though you could just as easily (or more easily) use any of the built in marker styles. It would be up to you to choose which is most visually useful for you.