Creating Reports. Autodesk AUTOSKETCH 8

Report generation is one of the primary features that sets AutoSketch apart from a traditional drawing program.

Before you can generate a report, you must enter data. AutoSketch stores a great deal of data in the drawing as you create entities. Graphic properties such as color, style, and width are stored along with the geometric information for each entity. However, reports are only available if fields have been defined. For information on creating fields and storing information in them, see the chapter titled “Storing Data in a Drawing,” which begins on page 333.

Creating a good report is a process of choosing what information to include and to exclude from the report. You want to display the significant data and nothing more. Provide too little information and your report isn’t a useful source of data. Provide too much information and it is difficult to find the pertinent facts.

Creating Reports

AutoSketch generates reports formatted in rows and columns like a spreadsheet. Reports display information you store in the drawing. There are two types of reports: detail and summary. Detail reports display information for every entity in the selection set. Summary reports display information for each symbol definition in the selection set along with a count of the number of instances of each symbol. Summary reports exclude non-symbol entities.

You can display the sum of a column of numeric database fields in a detail report.

You can export information contained in the report fields of a AutoSketch drawing to other applications using the Windows Clipboard. Open the report that you want to export and click Copy. This transfers all the data to the Clipboard in standard text format and comma-separated values. This information can then be pasted into most Windows applications.

Reports operate on the current selection set. If no entities are selected, the report operates on the entire drawing. Additionally, you can include selection criteria in the report to further refine the selection set.

The reports you create are available to all of the drawings you edit on your system. However, for the reports to operate correctly, the drawings you try to generate reports from must have all of the fields used by the report.

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Chapter 28 Retrieving Data From a Drawing

To edit or create a report

1 On the Database menu, click Report. The Database Report dialog box appears.

2 Click the Reports page tab.

3 Click Create to create a new report, or select a report and click Edit to edit an existing report. The Create Database Report or Edit Database Report dialog box appears.

4 Enter a title in the Report Title text box. This title appears in the Reports dialog box and at the top of printed reports.

5 (optional) Enter the text you want to appear in the report footer in the

User Text text box.

6 Click a field from the Available Fields list box and click Add or Insert.

Insert places the new field directly above the highlighted field while Add places the new field directly below.

7 (optional) Click a field from the Report Fields list box and click Delete to remove a field from the report.

8 In the Report Type section of the dialog box, click the Detail option button or the Summary option button.

9 (optional) In the Selection Criteria section of the dialog box, click Change to change the selection set for this report. The Selection Modifier window appears. For more information on the Selection Modifier, see “Using the

Selection Modifier” on page 252.

10 Click OK. The Custom Report Column Configuration dialog box appears.

11 (optional) Enter new text in the Column Head cell for the field you want to change.

12 In the Editable column, check the check boxes for any fields you want to be able to directly edit in the report.

13 Click Close to exit the Custom Report Column Configuration dialog box.

14 Click Close to exit the Database Report dialog box.

To view a report

1 On the Database menu, click Report. The Database Report dialog box appears.

2 Click the Reports page tab.

3 Click the report you want to view, then click Report to display the report.

If no reports appear in the list, you must create a new report.

4 (optional) Click the Total button to total the columns of the report.

5 (optional) Click the Print button to print the report.

Creating Reports

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