I lay a lot of gas lines down, and they are rarely ever a straight shot from point a to point b, so we use polylines and do segmented zig zags across our maps. This works fine, except I have been tasked with taking an inventory of each line in our system. I have to go through all of our maps and manually pull all info off of each line and record it into excel. I can not do this with the way our system is currently. I would like to set this up so that in the future, recording inventory will take a fraction of the time. I want to make it so that when I draw my polyline, it asks me to define attributes like you would do a block. Then I can put in all of my vital information and when the time comes I can run data extraction, and have all of the information sent to an excel spreadsheet in a couple of minutes. I was going to make a block or a dynamic block to do this, but the polylines are so different that it just doesn't seem feasible to do it this way. some are only 30 feet long, others are 21,000. I can't make and save a block for every line I draw, so is there a way to simply add attributes to a Pline I've just drawn? I've also considered entering my parameters in the properties, but I would like it to prompt me for the information much like it does the attributes when you insert a block. Any help is appreciated.

 

I need attributes, or some form of text values, that I can directly associate with the drawn polyline. Then when inventory time comes next year I can run data extraction and be done very quickly. A standard block will not work as it is frozen and this "block"/polyline will differ each time it is used. A dynamic block may be possible but it has yet to make a solution apparent.

 

I find it hard to believe that this isn't something that is done fairly commonly. Someone has to have done this before. Even if there is a lisp routine to run a polyline and convert it to a block or something. I've just exhausted everything I can think of. It's driving me crazy.

I am an accountant who spent years as a computer programmer and have a possible solution.

I would keep all my data in an Excel spread sheet.

Then enter the data in the AutoCAD drawings as a SCHEDULE. 

Draftsmen and Architects use schedules all the time as OLE objects with outside references.

You keep all your data, locations, lengths, maintenance in Excel and access it from AutoCAD.