Help requested (quite long!)

[Lee Davison]

Hi,
A bit of background on my dilemma from my previous post in comp.programming
below:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------
"Im hoping someone on here can help with the following as I am fishing for
ideas and help.
Let me give you a bit of background first; At work we have an in house
software program designed for sizing pipe systems. This produces a parts
list which can then be printed. You might have 5 of these to make one 'job'.
Due to over-ordering of materials recently, we now have to open each parts
list for the job and put the quantities into an excel spreadsheet which
gives us an overall material list for that job. This is okay on smaller jobs
of 2 - 3 systems, but larger 30 - 40 systems can take days of reading parts
lists and typing the quants into an excel spreadsheet.

Thats the background, heres the hard bit. The program we use for sizing pipe
is incompatible with any other program, you can print / view data to your
hearts content but we are not allowed to get #inside# the program.
I need to create / copy / download / beg / borrow a program which can read
the parts list and paste it into corresponding cells in the excel
spreadsheet.
We can print it in pdf form if that is of any use. Does anyone have any
ideas?
Im fairly computer literate but not so much in programming. Let me know if I
can supply any further information, im willing to work at this until I find
a solution.
Thanks for your help,
Lee"

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------

I have managed to get the data off the pdf file into a text file, then into
excel, what I dont know is how to tell excel to put certain data in certain
locations before the data hits the sheet. Im told this is called parsing?
Can anyone advise / point me in the direction of tutorials so I can read
further into this and eventually give it a go.
thanks
Lee

 

[bigwheel]

I have managed to get the data off the pdf file into a text file, then into
excel, what I dont know is how to tell excel to put certain data in certain
locations before the data hits the sheet. Im told this is called parsing?
Can anyone advise / point me in the direction of tutorials so I can read
further into this and eventually give it a go.
thanks
Lee

Could be you can achieve your objective by using the "Text to Columns"
option under the Data menu. Use "space" as the delimiter and each word will
be "parsed" into separate columns. Hope it helps ...

 

[AlfD]

Hi!

Can you post a sample of the sort of output you have been able to get
into Excel?
A couple of lines or so might help.

Sounds like you've done the hard bit...

Alf

 

[Fredrik Wahlgren]

Hi,
A bit of background on my dilemma from my previous post in comp.programming
--
---------------
"Im hoping someone on here can help with the following as I am fishing for
ideas and help.
Let me give you a bit of background first; At work we have an in house
software program designed for sizing pipe systems. This produces a parts
list which can then be printed. You might have 5 of these to make one 'job'.
Due to over-ordering of materials recently, we now have to open each parts
list for the job and put the quantities into an excel spreadsheet which
gives us an overall material list for that job. This is okay on smaller jobs
of 2 - 3 systems, but larger 30 - 40 systems can take days of reading parts
lists and typing the quants into an excel spreadsheet.

Thats the background, heres the hard bit. The program we use for sizing pipe
is incompatible with any other program, you can print / view data to your
hearts content but we are not allowed to get #inside# the program.
I need to create / copy / download / beg / borrow a program which can read
the parts list and paste it into corresponding cells in the excel
spreadsheet.
We can print it in pdf form if that is of any use. Does anyone have any
ideas?
Im fairly computer literate but not so much in programming. Let me know if I
can supply any further information, im willing to work at this until I find
a solution.
Thanks for your help,
Lee"

-------------------------------------------------------------------------- --
-----------------

I have managed to get the data off the pdf file into a text file, then into
excel, what I dont know is how to tell excel to put certain data in certain
locations before the data hits the sheet. Im told this is called parsing?
Can anyone advise / point me in the direction of tutorials so I can read
further into this and eventually give it a go.
thanks
Lee

You say that the program you use is an "in house" prgram. To me, that means
that someone at your company has made it and should be able to rewrite the
program so that it creates something that Excel can open, like an xml or cvs
file. Getting the data off a pdf file seems like a bad idea to me.

/Fredrik

 

[Lee Davison]

Part no.


Part description


Size (mm)


Qty
HR075063 Concentric reducer 75.00/63.00 2
HR090075 Concentric reducer 90.00/75.00 1
HR110075 Concentric reducer 110.00/75.00 1
HE075063 Eccentric reducer 75.00/63.00 1



Hi Alf,
Above you should see an extract of what I have been able to typically get
from the pdf file. Each phrase is in its own cell.
We have an excel spreadsheet with every possible item (pipe/reducers etc) on
of every size extract below.
Somehow I need excel to see that im asking it to put (for example) 2 No.
75.00/ 63.00 Concentric Reducers into the specific cell for that item, and I
need it to do it for every item on the list.

See below:

HR050040 50-40
HR063040 63-40
HR063050 63-50
HR075040 75-40
HR075050 75-50
HR075063 75-63 2 in here!
HR090040 90-40
HR090050 90-50
HR090063 90-63
HR090075 90-75 1 in here
HR110040 110-40
HR110050 110-50
HR110063 110-63


I hope this comes out right, ill nip back in when im at work in a few hours,
let me know if I can explain more.
Thanks
Lee

 

[Lee Davison]

You say that the program you use is an "in house" prgram. To me, that means
that someone at your company has made it and should be able to rewrite the
program so that it creates something that Excel can open, like an xml or cvs
file. Getting the data off a pdf file seems like a bad idea to me.

/Fredrik

Its a long story, You are correct, it was written in house, then bad
planning saw the developer leave on bad terms with no obligation to support
the software, leaving us with a ticking bomb that wont go off as long as we
dont mess with it. Quotes for external companies to re-audit the software
range from the price of a 4 bedroomed house to the price of a large farm.
You get the idea. What im trying to acheive in this instance is an internal
check on materials issued, but im trying to find something passive. I work
as part of the design team and one constant cloud over my head is reading
through each piping system parts list and manually inputting the quants onto
an excel spreadsheet. I can spend half a day - each day monotonously
transerring information rather than doing my designs. Its nice to have a
break from AutoCAD and calcs but inputting the Excel quants day after day
gets too much. Hence why Im here, in my own persoanl time, trying to find a
solution. Plus I get to be the hero if I manage it (credit to the solution
giver of course! Ill send a memo with your name on lol)

Thanks
Lee

 

[Dennis]

Lee, If you are still following this thread;

1) How are you able to get the information into a .pdf? Are you
scanning it?

2) Are there any export, save-to options?

3) What type of db file is being written?

4) Can the "database" be opened in Notepad or other more-robust text
editor?

Dennis

 

[Dennis]

Lee, If you are still following this thread;

1) How are you able to get the information into a .pdf? Are you
scanning it?

2) Are there any export, save-to options?

3) What type of db file is being written?

4) Can the "database" be opened in Notepad or other more-robust text
editor?

Dennis