Graphs in drawings

[Lazar]

Can anyone out there tell me how to add a graph (e.g. a suppliers Torque Vs. Speed specs) to a Pro/E drawing?



I am using Wildfire, and I played around with inserting an Excel chart into the drawing, but there are a bunch of problems:



1. Pro/E crashes

2. Can't scale the Excel chart properly so that the information is legible/comprehensible

3. Pro/E crashes

4. When I plot the drawing, the graph disappears

5. Sometimes when editing the Excel chart within Pro/E, I cannot exit out of the excel app and back to Pro when I am finished with the chart

6. Pro/E crashes



I am getting very frustrated with Pro/E & Excel right now. I know that this can't be the first time anyone has required a graph on their drawing, but it is the first time that I ever had to do it. So if anyone knows of the old method (i.e. Pre-WF/Excel) I would really appreciate the answer.



Thanks in advance



Lazar

 

[chill2001]

Have you tried to save your graph as a jpeg or a tiff and insert that in. thats the only way i can think of how to do that.

 

[mmead0ws]

If you have enough information to create the table in Excel, have you tried creating a Graph feature in Pro/ENGINEER (Insert > Model Datum > Graph)? Graph features have been around for years and are very stable. You can display the Graph feature on your drawings (Insert > Graph) and it will come out correctly on a printer or ploter.



OLE embedded objects can only be printed through the Windows Print Manager. Plotters don't know what to do with them.

 

[Lazar]

Yeah, I did try the graph feature, but unfortunately, my graph required more than one plot, which would not work in the graph feature (only 1 loop allowed when sketching).



I also tried the inserting a tiff/jpeg, but still did not get the results I had hoped.



What I ended up doing was inserting the Excel chart onto a blank drawing. Scaled it to the desired size, exported a DXF, and then imported the DXF into my drawing. This worked well in terms of presentation and plotting, but it did require some trial & error work to achieve an understandable presentation. Once the DXF was imported, I had to do a bit of cleanup on the resulting graph.



I was satisfied with the work around that I came up with. Now that I know how to get the graph into a drawing, it shouldn't take me as long if I need to do again in the future. However, there has to be an easier way to do this.



I would be curious to know how this was accomplished in Pre-18 versions of Pro/E.

 

[jabbadeus]

OLE, as far as I know, was not available prior to Pro E 2001. And I remember a few software performance issues, especially in the earlier build codes (e.g., Pro E locking up while editting the Excel object).

 

[donha]

18 and prior, you had to draw it, OMG, what a concept

 

[Lazar]

What the deuce? DRAW IT!?!



That is six different kinds of crazy. I will stick with my DXF work-around thank you very much.



Thanks to all that replied.



Lazar