Ever looked at the catalogue in Plant 3D,

Saw the massive amount of data and wished there was a way to mass edit it all?

Wouldn’t it be great to reuse some existing data like certain pipe fittings and tweak the details to suite your needs?

You can accomplish quite a bit using Excel.

You can copy a similar component, from one catalogue and into your catalog,

By finding the component you wish to copy in the source catalogue,

Right click it and selecting Copy on the menu. (Or select the component and use Ctrl+C to copy)

Then select the catalogue you wish to use,

Right click in the Catalog Browser area and select Paste off of the menu. (Or use Ctrl+V)

The new component should now have been copied across to your catalog.

Note the details in the top right, we have to change this to suite or needs.

Select Export to Excel button on the top menu, to open the catalog in Excel.

The Export Data menu should pop up,

You can choose to export just the components you are currently viewing or the entire catalog.

(This may take a while to export depending on how large your catalog is)

Then you can select the location of exported file by browsing there.

I am leaving it in the default location and set the File name to: MyCatalog

Then select Save.

Select OK to continue.

The Exporting screen should display.

Once this is done…

Nothing happens…

Not to worry! We just have to got to the folder location where we saved the file on our system,

Find it and open it.

When you open the file,

Each component is on a separate sheet.

You can see all the data that makes up the exported components in these sheets,

From Icons, to the dimensions used to create the objects and all other information related to that current component sheet.

You will probably need to browse the sheets to find the correct one.

When you have located the sheet,

You may need to use the bar to scroll to the correct data columns.

In this example, The data we are after is in columns AB, AD, AE.

Though this can be done to any of the cells,

be careful of what you modify, as it can break the part if you specify something that does not exist.

To do a mass edit across the sheet,

We can make our life easy by using Excel’s built in Find &Select feature,

You can find it on the Home Tab > Editing Panel

Then on the menu, select Replace.

The Find and Replace menu should open,

In the top field: ‘Find what:’Enter the data that you wish to replace

In the field below: ‘Replace With:’ Enter the new data that you wish to replace the above data with.

Then select the Replace All button.

You should encounter this error, select the OK button but Don’t close the Find and replace Menu.

The sheet is automatically protected on export,

To unprotect the sheet,

You have to go to the Review tab > Protect panel,

Select Unprotect Sheet.

Now you should be able to edit the sheet,

Select the Replace All button again.

The confirmation window should display, note that it shows the amount of replaced items.

Select the OK button.

Note that the all of the DIN 2605 entries were replaced by SA.

When you have completed your edits,

Save and close the Excel document.

Go back to your Spec Editor, in the Catalog Editor Tab.

Select the Import from Excel button on the top menu.

Browse to and select the Excel document we have exported prior and edited.

Select the Open button.

The Verification and Importation should then begin.

The Resolve Excel Import Changes menu should open,

This is to show and allow you to accept or deny any changes that were made from the import.

Check the Only show parts with changes checkbox in the bottom left corner. This condenses the data and makes editing easier.

Expand the list on the left until you get to the component we have modified, everything with changes should be highlighted in yellow.

Note all the changed Yellow cells.

If the changed data is correct, you can accept the changes either using the Accept the change to a single cell or selection, or you can select Accept all changes.

Then select the Apply button below.

Then the OK button.

The details should display, it may take a while if there were a lot of changes to update.

If it does not display, try Saving and going into the Sizes tab

Try selecting another size on the list, this should force it to update.

The changes should occur after you update your spec file.

Thank you for reading and hope this helps you in your Spec editing journey.