A definition block starts with a cell value of BEGIN TABLE and ends with END TABLE. This cell is in the first column (A) of the worksheet. The block DEFINITION is used to identify the type of tabular data defined in the block. ModelingGroup, LookUpTable3D, and LookUpTable1D are currently the only supported definition types.

Empty lines are not allowed inside of sub-blocks. Lines between sub-blocks are ignored. When the lay-up is pushed from ACP, the formatting of existing cells is not changed. Missing field in the DATA block are ignored and not set when synchronized with ACP. Hidden cells are not ignored and are synchronized with ACP.

Figure 2.189: ModelingGroup Tabular Format in Excel

In the case of Look-Up Tables, if you add the text string "(Read Only)" to the column name, the corresponding Excel column is ignored.

Figure 2.190: Look-Up Table Tabular Format in Excel

References to other objects (ply material, oriented selection sets, etc.) are defined by the object's ID. In the case of ply material, the type of material and the material's ID are joined with a forward slash (for example, fabrics/E-Glass). For the angle and thickness fields, the column name and the ID of the lookup table must be provided (LookUpTable.1/Angle).

Communication to Excel is accomplished through the COM interface. The identifier used to connect to Excel is Excel.Application.

You can find more information on how to exchange model data with Excel in Edit Entities with Excel.