How to Export AutoCAD Parts to Excel

If you model furniture in AutoCAD, sooner or later you need the parts as a list — a bill of materials for the workshop: length, width, thickness, quantity, edge banding. AutoCAD has no built-in command that does this from 3D solids — which is why most workshops still measure and type by hand.

Why DATAEXTRACTION is not enough

AutoCAD's DATAEXTRACTION can extract object properties and create tables or external files, but it does not turn a 3D furniture model into a production-ready parts list with the manufacturing information WoodPrep needs — such as finished part dimensions, grain direction, edge banding and drilling information.

Finished part dimensions
Grain direction
Edge banding per edge
Drilling information

These are production decisions, not geometry. They have to be recorded while you go through the parts — which is exactly the step that is missing.

The practical way: read the solids directly

What is needed is a command that walks the 3D solids in the drawing, measures each one, lets you record the production data that geometry alone cannot know — edge banding, grain direction, description — and writes the result where Excel can pick it up.

That is what the PP26 command in WoodPrep does. You pick parts in any order, and they land in the cutting list in exactly that order.

Selecting parts one by one — size read from the solid, description, quantity and edge banding entered per part. Hover to play, click to enlarge.

Step by step

Draw as you normally would

No special blocks, no attributes, no naming convention. The 3D solids you already have are the input.

Run PP26 and pick a part

The size is read from the solid itself. You add what the geometry cannot tell: description, quantity, edge banding on each of the four edges, and whether the grain may be rotated during cutting optimization.

Or let it walk the whole cabinet

The CABINET command runs the same process on every part of a carcass automatically, so nothing is left out. Parts on hardware layers are skipped.

Import into Excel

Open the companion workbook and click Import Parts. The full list appears with sizes, quantities and edge banding — ready to send to the saw or to the supplier.

Collecting every board part in the drawing and importing the finished list into Excel.

What you end up with

Cutting size for every part, read from the geometry rather than measured
Edge banding recorded per edge, not guessed later
Identical parts grouped with quantities filled in
An Excel sheet you can hand over, price, or send to the panel saw

No re-drawing in another program, no retyping. The drawing you already made is the source.

Try it on your own drawing

14-day free trial, no credit card. If it works for you, subscribe — if not, just don't.

Download the free trial