Many companies store information in spreadsheets that can be used in a drawing set. These can be in the form of a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet which can be used for scheduling or having the BOM information in a table format. Now, instead of creating a table in the AutoCAD software and filling it in from scratch, you can bring in the Excel file into your AutoCAD drawing file. This can be done by creating a table in AutoCAD that is linked to an Excel spreadsheet. This linking has some advantages such as:
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The imported table uses the formatting from the Excel file.
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Changes made to the linked Excel file can be automatically updated in the AutoCAD table.
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You can make changes to the AutoCAD table contents and save them back to the Excel file.
You can create a data link to the Excel file using two methods:
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Table command
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Data Link Manager
Using the Table command
A table that is created using the Table command can be linked to an entire Excel spreadsheet, a single cell, or a range of cells through the Table command itself.
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In the Home tab>Annotation panel or Annotate tab>Tables panel, click
(Table) to start the Table command.
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In the Insert Table dialog box, select the From a data link option.
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Click
(Launch the Data Link Manager dialog) to open the Select a Data Link dialog box.
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In the Select a Data Link dialog box, select Create a new Excel Data Link.
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In the Enter Data Link Name dialog box, type a name for the link and click OK.
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In the New Excel Data Link dialog box, you can select a file in the list or click
(Browse) to browse for a file.
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In the Save As dialog box, select a file and click Open.
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In the New Excel Data Link dialog box, specify the various link options.
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You can select a sheet (if there are several in the spreadsheet) and then link the entire sheet, a named range, or specify a range of cells.
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When you have finished selecting options, click OK.
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In the Select a Data Link dialog box, verify that the link to the table you want to use is selected and click OK.
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In the Insert Table dialog box, click OK.
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Pick an insertion point on the sheet to insert the Excel spreadsheet as an AutoCAD table.
Using the Data Link Manager
If you know that you are going to link several files in your drawing, you can set them up in the
Data Link Manager before you start the Table command.
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In the Annotate tab>Tables panel or Insert tab>Linking & Extraction panel, click
(Link Data).
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In the Data Link Manager, select Create a new Excel Data Link.
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Expand the New or Modify Excel Data Link dialog box to display the extra options for modifying and creating data links, including cell content and formatting.
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Select Allow writing to source file to write modified data from the AutoCAD file to the source file.
Updating Table Links
You can update table data in two directions in a linked table, in the current drawing.
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In the shortcut menu, use the Update Table Data Links option to update the AutoCAD table from the source. Use Write Data Links to External Source to write the AutoCAD data to the source (this only works if Allow writing to source file is selected in the Cell contents area, in the New or Modify Excel Data Link dialog box).
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In the Annotate tab>Tables panel or Insert tab>Linking & Extraction panel, you can also use
(Download from Source) to update the linked table data from the external source file and 
(Upload to Source) to update the linked data in the external source file from the current AutoCAD table.
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The Data Link Has Changed bubble displays when the AutoCAD software detects that a linked file has been modified.
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In the Status Bar, right-click on
(Data Link), and either open the Data Links dialog box or update all data links.
In this blog post, I showed you how to use the Data Linking feature in AutoCAD which not only allows you to bring in the information from an Excel file into AutoCAD, but also updates the AutoCAD table if any changes are made to the Excel file at a later time. Conversely, if you edit the AutoCAD table, this feature writes it back to the spreadsheet as well. For more information on this topic, the Data Linking feature is covered in our AutoCAD 2025 Advanced learning guide.
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