Data panel

Sets from Excel

Export every selection set to a workbook, one row per condition, or import a workbook back as new sets.

What it does#

Round-trips selection sets through an Excel workbook. Export to review a model's sets in a spreadsheet or hand them to someone, edit the rows, and import them back as new sets, or carry a library of standard sets from one federated model to the next.

How to use it#

1. Click Sets from Excel and choose Export or Import.
2. Export asks where to save an .xlsx and writes one row per search condition. A set with several conditions repeats its folder and name once per condition. A set with no conditions, including a static set, still gets a row with the condition columns blank so it stays visible.
3. Import asks for a workbook, checks every row before touching the document, prints any problems to the output window and refuses if there are any, and otherwise creates the sets behind a progress window you can cancel.

Limitations#

• Search sets only travel as their conditions. A static set exports as a name with no conditions and is skipped on import, because its members belong to the original file.
• Import creates new sets; it does not update sets that already exist with the same name.
• Property names must match what the target model calls them. A set that searches for "Level" in one exporter's vocabulary finds nothing in another's.

Other uses#

• An office standard: keep one workbook of the sets every project should have and import it into each new federated model.
• Review a model's sets without opening the model: the workbook reads as a list.