Tips for reports and report templates

There are some things that you might consider to be able to create reports more efficiently.

Select objects to include in a report using GUIDs

You can select objects to be included in reports by using their GUIDs (globally unique identifiers).

In Template Editor, create a template that is used for creating the report:
1. In Tekla Structures, on the File menu, click Editors > Template Editor.
2. In Template Editor, click File > New.
3. Select Textual template and click OK.
4. Add a row for the GUID.
  - Click Insert > Component > Row.
    
    Select a content type for the row and clicking OK.
  - Click Insert > Text and enter the text guid:, Guid: or GUID:. Click OK.
    
    This enables the selecting of objects in the model.
  - Click Insert > Value Field. Click a point to define the location of the field within the row. The Select Attribute dialog box appears prompting you to select an attribute for the value field.
    
    Select the attribute GUID and click OK.
5. Add the required amount of other rows in the template.
6. Click File > Save As .
  
  Enter a name for the template and browse to the folder that has been defined templates for the advanced option XS_TEMPLATE_DIRECTORY. Use the file name extension .rpt.
Create a report based on the report template you saved.
1. On the Drawings & reports tab, click Reports.
2. Select the report template you created from the list.
3. Click Create from all.
  
  Tekla Structures displays the report.
Click a row that contains an GUID number in the report.

Tekla Structures selects the corresponding object in the active model view.

Show report content in correct cells

You can associate Tekla Structures to open reports of a certain type in Microsoft Excel. When you open such reports in Microsoft Excel, the report template rows might not be divided correctly into cells. To correct this, you can add tabs between the cells.

Open an existing report template in Template Editor.
Add \t between the text and value fields. For example:
Save the report.

The output in Microsoft Excel:

The output in a text editor:

Tip:

Alternatively, you can use a comma or semicolon as a delimiter between the text fields. However, the default delimeter may vary between users, and the output might not be readable in all text editors.

Add cell separator in Excel reports

You Tekla Structures installation contains reports that can be opened in Microsoft Excel. These reports have the file extension *.csv.rpt.

If you have your own Excel reports in Tekla Structures with the file extension *.csv.rpt, you can add the text sep=; on the page header row in the report templates. This forces Microsoft Excel to open the file using the ; character as the cell separator, and ensures the correct separation of the cells in Microsoft Excel. The ";" character is automatically recognized as the separator, regardless of the language you are using.

After this addition, the default delimiter no longer depends on you Windows regional settings.