Making a searchable database

[Tricia LeAnn]

I work at a place where we have tubes that hold old engineering drawings.
Anytime we need to retrieve one of the old drawings, we have to search
through notebooks looking for particular part numbers in order to find the
drawing we are looking for.

I thought if I could make a list of all the drawing numbers and all the
tubes, it would be a lot easier to be able to type them in Excel and find the
tube number instead of having to flip through 3 huge binders.

The only problem is, I have NO IDEA how to do this! If anyone could help me
I would greatly appreciate it!!

Best wishes- Tricia LeAnn

 

[JP]

Unfortunately if all you have are notebooks, you will have to assign
someone the manual work of typing in the part numbers.

What you could do is put the part number in column A, and the
corresponding tube location/name in column B, you could use a VLOOKUP
formula to assist you.

For example, enter the part number in C1, and in D1 put
=VLOOKUP(C1,A:B,2,FALSE) to return the corresponding tube name for the
part number you entered in C1.

Without having an example or any more information about your problem,
this is all the assistance I can provide at this time.


HTH,
JP

 

[FSt1]

hi
Based on what you have posted, i think you have a large project ahead of you.
the three binders you mentioned. you will have to enter all of that into the
xl file.
yeah, i know.....HUH!!!!!
I would be nice if you drawings and tube were bar coded. that would really
speed up input. or if you could download....but that would mean that someone
else has already done the input.
enter the data by drawing numbers in a column and it's corrosponding tube id
on the same row. include the drawing discription.(few people commit id
numbers to memory but discripiton are easier to remember.) include other info
that might be usefull. like dates of drawings and anything else that might
help id the drawing.
and each time you have a new drawing.....new entry
you can then use a number of xl tools to find the info.
Find..filter..sort...other.

Good luck.
Regards
FSt1
You can then use a number of

 

[CLR]

I agree with what JP has related, but would add that you also include a
"Description" column. With this, you could use the Autofilter to find items
having the same word within their descriptions.........like all "brackets",
or all "elbows", etc...this would help in locating the part you want. The
results will be well worth the effort to get this all into a database.

Vaya con Dios,
Chuck, CABGx3

 

[Tricia LeAnn]

Ok. This all makes sense. And you are all right. I have to enter all of it!
By myself! It will probably take a freakin year to do because these are
drawings that date all the way back to 1966.. There are about 140 tubes, and
about 100 drawings per tube. But, it will help us to save time in finding
them when I am done with it. Thank you all for your help.

 

[CLR]

If your company is in a position to do it......this kind of thing makes good
"night fodder" for employees to take home and do at night for extra
money.........or you might even consider some Temporary folks in for a while
to help with the data entry.


Good luck,
Vaya con Dios,
Chuck, CABGx3

 

[JP]

At least you will only have to do it once.


HTH,
JP

 

[Bob I]

If you really want to do it right, you scan in an image of the drawing
and include a hyperlink to the file in your lookup database. Then you
may view the image on line or print copies without ever touching the
real paper. Public example at link below.

http://www.co.olmsted.mn.us/maps/county_subdivision_images.asp

 

[Tricia LeAnn]

See... the only problem with this is that I am the secretary. I am in no
position to make anyone else do the work. Darn it..

 

[Tricia LeAnn]

Ok. One more thing.

Here is an example of what I have to do. Can you tell me how to put it into
excel?

Part #105610 is also Drawing #156-C-102. Those are the 2 numbers we use to
locate the tube numbers or letters. The tube letter for this particular part
#/drawing # is Tube B.

 

[CLR]

In A1 put PARTNUMBER
In B1 put DRAWINGNUMBER
In C1 put TUBENUMBER
In D1 put DESCRIPTION
In E1 put DATE
In F1 put REMARKS
Note: you can change the order of the columns to suit..........

In A2 put 105610
In B2 put 156-C-102
In C2 put B
In D2 put a description of the part
In E2 put some representative date, today if nothing else
In F2 put any short remark that will help locate the part, or whatever

Then in row 3 you can enter the next part, etc etc............

Just remember to save every so often so you won't lose everything if
something goes wrong.......

Vaya con Dios,
Chuck, CABGx3

In A2 put 105610

 

[Tricia LeAnn]

Ok. That makes sense. So then do I just use "Find" under the Edit menu to
find the references?

Thank you so much for all of your help. It is greatly appreciated. Heck,
you might even be helping me get a raise!

 

[CLR]

Or you can get creative using the Data > Filter > Autofilter > Custom >
"contains"......it will do some really neat things...........

Vaya con Dios,
Chuck, CABGx3