Importing Materials from EXCEL/OpenOffice

[BillyTheKid]

As of v1.1.0, one can only import a previous saved Material Library.

But as most offices, material lists are first created and handled in Excel/OpenOffice Spreadsheets.

So importing into ORCA3D from a well-formed data table would be very valuable.
A first XLS/CSV export of an Orca Material Library would produce the exact columns awaited, and to be populated by the office datas.

Could you please consider this feature ?

William.

[Admin]

William:

Exporting of the data from the Material Library to a csv file is mostly straightforward, and will be included in the next release.

Formatting and editing of the material data in Excel could be very efficient, and we are looking into providing an import function from a csv file.

We also have started implementation of composite materials (i.e., multiple layers of materials that make up a single material). This complicates both the import and export of csv files, if we want to persist the information that went into the make up of the composite material.

Also, when importing, we need to determine if a material is a new addition to the library, an existing material that has not changed, or an existing material that has been edited.

All of this is on our development list for the next release.

Thank you very much for your suggestions.

Bruce