FC Spreadsheets: Using "external" spreadsheets

[last updated: 2025-09-17]
Disclaimers

external spreadsheet procedures

FreeCAD home page
Spreadsheet WB

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• What exactly are you doing?
  When you have a drawing using the Spreadsheet workbench, you usually create a spreadsheet "in" the drawing.
  That is, the spreadsheet that contains all your parameters, and the drawing itself, with your sketches and features, are both in the same .FCStd file.
  So when you save the .FCStd file, your are saving both your drawing and your spreadsheet of parameters at the same time.

  
  Using an "external" spreadsheet means that the spreadsheet itself is in a separate file (maybe .FCStd, maybe .csv, maybe something else...)
  from your drawing sketches and features.
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• Why would you want to do this?
  Your model, perhaps an assembly of many bodies, is getting too large,
  and recompute times are dragging, perhaps it is taxing the limits of your PC.
  At least that's why I've needed to do it...

• As of now, I know of three ways to do this:
  • Use spreadsheet import/export
  • do the csv file thing recommended on the web
  • save your spreadsheet in a separate drawing file, and open/load it into any drawing where you want to use it

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• 3 ways...
  • Use spreadsheet import/export:
    • in Spreadsheet WB:
      Open/view a tab in your drawing main window of the spreadsheet you want to export.
          If your drawing itself is shown in your main window, then the "export spreadsheet" option will be grayed out and unavailable in the spreadsheet menu.
      Spreadsheet --> Export spreadsheet
      enter/select location and name, click Save
    • This will create a file at the location you specified. It will not have an extension, however it will open as a text file, showing all the cells that were in your spreadsheet.
    • If you now do: spreadsheet --> import
      and select your newly saved, text spreadsheet file,
      it will create a new spreadsheet in the model tree of your drawing.
      formatting (cell colors, column widths, etc) will not be preserved.
      alias' will not be preserved.
      Alias' not preserved??? Cell formatting not preserved???
      I surely may be missing something, but in my current understanding,
      I don't know why you'd want to use this method...

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  • Do the csv file thing recommended on the web:
    • I confess I have not tried this.
    • OTOH it just looks way convoluted. Maybe I'm missing something...
    • Basically (I think) it is a variation on previous method using import/export.

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  • Save your spreadsheet in a separate drawing file, and open/load it into any drawing where you want to use it:
    • This is my current method (subject to change as I learn more LOL)
      I confess, in the end it's pretty convoluted too, but it's where I've gotten to in my process, so here I am...
    • Here's the detailed procedures/notes:

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