Array Text from excel / .csv

I have an issue that I hope someone can help me with.

I need to label 100+ pieces that I plan to laser engrave all with unique text. I have an excel file with all the text in 5 columns.

So I have a design file:

First Name

Last Name

Job Title

Location

Number

And I have an excel file with the input information (for example row 1 is John, Smith, Musician, Memphis, 036782).

Can anyone help me create a grasshopper file that would take the original layout I have in Rhino and array them with the excel or .csv information? Do not have a huge budget but willing to pay if someone can help me with this. I promised to make this for someone before realizing I would need to change each piece.

Please let me know if someone can help and what they would charge.

Thank you,

Mathew

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by David Rutten on September 22, 2015 at 3:06pm

Can you upload (part of) the csv file?

Permalink Reply by Mathew Owen on September 22, 2015 at 4:40pm

David,

Thank you for the fast reply. I attached the basic Rhino layout file as an example and a part of the excel sheet with the names.

I have spent quite a few hours trying to figure this out, any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you,

Mathew

Attachments:

grasshopperarraylayout.3dm, 25 KB
grasshopperarray.xlsx, 12 KB

Permalink Reply by Mathew Owen on September 22, 2015 at 4:46pm

Sorry, last file was a .xlsx file. Here tis the .csv (if it matters much).

Attachments:

grasshopperarray.csv, 1 KB

Permalink Reply by martyn hogg on September 22, 2015 at 5:59pm

This is close (and messy) but i'm out of time tonight...

It lets you set the size of the label, the width of the material sheet you will cut from, the position of each item of text.

I've not managed to get the formatting quite right.

You will probably want to set the size of each text field.

Possibly set the font?

It uses a text component from the Bowerbird plugin so you will need to download and install that.

etc etc

But it's a start. I'll have another look tomorrow if no one else comes up with anything.

Attachments:

LaserLabelArray.gh, 25 KB

Permalink Reply by martyn hogg on September 23, 2015 at 3:00am

OK, this should do it.

The only font choice is either a line font or a bold font which can be switched with a toggle.

You can set the size and position of everything.

You need to change the path to the CSV file to match whatever it is on your PC

Be aware that it organises the labels in an array size depending on the width of the labels and the width of the material. If there are spaces left it just duplicates the last label to fill the row so you should check these and delete them from the final layout.

In theory you could modify the label to add more data or an image, for example, by copying the components that place the "ART & MUSIC EVENT" text

If you need specific fonts I think you will have to find a plugin that has the same inputs and replace the Bowerbird Text component.

Don't forget to download and install Bowerbird.

Attachments:

LaserLabelArray.gh, 20 KB

Permalink Reply by martyn hogg on September 23, 2015 at 3:04am

Oh, also be aware that it isn't sizing the text to fit. That is probably possible but for now just check for long data fields that might not fit. You can then decide whether to adjust the size for all of them or do a manual adjust on any that don't fit after baking the geometry into Rhino.

Permalink Reply by Mathew Owen on September 26, 2015 at 7:41pm

Martyn,

I only just saw this reply. My apologies for the slow response, I did not think someone would reply so quickly!!

This looks amazing. What do you think about adding the font? Do you think this would be possible? Adding a font and font size would make this a perfect tool, especially if it could be constrained within the boundaries of the card.

Thank you,

Mathew

Permalink Reply by martyn hogg on September 28, 2015 at 5:15am

I had a quick look at how to size the text to fit the width of each "label"... With the Bowerbird text component it outputs several curves but it might be possible to group each line of text curves, work out the width of the whole group and then scale to fit.

I will also have a look at font plugins.

It would be quite a useful tool, I think the addition of an image would be nice too so you can add a logo to each label!

Permalink Reply by martyn hogg on September 28, 2015 at 2:09pm

OK, I found a font component with some choice of fonts... FAB Tools

This gives you a choice of 9 fonts but they are all line fonts designed for CNC engraving or laser cutting and don't get too fancy! CamBam fonts! CamBam is really good value CAM software btw.

I think if you use the GH text tag then you get text that you can then set in Rhino but this could end up taking a long time to do if you have hundreds of labels. Just change the EngraveText components for TextTag components and experiment.

Also added a scaling function that scales the width of the text so it won't go wider than the label width minus the margin. You should still keep an eye on this though because if someone from the little known Welsh town of Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch then their label will look a bit squashed!

Attachments: