2012

Table Of Contents
Access a Database from Within Drawings
When you have configured a data source, you can view and edit its records
from within a drawing file.
Configure a Database for Use with Drawing Files
The configuration process involves creating a new data source that points to
a collection of data and provides information about the drivers necessary to
access it.
Before you can access an external database from within the program, you must
configure it using the Microsoft ODBC (Open Database Connectivity) and
OLE DB programs. Using ODBC and OLE DB, the program can utilize data
from other applications, regardless of the format that it's stored in or the
database platform on which it is created.
A data source may be either an individual database table or a collection of
them stored in an environment, catalog, or schema. Environments, catalogs, and
schemas are hierarchical database elements used by most database management
systems that help you organize your data. They are in many ways analogous
to a Windows-based directory structure: you can think of the environment as
a folder that holds additional subdirectories of catalogs. Catalogs in turn
contain additional subdirectories of schemas. Each schema is a collection of
database tables.
The configuration process varies slightly for different database systems. For
example, server-based databases such as Oracle and Microsoft SQL Server
require that you enter a valid user name and password and specify the network
location where the database is located. File-based systems such as Microsoft
Access and dBASE III do not require this information. Because of these
variations, it is not possible to provide a generic configuration procedure that
works for all databases. Individual procedures for configuring all the databases
that the program supports are provided in the Configure External Databases.
You should also refer to the documentation for your particular database system
and the Microsoft Help files for ODBC and OLE DB for additional information.
The connectivity feature supports the following external applications:
Microsoft Access
dBASE
Microsoft Excel
Oracle
Access a Database from Within Drawings | 2005