SketchUp report generation - save sorted CSV

This is a rather simple thing with obvious workarounds… but still…

When generating a report from a model (say on window sizes for example) Sketchup correctly creates a list of items, like shown in the illustration.


Generally they are unsorted initially (not in any particular order), but (as in the illustration) you can customize the sorting by clicking the header for Entity Name or Price.
image
However, having done this, and clicking Download the csv file created does NOT contain the items in the sorted fashion chosen, but rather in the initial unsorted fashion.

I wonder why this is so? You can always sort afterwards in Excel or similar, so this is really no big deal. But why have the ability to sort in Sketchup and not save the customized sorting into the csv file???

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I ran the report, then clicked the Entity Name header twice, then clicked “Save Changes”.
I reran the report and clicked “Download” and saved the CSV locally. I opened it with a code editor and it appeared to be ascending alpha order.


BTW, the Generate Report feature is implemented in the cloud. This means fixes can be done without waiting for releases. So I moved this to the Feature Requests category.

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Duh moment here…:smiley:

Hi Dan -
Thanks for your reply, but I cannot see that Save Changes helps, at least it does not here. My understanding was that Save Changes saves the template only, nothing more (I could be wrong, of course).
Care to try this simple test file on your side?
JNS_BalconyDoor.skp (204.1 KB)
Just select the four doors in the file and generate a report like this:


Then see if you can make the csv file sorted alphabetically…
Really interested to see if this is my problem only…

JoNoS Test.zip (575 Bytes)
A report template and a CSV file that seems to be in alpha order.

I did it like …

However, these doors are groups. I wonder if they were components if the generator would like them more ?

Secondly, why set the report level to “1-2” the nested groups would muddle the reprot, I’d think?

Okay, I do see after converting the groups to Components how the generator “walks” the model, and “stacks” the report entries as it goes …

JNS_BalconyDoor_2018_Comp.skp (203.1 KB)

So the FR stands, and the blue ‘Save Changes’ button next to the Download button does not work…

ie you make a change (order) and you can not save that change…

I apologize that I have had no time to look more into this yet - because of more pressing matters.

When you save changes - as far as I can see - you only save the template.
Changing the order of the items in the list does not carry through to the template. You can easily check this by changing the order and export the template to a separate grt file.

So - as such - the FR still stands.

Unfortunately, I have not found the time to extract the wisdom from Dan’s responses yet. I will do this when I get a moment, and then summarize the issue.

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I agree. Users would expect that sort the output as shown would propagate to the output as downloaded.