Bill of Materials error 2

[Simon205]

I've issued a bill of materials drawing to production (showing an assembly with 46 parts) - a couple of questions came back so I've checked the BoM and it appears about 8 parts are missing.

- the missing parts are definitely in the model (and always have been)
- the BoM is definitely referencing the correct main assy
- the missing parts are all resolved
- the missing parts are not checked 'exclude from BoM'
- CTRL+Q has no effect

Interestingly, inserting a new BoM to the drawing shows the correct number of components. The two BoMs sit side-by-side, one 8 parts short of the other.

I'd be interested to see if anyone else has had this issue as my reseller is confused and unless I've done something stupid, this is quite a hole in the software.

Cheers,

Sy

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

Which version and SP of SW?

Which style of BOM (Excel or SW table)?

I have not read or heard of this happening?

 

[handleman]

1. Are the lines of the BOM hidden? Click the "BOM Contents" button in the property manager. If the lines for the missing parts are gray then someone has hidden them.

2. Are the missing components part of a subassembly? If the properties of the active configuration of that subassembly include "Do not show child components in BOM when used as a sub-assembly" being checked, they will not appear in the BOM.

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

Are the missing parts scattered or clustered in the BOM?

Are the missing parts similar?

Does this happen with other assemblies?

Does this happen on other computers? (same assy)

 

[Simon205]

Thanks for the swift replies, in answer to your questions:

- SW2007x64 SP4.0
- SW table style BoM
- No, the lines are not hidden; 'BoM Contents' reveals that the parts are missing from there too, i.e. the generated BoM is showing exactly what it's 'receiving'
- some of the missing parts are from another sub-assy, but other parts of the SAME sub-assy are shown in the main BoM as you'd expect.

I'm a bit concerned as I've always kind of trusted SW to generate BoM's correctly to avoid having to go through them all manually with a fine tooth comb...

 

[hitt0006]

I'll give it a shot. Thank you!

 

[handleman]

Is the BOM referencing a different configuration from the one shown in the drawing view?

 

[Simon205]

Handleman,

Nope, it's referencing the same configuration.

 

[rgrayclamps]

Hi, Simon205:

If you insert a new BOM to your drawing and it shows the correct number of components, then that means you can not replicate your problem.

The old BOM may have some components (8) that were removed (or deleted) by originator of the drawing document.

Alex

 

[Simon205]

rgrayclamps,

I was the originator of the original drawing, and no components were deleted or hidden. You are correct in saying that the problem cannot be replicated though.

 

[Regg]

Being an old school designer, a good example of why you should always check your work before sending it off.

 

[Simon205]

Quite, and there's nothing wrong with 'old school' values, I guess I've just become used to trusting some automated tasks (like generating BoMs) and on this occasion it's come back to bite me.

 

[rgrayclamps]

I have been using SW since version 98. I have never seen an incident that SW reported wrong BOM. Accasionally, I came across some poor assembly drawings where BOM was over-writen by originators (manually edited or items deleted).

If you begin questioning accuracy of SW BOM, then you will question accuracy of drawing views, and then models themselves. Finally, you will question every copies of documents that you make on copy machines.

At my company, we do not check accuracy of SW BOM when we generate assembly drawing documents. By the way, we use single configuration ("Default") for every part and assembly model which has its own drawing document. If you use multi-configurations, this may be a different story.

Alex

 

[Standing]

We had a SolidWorks BOM not create the right style, meaning we had an extra quantity column. The engineer renamed default to frame. Then the person creating the drawing rename it back to default, the BOM never did come in right. So he renamed it back to frame and the BOM worked great. The items were OK, it was the extra column that messed things up.

Bradley
SolidWorks Premim 2007 x64 SP4.0
PDM Works, Intel(R) Pentium(R) D CPU
3.00 GHz, 4 GB RAM, Virtual memory 12577 MB, nVidia 3400

 

[adn1975]

On the drawing view right mouse click and select properties. Be sure that keep linked to Bill of Materials is checked and select the BOM from the drop down list.

 

[Cheeseburger]

This is why I don't like using the imbedded SWx BoM versus using the Excel based BoM.

I've continually had problems using the imbedded SWx version and steer my users from using it.

But that's just my opinion ...

 

[Standing]

Cheeseburger,
I am sorry to hear you don't like the SolidWorks BOM.
The reason we switched was: We had equations in our cells to control lengths of wire, tubing, zero qty and etc. Every time we would open the drawing out of PDM, several cell quantities would be blank. We put our own property in for part number, this would also be blank on a few cells. Our BOM's go into the second sheet quite a bit. It is easier for us to split the BOM’s now. The SolidWorks BOM does not have a problem at all. Also SolidWorks does not support the Excel BOM, they let you use it.

Bradley
SolidWorks Premim 2007 x64 SP4.0
PDM Works, Intel(R) Pentium(R) D CPU
3.00 GHz, 5 GB RAM, Virtual memory 12577 MB, nVidia 3400

 

[swmetal]

Simon205
Has this issue been resolved?
If not, are you using ballons to identify parts in the drawings, and do they match the BOM?

 

[Simon205]

Hi,

No it has not been resolved - my reseller didn't know and it's now with SW.

I think it's something down to the fact that the drawing was copied (from another drawing) and then modified to suit a new configuration. Why though, I've no idea, as I've done this 11 times with the same assembly and it's failed on two of them.

Re-inserting the BoM solves the issue, though nothing else I've tried will correct the old one.

I tried auto-balooning the assy and whilst SW baloons some components that aren't in the BoM, none of the numbers appear mis-matched.

Thanks to everyone who replied to this, the lesson I've learned is to always insert a BoM from scratch now, and not copy one from anywhere else.

 

[oompaloompa]

Yeah I got burned by that one before as well. I even had parts I deleted from the assembly still remain in the bom, even with a ctrl-q or rebuild.

I'd agree it stems from doing a 'save as' of a drawing and assembly file, then modifying the contents. I've also found the only way to correct the problem is to re-insert the BOM. That procedure is habit now for me.