BOM Jumpiness

[pdybeck]

Does anyone have any experience working with the new BOM and any information as to why the order tends to jump around? It is killing us currently. We need to use the new BOM to do a configurable Bill because our assembly has different configurations where parts are suppressed or unsupressed depending on whether they exist in that top level. I like the capabilities that the new BOM has to do this, however it seems to have a mind of its own when we try to get the parts ordered in the sequence we desire. With a configurable BOM, it seems impossible to get it to follow the assembly order, unless we manipulate the order under BOM contents. We also group certain items together under the new BOM contents capabilities. Next we lock the BOM to keep the order from changing, but as soon as we unlock the BOM to incorporate a change, the order gets destroyed and we have to do everything all over again. This is a pain for ECN or ER's as everytime th eBOM is unlocked to make a change, the order needs to be re-created. Is there something we are missing or are not doing correct here? I'm not ranting about the weird behaviors of the new BOM, I'm just checking to make sure we are not doing anything contrary to what it is designed to do (or intended).

 

[SBaugh]

Do you have "Follow Assembly order" in the BOM properties picked? So it follows the Assembly order?

Next we lock the BOM to keep the order from changing, but as soon as we unlock the BOM to incorporate a change, the order gets destroyed and we have to do everything all over again.

You should have your Auto BOM update turned on. If you don't and you make changes. Then yes you will lose all manaul changes. This happens with Excel based BOM's.

If you a small example you can send it to me. Explain what your want and what it's doing and I'll get back with you on it.

Regards,

Scott Baugh, CSWP

http://www.3dvisiontech.com

http://www.scottjbaugh.com

faq731-376

 

[pdybeck]

Scott,

The SolidWorks BOM does not auto-update to follow the BOM order. There is a button to do this - it is not a setting but rather a one time event to sychronize with the model. The excel based BOM definitely auto-updates on the fly. But, we can't use the excel based BOm b/c we want to capture configurations where different parts are unsupressed and supressed. Create an assembly with mulitple configs. Supress different parts in varying qauntities on the different config. Make a drawing and make sure the BOM contains all 4 configs. Group the parts that are changing in quantity as one item under the BOM contents functionality. Now try to follow the assembly order on the BOM. Also try locking and unlocking the BOM - the order seems to jump. Test it out. Seems to be weird to me, but maybe I'm missing something. I don't think so.

 

[pdybeck]

Another side note.... If you group items and then after that at any time click follow assembly order, the grouping of those items is deleted. IMO this should not happen. I will submit an enhancement request and hope others do the same if this seems bothersome to them.


Pete Yodis
Harold Beck and Sons