BOM question

[Agriego]

Good afternoon,

I'm trying to insert a BOM on my drawing. There are several assemblies (Left hand and right hand), plus several parts that are not in either assy. Solidworks will give me the parts only, but not assy part numbers, or top level parts only, or indented, with the part quantities in a single column. Is there a way to insert a BOM that looks like this? This is the format that our company wants, and I'd like to be able to do it like this if I can.

I'm using SW 2015 x64, SP 3.0 on Windows 7 Professional, SP1.

Thanks!

Al
UG/NX Guy who's trying to figure out SW

 

[JMirisola]

Sure, just create your own BOM via excel. I usually just modify an existing BOM and then save it as my BOM. You can find BOM info in the help files.

Jeff Mirisola, CSWE
My Blog

 

[49again]

Al -

Jeff's suggestion is a good method, and that's the way I created BOMs for a long time. But, I was always looking for a more parametric way, just to try and keep my po' l'il pea brain from having to remember to make whatever changes to the Excel-based BOM. It got to be an even bigger issue when my boss, who is also an FAA Designated Engineering Representative, asked me if I could start sending him a drawing package that only consisted of one drawing - Installation, Assembly, Sub-assemblies and Details all inclusive in one multi-sheet drawing (made his job of submitting data packages to the FAA much easier).

Attached is a screen shot of a BOM for my current project to mount a fancy NASA JPL LIDAR in the floor of our jet. I'd say it's about 75% parametric - there are some parts I still have to enter manually (like the ZONE info...and I'm hoping SW2016 will help fix that).

What I did was make a configuration in my Top Level sldasm of each of my sub-assemblies, and then in the Configuration tab of each sub-assembly select "Promote" in the Bill of Materials Options. Then I inserted a "Top Level Only" BOM and selected all the listed configurations.

A bit complicated, but it works.....sort of.

Steve R.

 

[JMirisola]

Perhaps I wasn't clear, I save the modified BOM as a new BOM template so that, upon insertion in another drawing, I have all my fields and, assuming that the corresponding data has been filled in in the part/assembly files, everything will propagate to the BOM.

Jeff Mirisola, CSWE
My Blog

 

[Agriego]

I really wanted to have the bill be associative, not be spreadsheets. I really hate the way SW does BOMs. I know that NX is a higher end package, but I could easily do BOMs like this with NX.

Thanks,

Al

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

Agriego,
The Excel based BOMs are associative. SolidWorks embeds the spreadsheet within the drawing.

http://help.solidworks.com/2014/eng...p.htm?id=626ae500a78f4c5d9ad3714b236228b8#Pg0

http://help.solidworks.com/2014/english/SolidWorks/sldworks/c_Bill_of_Materials_-_Overview2.htm

 

[Agriego]

I must be doing something wrong. All of the part quantities for separate subassy's are in the same column, instead of separate columns. In addition, in the detail drawing, we only use the dash number (-XXX) of the parts, but in the assy and installation drawings, we use the whole part number (SWXXX-XXX-XXX). I've tried deleting the existing part number column and adding a column for the "PARTNO" or "DASHNO" property, but it's not working.

I'm ready to chuck it and just put in a non-associative BOM because it's quicker than screwing around any more with this. Seriously, it shouldn't be this hard to insert a BOM into your drawing.

Al

 

[drawoh]

Agriego,

Are you trying to create a separate quantity column for each tabulation of your assembly? The SolidWorks BOM does that. The SolidWorks Excel BOM does not. I am working on SolidWorks[ ]2011 here, so it is possible they have changed stuff.

--
JHG

 

[Agriego]

I can't find the instructions on how to do separate columns for each assy/sub-assy.

Al

 

[drawoh]

Agriego,

[ol]
[li]Insert a SolidWorks BOM, not an Excel one. [/li]
[li]Click on the top left corner of the BOM.[/li]
[li]Look at the Bill of Materials window on the left hand side of the screen. Expand Configurations.[/li]
[li]Select the configurations you want shown on the BOM.[/li]
[/ol]

--
JHG

 

[Agriego]

Okay, maybe I'm doing my assemblies wrong, but the -1 and -2 assemblies are done as separate assembly files. I did not do them as different configurations of the same assembly. I can see using configurations for components like screws, washers, etc, but using configurations for assemblies never occurred to me. It's almost worth it just to manually create a BOM with a general table than try and make it associative.

Al

 

[drawoh]

Agriego,

If your two assemblies are separate files, I strongly recommend having two separate assembly drawings and BOMs.

I am actually not allowed to tabulate drawings here. Tabulation works very well when you have two assemblies that are almost identical, and where you want design changes done across the entire set of them, with as little effort as possible.

The truly idiotic thing to do is have one assembly model with configurations, and attach two assembly drawings to it. This is a mess for document control.

--
JHG

 

[Agriego]

The assemblies are identical except that they are for the left and right side. Our numbering has odd numbered parts for left hand parts/asemblies/installations or for parts with no opposite, and even numbers for right hand parts/assemblies/installations. That means we can't do separate drawings for our assemblies or installations.

Thanks for your suggestions, but I guess we can't use the associative BOMs.

Al