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Indented BOM 1

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jbknudsen

jbknudsen

Mechanical
Jun 18, 2002
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Howdy all,

Does anyone have a macro or program that will indent a bom for use in an excel spreadsheet.

Let me clarify: One that is better than the "less than usable" indented bom that comes in solidworks. The solidworks indented bom shows sub-assemblies of sub-assemblies with out any way of knowing the assembly order. For example, I would like to see:
1.0
1.01
1.02
1.02.01
1.02.02
2.0
3.0
...

Instead, solidworks only shows the top level number and clusters all parts and sub assemblies under the top level item number.


Thanks,

Jay
 
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That thread doesn't help the problem. He understands the difference in Top level and indented assemblies, but wants the indented bom to function differently(as do I)

I would prefer it function this way:

Assy1
>Sub1
>>> SubSub1
>>> SubSub2
>>>>> SubSubSub1
>>>>>>> PartA
>>>>>>> PartB
>>> SubSub3
>Sub2

I have found no way of doing this though so if anybody knows I would appreciate it.
 
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Yes, many times!!! With each release, my four (4) seats are subscription service seats and have been since 2000. I have brought this to SW's attention and my VAR's attention. I am always told that there are no plans to generate an indented bom in my desired fassion. My guess is that not many companies us and indeted bom that lists sub-assemblies and the components associated with that perticular sub assembly

-Jay
 
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JB, I think we're the only two people that would like to do it that way. Odd because I would assumed that's the way it was supposed to work before I realized otherwise. ???
 
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Miller7778,

I agree, I have been in the engineering profession since 1998 and every department/company that I have worked for uses the Indedted BOM style that you and I are using. It just seems to make sense that the BOM should identify the assemblies, sub-assemblies and parts as they are built. After all isn't that one of SW selling points. The software allows the engineers, designers and drafting crews to generate projects as they really are generated. I am guessing that other companies buy all the components listed on the top level bom and then give the shop hands a set of drawings and a box of nuts, bolts, parts, hoses, etc and tells them to put the thing together.

I guess we all have our different opinions of how projects and BOS's should be handled.


Catch ya.

-Jay
 
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I have made the same request of SW. A BOM without appropriate indentation (or at least level numbers) is useless to us, so we never generate them from SolidWorks. We have to do it from PDMWorks, which is problematic because doing it that way only gives you accurate info as of the last time the assembly was checked in.

Just my $0.02.
 
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PDMAdmin,

Thanks for the extra info. We have just purchased a new server and I.T. is settng the machine up. Early next month I will be installing and implementing PDM works for my department. I will be the administrator and am currently trying to get as much info as possible. Will PDMworks generate an indented BOM in the fassion that I am needing? I understand that the data will reflect the latest checked-in assembly.

Thanks,

Jay
 
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If you have sub assemblies that are pre-assembled, should you not have a separate assembly drawing of them? That is the way we do it. If they are not pre-assembled then you should change your BOM settins to parts only and make sure your sub assemblies have the don't show parts when used as a subassembly unchecked. We use to use the 1.01 style when we had manufactured parts that contained purchased parts but even before we went to SolidWorks we changed to make separate assembly drawings of these since SAP (I am told) does not allow for this numbering style.
 
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jbknudsen,

The BOM's that I have output from PDMWorks are indented, plus they have level numbers. You can only output to TXT or CSV files, though, so the indenting may not help very much.
 
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Regg,

Here's where that theory fails for me. I have some purchased parts that consist of several components. The part has a part # in our system, but each individual piece of it does not.

For all normal purposes, I would make this as one solid part and it would work fine, but there are times that it needs to stay as it's own subassembly and therefore causes havoc in my boms.

A trailer landing gear is a perfect example of this. The gear assembly is one part #, but it obviously consists of a handle, crankshaft, foot, fittings, etc. I can't make a dumb part out of the things because I need them to still function somewhat.

A parts only BOM will list every spring in this landing gear, which I don't need. And really a top level only or indented bom(no matter how it's indented) really don't work right for me without a lot of *exclude from bom and *don't show child components and silly modifications I wish I didn't have to make.



 
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Miller - I have the same situation, I solved this by having an identifier in the part number/description. My SW BOM dumps this stuff out, but the identifier tells our ERP that this part has no BOM (and deletes this garbage.)
 
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You can do this in SW, but it's not a 1-button step. First insert an indented BOM. Next, pick the BOM heading and pick the "BOM Contents" button on the task pane. The 3rd column on the top is the "Visibility" column. On that column, pick the parts in the assemblies that you do not want shown on the BOM, and this will toggle them off or on. By default they are usually all on. This will accomplish the goal in miller7778's example.

Flores
 
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Good news for me and the others. I couldn't find any documentation in the What's New manual about it, but it looks like 2006 fixes this issue.

Check the screenshot below I took from a Solidworks BOM. There is an option after you check "indented assemblies" labeled "show numbering". I don't think this button was there before, but it does the trick the way I want it. You can also selectively expand / collapse individual subassemblies from the BOM Contents tab.

That's worth upgrading alone for me.

 
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