Material & Mass in a BOM?

[PeterGuy]

Does any one know if it is possible to put the component model material & mass into the BOM in a CATDrawing of an assembly without using VB to build the BOM.

I could not find anything in BOM setup to include these properties and I sort of expect to be able to indicate material in a bill of materials.

As I was up against it last week I added a field to the model properties which I could display in the BOM. But this is a nasty hack as it results in two fields containing the information. VB is not a problem in the long run it is just more work.

Many thanks for your thoughts

Pete

 

[Akesson]

Here comes an answer with the reservation of not totally understanding your question.

You can link the field in properties (the one you add) to the material properties with formulas.

Add a new parameter (a string).
Right click in the parameter field and pick "Formula/Edit".
Choose the '"PartName"/Material' from the list to the right in the Formula Editor.
Now the material name will be displayed in the parameter field.
Then you add the new parameter to your BOM format.

 

[PeterGuy]

Yes this is the answer I am looking for. Due to time pressures parrametric brain not in gear.

Thanks

Pete

 

[alberth]

Hello Akesson,

I tried the procedure that you outlined and could not follow it completely.
I can add parameters in the part properties but it does not allow you to
create a formula. It appears that any parameters added to the part properties
are independent from the parameters created in the formula interface.

I am using V5R10. Are you using V5 also?

thanks

Albert

 

[PeterGuy]

Albert
I have investigated this method on V5R9 & it has some odd bits in it.

Here is a summary of the method
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In CATPart document goto the properties of the document-Product tab.
click Define Other Properties button at he the bottom

Select the type of property you wish to add (string for material) & give it a useful name. OK the dialog

*Click Apply on the Properties dailog*
Then right click on the value field of the new property
& Formula-Edit. This gives you access to the formula dialog usualy found under Tools-Formula...

Select the field of intrest (Parameters/Strings/Mateial in this case) and Ok the dialogs

Now when you do a Analyse-BOM the field you added will be available for use.
-----------------------------------------------------
*The odd bit is that you cannot add a formula until you have applied or ok'ed after the addition of the new property

If it still won't work there may be a diffrence between R9 & 10 which I don't know about.

The other alternative is to script the creation of the parameter & the formula linking it to the materials property. Somthing that is on my list of TODO's but has to wait untill after I have finished VB gear form creation.

Hope this helps

Pete

 

[alberth]

It works!!

As you pointed out, the key is to click on "apply" after creating parameters in properties interface or to select okay and then open the properties interface again.
Then by right clicking on the parameter value, the option "edit formula" appear and lets you link the property parameter to regular parameters.

Thanks for your time in clarifying the procedure Pete!

Albert