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Sometimes working with a SolidWorks BOM may seem like you’re bouncing away on a trampoline just fine, when all of a sudden your leg slides right through the springs on the side as your head slams against the metal support bar… more or less.
The SolidWorks BOM (Bill of Material) is actually pretty cool. It’s easy to layout and set up Custom Properties for your standard material list. Along with all those nice features, you can actually do some additional customization on a SolidWorks BOM you hadn’t thought of. One of these things is exactly what J.D. Myers from Applied Heat Recovery, LLC asked me about in a recent email.
How can I add a prefix to the item number field on a BOM?
Good question JD. The first thing I’ve seen some people do is edit the table fields and add it manually. That is a lot of pain. Here’s how you can automate it in your BOM.
- Select the Column with the item numbers.
- Select Column Properties in the Property Manager.
- In the Column Properties section select equation button and enter the following
=”C”‘ITEM NO.’
Whatever you put between the two double quotes, the letter C in this case, will show up in front of the number.
There are four important things to remember.
- Text goes in double quotes – ex. “TEXT”
- Column Properties go in single quotes – ex. ‘ITEM NO.’
- Custom Properties go in fwd quotes – ex. `SW-File Name`
- Using the Equation Editor in the Column Properties makes the three above easier.
What about for a Mass Custom Property?
If you have a mass Custom Property set up in File, Properties… on the Custom Tab named MASS, here would be an example of how you could use it in your BOM.
=`MASS`” lbs”
Now, if you were able to do this, you can set each column to use whatever Custom Property or interesting phrases that you like. Then you can right click on the BOM, select Save As… and save it as a BOM template to use next time.
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I really want to use the SWx BOM’s, but I don’t like that the cell row height and width is never fixed…it’s to easy to screw up and make it look sloppy.
I too love the BOM functionality of SolidWorks, but the reality is we can’t use it because all of those “duties” are handled by our MRP system, AS400. No 3rd party software out there to link the two.
Russell - yep, that is part of the pain of it. The cell sizing and padding doesn’t work all that well. The best way I’ve gotten around it is by dragging the corner to where it looks good and if there’s a row that is scrunched together, I drag it down a little.
Bruce - I remember the horrors of working with an AS400 system a while back. I’m sure it’s gotten better, but that is strange there’s nothing to link the two. Sounds like a software product idea.
As far as row/column sizing, this is what I do.
If I type in text that is too long and causes the row height to get mangled, I simply RMB over a row that is the original/correct height I want, go to Formatting, Row Height and see what the value is. Then I change the one that got mangled to that value.
OR, to you can just, after you’re done with everything, RMB on the table and go to Formatting -> Entire Table and enter the values you want. Just keep entering values until you get the proportions you want.
Hope that helps.
That would work Bruce, I just don’t want to have to do that every time, and I don’t like the fact that an incidental click can override the fix I just made or the settings I changed.
I deal with a ton of assemblies, most of which are simple and just need quantity, part number, and description. Just not enough functionality to make the switch from Excel worth it.
Excellent post, Josh! I agree with the others though about the cells resizing a little too easily. Although it doesn’t cause much concern here, we just correct them as Bruce mentions above.
Brian, CADFanatic
http://www.cadfanatic.com/
is there a way to relay the features dimension with am excell table, ather than design table? for an example, i have an assemblywith an aleator number of diferent parts. it is possible to autogenerate an excell table with part lenght, weight , qty, and thikness? please email me. thnx
Cristian, hi. a design table is basically an excel table. If you’re trying to create a table in excel and want to import it you can do that when you first create design table and even link to that file. It’s the first set of options after you select insert, design table.
I’m trying to insert BOM into SolidWorks drawing but when I insert it, it doesn’t show the materials of the parts.I chosed template with material and I applied a material to the part previously but ?material? column is still empty!Can somebody help me with this?
How can you enter a description of a part in the ‘Description’ column of the Bill of Materials without losing the parametric link to the drawing? Is this possible?
hello.
how can i link the parts of an assamble that is made of part that are defined by lenght weight, thick and qty to an exel table, so i can create automaticli a table with this features starting from an existing assembly. escuse my english please.
thnx