Solidworks 2009: Assembly B.O.M.

Solidworks 2009 will debut a new feature that will allow you to create a Bill of Materials directly inside an assembly file.  Once created you can then import that BOM into a drawing where you will get an exact duplicate.  Be aware however that once the BOM is inserted into the drawing, it is no longer linked back to the BOM inside the assembly.  So if you make changes to the assembly BOM, it wont reflect in the drawing BOM.  The best way to avoid any issue is to use a BOM template that is completely driven off of custom properties.  That way no matter where you make a change, it will update everywhere.  Here are some screen shots:

This image shows the BOM inside the assembly, and the query box you get when you double click to edit a cell.  In this case the cell is a link to a custom property of one of the parts, so by checking keep link, the change to the cell will be maintained everywhere.

The shot above shows some of the options including the ability to open the BOM in a new window which will allow you to Control-Tab between the assembly and a window containing only the BOM.  You cannot however drag the window outside of the Solidworks window say onto another monitor.  Another option is Save As which allows you to save out the BOM as any one of the following formats:

That allows you to export your BOM out to say purchasing.

When inserting a BOM into the drawing of the assembly that already contains a BOM, you will want to check the copy existing table option in the following box:

   

That will copy over a duplicate of the BOM you already have in the assembly.  Your result will be as follows:

An exact duplicate of the assembly BOM.  In our case, making a change to either BOM updates the other, as well as updates the individual parts because we use custom properties to populate our BOM's.

As a side note, there is ongoing discussions about how this function should exactly work, and Solidworks is driving that discussion, so don't be surprised if this function changes before service pack 0.0 is released.

Comments

[christopher lack]

Ahh, just when they were starting to get there they mess it up! The beauty of having an assembly driven BOM is that you can create custom properties for all the parts within it and then edit them all in a tabulated environment (just think- all your drawing title blocks filled out in one go, copy and paste properties down the column etc), rather than having to open the part seperately and going into custom properties etc which is far more prone to mistakes. I wish they would include materials box too with a drop down list, SolidWorks could have a quick peek at SolidEdge for a good example of how to do it well, but you'd laugh at the rest of the package....

[John Kreutzberger]

I think the intent of this feature is to enable people who only use 3-d data and not drawings to still get a BOM. I have many customers who fall into this category and it will come in handy. For times when I still need to make a drawing, I'll just do the bOM like before.

[Steve Calvert]

Where as I don't normally use the BOM table feature now, it concerns me that it won't be linked to the assy BOM table if I use it in the drawing. This just doesn't sound right. What is there (Solidworks) thinking behind this?

Steve