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BOM'S

BOM'S

(OP)
I have an top-level assy dwg of an assy that has subassys in it.  The subassys do not have their own p/n, they are just subassys to keep files smaller and make some things easier to work with.  My BOM of course is based on the top-level assy.  I want to insert the subassys the dwg in order to focus on some of the assy detail in them a little easier, but of course the BOM from the main assy isnt linked to these in terms of item numbers.  Is there a way to  link them together so that it recognizes the individual components and maintains the item number they are assigned in the master BOM?  The only other thing I can think of is to hide things I dont want in the top-level assy ... pain in the butt.

Any help on this one?

Thanks,
Mike

RE: BOM'S

I think you pretty much answered your own question; the pain in the butt method is your only real choice.

SA

RE: BOM'S

Rather than use "pretend" sub-asys, investigate the use of envelopes & folders to group parts together. Envelopes are particularly useful as they apparently do not affect the BOM numbering sequence.

An assy and its drawings should ideally represent the real life processes & workflows involved. i.e. If the sub-assy isn't actually manufactured as a sub-assy with it's own p/n, it shouldn't be shown as a sub-assy. Otherwise you run into the BOM problems you have.

cheers
Helpful SW websites  FAQ559-520
How to get answers to your SW questions  FAQ559-1091

RE: BOM'S

I agree.
If it's not a subassy, don't model it as one. Model the parts and assy's as they are really built. The BOM will do it's job from there.

Chris
Systems Analyst, I.S.
SolidWorks/PDMWorks 05
AutoCAD 05
ctopher's home site (updated 06-21-05)
FAQ559-1100
FAQ559-716

RE: BOM'S

(OP)
Thanks for all the input.  I agree with the "subassy only when subassy", but like in our case, computing power isnt quite up where it needs to be relative to what we need, and having the subassy makes things much easier on the SW end, but having the single, top-level assy (and the paperwork, etc for 1) makes it easier on the mfg end.

Ideally it would be great if SW could address this so that the user could have more control in such cases as this, not complaining, but the parts are the same part file, it should be easy to associate them.

I will see if there is a way to get env and/or folders to work for what we have here.

Thanks again, as always, all the help and ideas are appreciated.

Mike

RE: BOM'S

I'm not sure if this is what you are looking for, there's an option, when you insert a BOM, to select "parts only". With that, your subassemblies will not show in the BOM, only their components.

RE: BOM'S

(OP)
Yeah, I do do that, like you said, to let the parts come out of the subassy into the BOM.  When I run into the prob is when I insert the subassy file itself into dwg, it treats it as a separate assy in terms of the BOM and reassigns item #'s etc for that assy.

Thanks, for the response, appreciate it.
Mike

RE: BOM'S

I disagree not with using "pretend" sub-assys.  They come in handy when you have a group of parts that is used more than once in the upper level assemblies.  They are also useful in "large" assemblies when you are nearing the 300 mate limit.

In the case SWISGR8's problem, we make a derived configuration and hide the parts there instead of doing in the drawing.

SA

RE: BOM'S

SolidAir,
I'm quite new to SW - what do you mean by "the 300 mate limit" ??

bc

RE: BOM'S

SWISGR8,

Definitely use "pretend" sub-assys. The performance increase and the ability to form sub-groups of components for organization of the Feature Tree are huge in my opinion (for both performance reasons and to the human eyes using/editing this assembly).

To get other views to follow the BoM numbering on the same sheet go to the View’s Properties and check "Keep Linked to BoM". We don’t Insert a normal BoM on our drawings anymore (since we have a PDM), so I just tried to verify this since I haven't done it in a while...and it didn’t work. I am running SW2006 sp3.1. It has been a while since I inserted a BoM, but I thought this was how we did it in the past. I am going to send this to my VAR and see if it is a bug.

Assuming the previous statement was working...If you make additional sheets where you only want the sub-assembly to appear in the sheet, then I insert an extra view in the drawing that is of the main assembly and build a BoM off of it. I either then scale the view of the main assembly way down and put it in a corner or the drawing, or just move that view completely outside of the titleblock. Then link the sub-assembly view to that BoM as explained in the previous paragraph. So as long as the BoM was built off of the view of the main assembly, then your item numbers should be fine. FYI, for the additional view of the main assembly if you put it outside of the titleblock, I make that Shaded or even Wireframe to help with performance (since it isn't a view that anyone will actually need to look at, just SW).

Ken

RE: BOM'S

SWISGR8,

You may not be able to keep the link to the BOM if you insert the file subassembly in the drawing. I think it is treated like a totally different assy with no relations to the existing BOM. A work around would be to create configurations of your big assembly showing one subassembly/configuration and insert views of those configurations. I think you should be able to link these new views to your BOM.

Let us know if you find a solution to this issue

RE: BOM'S

(OP)
Thanks,

I tried "link" and it didnt work for me either.  It is on a 3rd sheet but the main assy is also on it and I inserted a BOM of it for good measure.  I haven't gotton any further with my experimentation, but when you mention that the "link" option might be used for when inserting a config of the main assy as opposed to a subassy that makes sense with how SW does things; at least to me (not a cut on SW just thinking of how things seem to work) ... did more exp. worked when using as config of main.  In that case it actually gives yu options for which BOM to link to, such as the one that is already in, whereas in the case when inserting a subassy it doesnt give any options for which to link to.

Thanks for all the help.  Ill keep looking for a solution, and return any findings.

Appreciate all the help.

Mike

RE: BOM'S

beachcomber,

This has been circulating for some time so I do not know its source.  But after 300 mates, SolidWorks response slows down.  I have seen this slowness many times in assemblies that do not have a lot of parts but have over 300 mates.

SA

RE: BOM'S

The 300 limit refers only to the mates at the Top Level of any assy.
You can have many, many more mates providing they are distibuted in other sub-assys. The 300 limit also applies to any sub-assy when opened on its own.

cheers
Helpful SW websites  FAQ559-520
How to get answers to your SW questions  FAQ559-1091

RE: BOM'S

Maybe this calls for a "block" sort of function in the assy mode that allows grouping of components. Then you have the benefit of a sub-assy, without the file. Mates wouldn't solve with every rebuild much like sub-assys.

Maybe this is taken a step further where when you pull in any assy, you have the choice of inserting it like a sub-assy, or a block.

Jason

UG NX2.02.2 on Win2000 SP3
SolidWorks 2005 SP5.0 on WinXP SP2
SolidWorks 2006 SP3.3 on WinXP SP2

RE: BOM'S

SWISGR8,

This is the response I got from our VAR.

Quote:

Each view must reference the same assembly, so a configuration can be used or you can hide components in the second view.  Go to the properties of the sub-assembly view and in the bottom left you will see "Keep link to BOM" use the drop down to select the BOM and the numbers will generate as expected.

So it looks like just inserting the sub-assembly file won't work. But the method he described above does work (I just checked).

Ken

RE: BOM'S

(OP)
Thanks for the info Ken,

That was a great thread, a lot of good discussion, dont mind me getting all emotional

Thanks everyone,

Mike

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