How can you adjust the qty in a parts list to reflect the length of a part rather than the number of instances? This would be used for things like tape or gasket material that would be in the parts list by length in inches rather than by quantity. I have figured out a way to do it by allowing substitutions in the qty column but if I have multiple instances of the part with different sizes I run into other problems.

I can allow substitutions and have the parts list display the sum of the merged rows but this makes the qty of any custom parts blank.

I hope someone can help.

I have not taken the time to try this. I just dimension the parts that I need to indicate the length (don't need it very often in the BOM). "YIPEE" will do what you want from what I understand.


http://www.mcadforums.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=4843&highlight=length+bom

http://www.mcadforums.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1943

There are also some new features in R11 if you can wait for a month or two.

I have also been using more parts from the content center which come in with a better description and properties for the BOM. You can also publish your own parts to the content center and use this feature (but again, I would wait until R11 to spend the time in case it changes a lot in R11)

Dear Aardvark;

In your assembly, insert component, click virtual component. This will insert a part in the browser which will appear also in the bill of material. Right click the new component in the browser and select component settings. You can select units of feet and have these units show up in the quantity column without affecting all the other components that still require a numeric quantity.

Apparently you can set a parameter here to hold the value of feet required for your part and then have it displayed in the BOM, although I have not set this up yet.

Let me know if your part works out OK this way because I have to set the length in feet for some gasketing material I'm using in one of my projects and I will need to get the parameters set up properly for this.

Best Regards

Adrian Dunevein
www.aaadrafting.com

Adrian,
 
Which version of Invetor are you using? I can't seem to find the virtual component tool. I should have said earlier that I am using Inventor 8.