Drawings and BOM

[jwlynn64]

Can I create several sheets that reference the same Bill of Material?

I have a large assembly and my drawing has 7 pages. When all of the pages are in the same file, it takes forever to work on the drawing. I have broken the drawing up into 7 different drawings (one page per drawing) and I would like to balloon the drawings but reference the same BOM.

I want to do this so that all I have to do is maintain one BOM for all of the drawings. Everytime that I work on a part, it moves in the BOM all the way down to the bottom of the table. Since my BOM is sorted numerically, I have to go in and move this part the corect row.

Since my drawing is 7 pages long, I do not want to do this seven times everytime I make a change.

Thanks,

John

 

[ctopher]

Have you searched in this forum for BOM?

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

 

[automationbabe]

Or look for drawing performance? There are a number of ways to increase the performance of your drawing.

Create drawing views in draft versus high quality mode, and hiding components on view creation are two that help significantly.

 

[ng89]

I would suggest looking into ways on increasing performance of your drawing while you work on it.

Look into Detached Drawings in the help section of SolidWorks. It could help you if you're not making a number of changes to your solid model while also working on your drawing.

Windows 2000
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[jwlynn64]

I have searched for BOM but didn't find anything that referenes what I'm looking for. I always search for an answer before posting one.

I have tried to change my setting to make things work faster. Can you give me any specific settings that help speed things up?

Thanks,

John

 

[automationbabe]

In your System Options window:

System Options>Drawings>Display Style>Display quality for new views>Draft quality

System Options>Drawings>Automatically hide components on view creation

System Options>Large Assembly Mode>Automatically hide components on view creation

-- If this is a common issue for the rest of your group, you may want to consider chaning this option in the drawing template as well.

The "Save as Detached Drawing" may help you as well. Read up on it and experiment with it some first though. I've found that some files increase in size.

Saving specific views with your model is also helpful. It can minimize the number of views created in your drawing.

Section views of large assemblies can also bog down your drawing.

There is also a link that explains specific options for increasing performance. If I find it, I will repost it. But I believe I found it in this forum.

 

[wes616]

John,

If i understand what you are looking for - a bom on one drawing file, that can be referenced on several other drawing files - Solidworks (as well as any other modeling program) can not do this. The unfortunate answer to you question will be to create identically ordered bom's in each drawing file.

As you mentioned, you have a sorting method that requires a manual sort. Well, probablly the best thing for you to do in regards to this issue would be to sort your items on the assembly model level, so they come up correct in the bill of materials by default. This may be a little more time consuming that you'd like, but will save you plenty of time when it comes to making changes later (and will be less frustrating than doing the same manual changes 7 + times to the same BOM.

good luck

Wes C.
------------------------------
When they broke open molecules, they found they were only stuffed with atoms. But when they broke open atoms, they found them stuffed with explosions...

 

[jwlynn64]

I'm using Solidworks Office 2006 SP4.0.

I don't have any of the three options that you listed in your post automationbabe.

Any idea why I don't have these setting?

John

 

[automationbabe]

From your menu bar, select Tools>Options. The Sytem Options window should appear with all the above options for you to select.