SAVE PARTS LIST TO SPREAD SHEET?

[jkcone]

Hi everyone
Okay I know this is probably a dumb question that's been covered many times before but I've looked & looked & can't find anything!
How do I save a parts list (BILL OF MATERIAL) to an Excel spread sheet?

NX5

Thanks in advance,
James

 

[JohnRBaker]

There is not 'direct' way of doing this, however there is a relatively simple procedure which will get the job done.

After you have created your Parts List note on your Assembly Drawing, select the note so that the entire object is highlighted, press MB3 ans select the 'Export...' option. When the dialog comes up, select the 'File' option, enter a name for the .txt file which will be created (it's best to use the 'Browse...' option so that you can direct it to a known location), select 'Tabs between Columns' as the Format option and hit OK.

Now open Excel, select the 'Data' tab and in the 'Get External Data' section, select the 'From Text' option. Now select the .txt file which you just exported from NX and using the Text Import Wizard, follow the steps selecting the 'Delimited' option, then the 'Tab' item as the only 'Delimiters' option, then 'General' as the 'Column date format', select 'Finish', pick the first cell of the data field and hit OK. Now your Parts List (Bill Of Material) data has been copied to a Spreadsheet.

Granted, it's not a single push-button operation, but the procedure is straight forward and easily accomplishes the task, so give it a try and see if it meets your needs.

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Design Solutions
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA

http://www.siemens.com/plm

http://www.plmworld.org/museum/

To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.

 

[dpackard]

I have found that you can also highlight (select) the cells you want in the NX BOM and hit <ctrl C>. Then simply paste <cvtl V> into excel. This makes for a down and dirty way to do it.

 

[hudson888]

You can also send the contents of the ANT to excel if you wish. Mostly they would be identical to the parts list, but you can configure the columns differently if you wish.

Best Regards

Hudson

www.jamb.com.au

Nil Desperandum illegitimi non carborundum

 

[jkcone]

Thanks again John. I tried yours first, before I saw the other postings, & it worked great!

Dpackard, your posting sounded like it might be quicker but I can't copy the parts list. I get an error saying a "UGII_UPDATE_ALL_ID_SYMBOLS_WITH_PLIST" variable has to be set to 0. I'm not sure how to change these variables. I probable need to know how. It seems to be common in UG. Could changing this particular variable cause problems elsewhere?

Now for another dumb question. Hudson, what does "ANT" stand for?

Thanks,
James

 

[JohnRBaker]

The term ANT is a TLA which we officially discourage the use of in favor of spelling out 'Assembly Navigator'.

Back when they were first introduced, we had the ANT and the MNT, 'Assembly Navigator Tool' and 'Model Navigator Tool'. The inclusion of the word 'Tool' was a carryover from an internal reference to the tool-set developed so that it would be easy to create these 'navigator' sort of functions. However, the use of these terms in documentation and the UI was short lived. When we started to use the same tool for other applications, such as Manufacturing, Assembly Sequencing, KF, Rendering Materials, etc, we dropped any use of the 'T' and thus officially adopted spelling out the name of each Navigator, less the word 'Tool', since with having so many Navigators, to continue using TLA's would have soon resulted in a sort of 'alphabet soup'. Besides, there is an unwritten rule in the UG/NX culture that we generally only use TLA's which they can be pronounced as if they were an actual word, which worked for both 'ANT' and 'MNT', but got a little hokey when we changed the 'Model Navigator' to the 'Part Navigator' and started to add all of those other Navigators.

Anyway, for some of us 'old-timers' (I know it took me several years before I stopped saying or writing it) the occasional use of one of these long out-of-date references slips back into the vernacular, so we're sorry if it confuses any of you ;-)

John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Design Solutions
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA

http://www.siemens.com/plm

http://www.plmworld.org/museum/

To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.