Creating Custom Bill of Materials in SOLIDWORKS Composer
When creating technical documentation with SOLIDWORKS Composer, Bills of Materials (BOMs) are often a very useful way to show a breakdown of components in the product to your customers. With SOLIDWORKS Composer there are quite a few options to create just the right look and feel for your BOM.
The first step in creating a BOM in SOLIDWORKS Composer is to assign the BOM IDs to the components in the view. Using the BOM Workshop will make this process simple.
To access the workshop, go to the Workshops tab in the command ribbon and select ‘BOM’. This will display the BOM workshop to the right of the screen.
Once in the BOM workshop, we will want to assign the BOM IDs to the components of the assembly. Using the drop-down we can apply the BOM IDs to the components using a number of pre-set options. Since the assembly contains a subassembly for the base of the flashlight, we are going to use the Selection option and select the components we want to assign BOM IDs. After selecting the components to assign the IDs, simply click on the “Generate BOM IDs” button. This will populate the BOM tab in the left pane.
NOTE: In the options -> Definition portion of the workshop, we can control how BOM IDs are assigned to prevent duplicate parts from receiving different BOM IDs. This can be based on a selected property or by geometry comparison.
The Base subassembly was left unselected because we want to show it as one item in the BOM. To make sure that only one ID is assigned to the entire subassembly rather than its individual components, we will need to activate the “Assembly Selection Mode”. This can be done by either clicking on the button on the assembly tab, or holding the Alt key and click anywhere on the subassembly. Click on the “Generate BOM IDs” once more to assign and ID to the subassembly.
With the BOM IDs created, we now need to show the BOM on our paper. Just click on the “Show/Hide BOM Table” button at the bottom of the workshop.
By default, the BOM will appear at the bottom of the paper space. We can change the BOM to be free-floating by clicking on it and changing the format property to free. This will also allow you to resize the table using the handles.
NOTE: Changing the Text -> Size property will not automatically change the font size. The table itself will have to be resized and the text will autofit.
Now that the table is formatted the way we want it to be shown, we need to add in the callout balloons. Using a box selection, the individual components are selected and the “Create Callouts” button will automatically attach the balloons to the selected components. For the base subassembly, use the assembly selection mode to select it and then click on the “Create Callouts” button once more. Assembly callouts by default have a black fill and white text; this can be changed to match the parts if desired by selecting the balloon and changing the properties.
NOTE: A magnetic line was inserted from the Author tab in the command ribbon to space the callouts as seen below.
The default BOM table will have columns for Description, BOM ID and Quantity. In order to add another column utilizing custom properties from the part/assembly files, click on the “Configure BOM Column” button. This presents a new dialog where we need to select “Meta-Properties” from the drop-down to display the custom properties of the part/assembly files. Then select the property you wish to add to the BOM table and click the button to add to the Displayed properties section. The Displayed properties section will also allow you to order the columns as desired by selecting the property and using the arrows at the top. The columns can also be renamed in this dialog as well in case the property name does not match how you want the column named.
At this point, the BOM table orders the rows alphabetically by the names of the components. We can change the sort order of the table by clicking on the desired column header from the BOM tab on the left. In this case, we want to sort by the BOM ID, so clicking on the BOM column will perform the sort desired.
Now looking at the callout balloons, they are not in any particular order. If we want to number the balloons say from left to right, we can manually assign the BOM IDs after the fact. From the BOM workshop pane click on the “Assign Manually” button. Once the button is clicked, you can either click on the callout balloon or the component itself to renumber the BOM IDs. The first selection will start the IDs at 1 and continue incrementing with each selection.
NOTE: The manual assignment stays active till you press the escape key. This means the BOM IDs will continue to increment even past the total number balloons.
About the author
Braxton is an Elite Applications Expert with MLC CAD Systems based in the Kansas City area. He has extensive knowledge of the SOLIDWORKS portfolio of products and specializes in SOLIDWORKS Data Management solutions. His background includes product design from concept to market release and is currently responsible for supporting and training SOLIDWORKS users. In addition to training and support, he also implements Data Management solutions.
