Bill of Material Export To Excel Problem

[Anonymous]

We are using Electrical 2011 with update 1 applied. When I try to export a BOM report to Excel, I get an empty file with nothing but the column headers. The weird thing is, after weeks of it not working and getting a blank xls file, it worked fine multiple times yesterday. Today, it is back to a blank file. This is happening for multiple users (sometimes it works, most of the time it is a blank file with just the column headers). It does work when we export to a CSV file, every time, but the user post (QTY X SUB --> QTY) does not populate for a CSV export. Is this a known issue, and is there a solution?

I have attached the xls file and what I could capture with the command trace turned on.

Thanks in advance!

[PatMurnen_Adsk]

I don't see anything in the command line trace that would indicate what happened. Can you send a small project (.wdp file and drawings) to me so I can try and reproduce it? You can send it to me directly at pat.murnen@autodesk.com.

I am not sure it would affect this but what options are you using on the dialog when you run the report, i.e. Normal Tallied, etc.

[Anonymous]

Thank you for the help. I just sent you an email with a small project and other details. Once this is resoleved, I will post the solution for any others having the same issue.

[PatMurnen_Adsk]

It turns out that there was a "#" character in one of the field names which was keeping the data from being written to the Excel file successfully. I will log this issue but for now if the "#" is removed from the field name it should work.

To change a field name, run the report and pick the Change Report Format button. Then select the field name in the right-hand list and edit the field name.

It is always best to stay away from characters that are used as wildcards. This would include # @ . (period) * ? ~

Regards,

Pat Murnen

[Anonymous]

Pat,

Thanks again for your help in resolving this issue! My engineers and purchasing dept are going to be happy to take advantage of the built in automation.