Component Item Numbers

[acadefan]

I asked about this a few years ago, so I thought I'd see if anything was in the works.


In the edit window for schematic components there resides an ITEM box.
Is there any way to associate this number with a manufacturer/p/n?
When I place a BOM in my project I have to do it in "BY tag format" so that it can be cross referenced back to the schematic sheets. If I have a p/n (say a fuse) which is used 20 times, I end up with 20 instances in my BOM, thus making it very very big.

Ideally I would like to have the ITEM# as a visible attribute in the schematic symbol, have it associated to a mfg/p/n and then be able to produce the BOM in "by item" format.

To further improve on this idea, it would be great if the system could automatically increment the item number as p/n are placed in the project.
I know it can be done because I've seen it in other, less sophisticated cad packages.

So I gues my question is What is the intent of this Item box now, and is there any chance of implementing my idea?