AutoCAD Electrical

[#1]

When I create a schematic drawing I place my referenced drawing numbers in the BOM. Reference drawings such as, HYD schematic, Block Diagram, System Layout, etc..

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My question is, what would be the best( most intuitive) way to have these ref drawings added to the automatically generated BOM?

I was wonder if a lisp could be made to bring up a window that allows the designer to choose from the catalog or type the ref drawings part number in, which then adds it to the BOM once the report is updated.

Any thoughts or ideas?

Thanks,

[#2]

You could add your ref drawings to the parts database catalog using the drawing number as the "Catalog" number and "REF DRAWINGS" as Manufacturer and also add drawing descriptions. Then create a component symbol with no graphic just attributes, insert it in the drawing and assign the catalog information from the dwg numbers you previously added. These components will then be added along with all other items to the automatically generated BOM report.

[#3]

I don't know of any way to add the drawings to the BOM automaitcally, but when you right click on the project name in the project manager, you get a list of options.

One of these options is the Drawing List report. This lists all the dwgs within your project.

This report give you the Filename, the 3 dwg description lines at a minimum. I've added the dwg issue and a couple of other paremeters to the report.

All you need to do is to add this report to the same dwg as your BOM.

The only drawback is that the drawings you reference MUST be in the project for that to work.

Regards Brad

[#4]

Thanks the ideas,

Brad- The Ref drawings would be outside of the project.

I've been thinking about doing it the way Metal_Pro mentioned.

Two cons to this method are its not very "proper" and what happens if you need to remove a reference drawing.

Any idea if a Lisp could be written to populate an invisible components CAT01, CAT02,... And MFG01, MFG02 etc? It would also need to be able to remove the attribute values if need be.

Thanks,

James

[#5]

You can do almost anything in AutoCad with LISP the only limitation is your Programming skill level. I would suggest that VBA or .NET would be better for your suggested application as you could have a nice graphical interface to the database of Reference drawings when it comes time to select the drawings.

If you use my original suggestion you would not have to do any programming just use the already existing ACAD electric BOM functions. When you need to remove a reference drawing from a BOM simply erase the symbol from the drawing like any other component and rerun the report.