Occurrence-specific BOM properties

[DRoam]

Is it possible to set BOM properties for a specific occurrence of a component, rather than have universal properties for every occurrence of that component in every assembly?

Two instances come to mind:

1. I have two identical occurrences of a part in an assembly. One is already existing at the site, the other we are providing. I want one to show up in the BOM, and not the other. I don't want to have multiple part files to keep up with, as they are identical.

2. Similarly, I have a part that shows up in two assemblies; in one assembly it is existing, in the other it is new. I want it to show up in the BOM for the second assembly, but in the first I want it to be "phantom" or "reference".

Is this possible?

[DRoam · Accepted solution]

Well, just answered my own question. I can't set occurrences to "Phantom", though, which I sort of prefer because I don't like how reference components are handled in drawings, but this will do for BOM purposes.

[mrattray]

Try setting an override to the bom structure setting of the occurrence you're not providing.

[mrattray]

What don't you like about them being set to reference? There are setting you can set on the drawing side to change the appearance of reference parts.

[DRoam]

MIke, sorry it took so long to respond. I knew one reason why I don't like reference parts but knew there was more to it that I couldn't remember. Now that I'm working with them again, I remember.

Basically what I don't like is that I want my drawings to treat them just like normal parts. I'm smart enough to change views to hide/show the parts as I want without Inventor trying to do it for me. As long as the majority of a drawing view is made up of normal parts, this is easily accomplished by setting their line style to "As Parts" in the view's model state tab. However, I don't want to have to do this for each and every drawing view. That's my first issue. The second is that, if reference parts happen to have a greater "expanse" in the view than all the normal parts, the reference parts beyond the area that the normal parts take up will just be completely ignored and hidden by Inventor. I absolutely hate this. I think it's stupid. I can create a detail view if I really want to do that. As far as I can tell, there's no way to change it, which is very frustrating. If I can change this, then I'll use reference parts, albeit begrudgingly. If I can't, then I won't be able to use reference parts at all as I need to have complete control over how my views appear without Inventor trying to hide entire sections of my model that I might want visible for... for "reference". 

[mrattray]

You can change that behaviour by changing the "Margin" setting in the model state tab. I agree that clipping the view in that manner is silly, and I would prefer that "As Parts" be the default settings.

[DRoam]

I discovered that yesterday and have been using it, thanks for the tip. I really don't like having to do it for each and every view though. Also, if I try and make a view shaded rather than wireframe, reference parts are not shaded. Do you know if there is an option to shade them as well?

[mrattray]

I have no idea about shaded views, I never use them for anything. I never understood the use of them. I make drawings to be printed and sent to a fabricator, and they look terrible printed. But, I digress...
We could try to whip up an iLogic rule (or maybe a VBA macro would be better) if changing all of the view settings are really that painful.

[DRoam]

You're correct, for drawings being used to fabricate, shading just makes it look bad. However, I often create drawings which will be presented to a customer, or just to show my boss, which are meant to simply convey what something will look like. In this case a shaded isometric view is the simplest, most viewer-friendly way to do that. Currently my company is replacing a burner that sits on a large (several hundred square foot) mezzanine. When I make the mezzanine "Reference" (because as you might've guessed it's already there), suddenly my views lose all frame of reference for what's around the boiler and where it is on the mezzanine. It's also surrouned by lots of machinery, some that's already existing and some that's not, and I want that to be clearly visible--not a messy mix of shaded/non-shaded regions.

Anyway, all that said, I'm not sure I work with the need for reference parts enough to justify creating an iLogic rule for those drawing view settings, but eventually I might. Actually it's turned out that the shading is a bigger deal than the other issues, which you've helped me find solutions for. I'm having to choose between really messy drawings or really messy BOM's... I strongly dislike either of those options. The option for an entire drawing document to simply "Treat Reference parts as Parts" would make things soooo much simpler.