I recently spent time trying to track this down so I thought I would post what I did here.
I was trying to generate a BOM using the "Display in Tallied Purchase List Format" and got my list but there were too many Item numbers listed per Item Number. It is not readily apparent that you need to click on the "User Post" button to gain access to the checkbox "Suppress ITEM column repeats." This will remove all the extra iterm numbers listed in the Item Number Column. Unfortunately, this does not stick, so you have to select it each time you run a report.
Now, if we could only get rid of the blank lines left over... Trying to delete them removes the whole item number. I am currently looking into using the User Post to remove them and will reply if I find anything.
This is a bit of a kludge, but if you go into the table and delete all the blank lines within the field of each cell in a row, you are then able to shrink that row down to a manageable size.
You can stop the item numbers appearing in the Tallied BOM altogether.
Run the report, and then click on the Change Report Format button.
Find the ITEMS field in the report section and remove it.
Now save the format and you have a tallied list that can be given to purchasing personnel.
You can set up various reports like this as long as you use seperate file names for each one.
Regards Brad
Brad Coleman, Electrical Draftsman
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Brad, the format of the list was not the problem. I still want the items displayed in the BOM, just not so many of them. It arrtificially makes the list longer than it needs to be. From what I can tell, the extra lines are placeholders for all the TAG values associated with listed when the quantity is more than the descriptions available for tha particular catalog number (5 to 6 lines). I have not been able to discover how to access this yet. Maybe someday...
Brad
I wish to ask a question about what you are saying. Do you mean that if you have two relays that are the same part number you are getting two line items rather than a could ot two?
If yes I am having the same problem but my saving grace is that my project are not that big.
Cheers John Q
This is what I am referring to.
This is how the reports generates:
This is how I want it:
Just selecting "Suppress ITEM number repeats" is not enough. All this does is replace the ITEM number with a CR in the report. I still have to go into each cell and delete these CRs (because they are not only in the first cell) before I can move the line up.
I am surprised that no one has come up with a fix for this after all these years...(unfortunately, my Lisp skills are very primitive at this time)
Bob, make a copy of your original pur_pbom.lsp file and replace it with the attached version. Then add the following line to the end of your report format file and the post process to remove repeated item numbers will execute automatically.
User Post Process = 3
This is the way I've done it for years. But since version 2011 allows me to item number in order of manufacturer, I no longer need the tallied purchase list format. I just use the standard Panel BOM.
Doug,
That worked great for automating the User Post 3 but I still have the problem with all the empty rows per item number section (see my jpegs above). I suppose you would never notice if you accept the tags listed along with the items because they would fill up the empty rows in the TAGS column but I do not want the tags in the BOM.
Thanks anyway,
That's true. The software is holding a place for the tags. I report tags so it has never been a problem for me. DIN/IEC drawings usually don't track according to item number but according to Device ID. If you look at a typical DIN/IEC material list you will see all tags associated with each part number listed. That's just the way it has been done in the past. Of course with AutoCAD Electrical I can display both item numbers and tags.
I rewrote the User Post 3 part of the pur_pbom.lsp so that it now erases all other iterations of the item except the first one. My BOM Report is now much cleaner.
Here is the file for anyone else that wants to use it.
This may seem like a silly question, but how do you get it to work? I replaced the pur_pbom.lsp from base ACADE with this one, and it didn't work. Obviously I am missing something. What is it that I am missing, if I may be so inquisitive?
Thanks
Doug
Ok, heres another question I have. Because of the large number of some items (fuse blocks, relays, etc), my tallied format report shows lots of blank real estate. I also like to show the TAGS for the assemblers, it makes it easier for them for labeling and such. My question is: is there a way to have the TAGS word wrap in a fixed column width, rather than be in a long, wierd looking column?
So: like this (FU1234,FU1235,FU1236, etc) vs (FU1234
FU1235
FU1236
etc.)
Thanks again
Doug
I don't know about word wrapping the TAG IDs but to answer your other question, in the Report Generator Dialog Box, click on User Post and then check the "Supress ITEM number repeats" checkbox.
That should get rid of the extra ITEM numbers and the spaces left behind.
Hi Bob,
This is merely an observation, I don't want to incur the wraith of any one on here but...
Its a purchasing BOM...
They need MFG, QTY, Catalog number, and Description... unless your purchaser is CAD Savvy (unlikely) they won't care about the item number... That's more for the Shop, and that BOM should be different anyway.
Besides the shop like their TAGS over item numbers, then they can highlight when they place that component in (usually on a print out of the Schematics for our electrician friends anyway).
In the case of Electrical / Mechanical installations, they may want items numbers, but if that's the case you need to use something like the vault to generate an item master from the inventor (or 3d cad) Project, and the ACADE Project.
That or merge the two excel files and pray that you don't have overlap!
(unfortunately right now Cable and Harness doesn't let us join the electrical components to the 3D world preventing overlap)
My point is, I'm not sure this yields any benefit, it you want one all encompassing BOM I would use a Panel BOM, and export to Excel... and data link it in if you really want it on the drawing.
if you pass the BOM out to excel you can clean it up quickly, unless you used 3 item number for the same part, it groups the item numbers in the right order. Simply delete the excess item numbers.
I would keep the BOM separate from the drawings anyway, as BOM's change quite often when parts are ordered from different suppliers (I have had some bad experiences ordering long lead time items) and you don't want the Revs on your drawing set...only on the BOM.
I understand that every client is different, but everyone's purchasing department is the same, they care about the price and supplier. Item numbers don't help either.
I apologize in advance if I upset any one that is dead set on placing the BOM on the drawing, I just want to point out that there are other options that might be better suited for your workflow.
Regards,
James Alger
SolidCAD
James,
No problem. My skin is pretty thick…
There is a real use for creating BOMs that will reside in the drawing. For the panels I build, I use the ITEM number balloons for everything. Having a BOM that is ITEM number sorted is key to finding which parts that are on there. I don't care what the TAGs are at this point. With the Tallied List, even though I don't select the TAGs I still have "Placeholders" in the list for these TAGs. This presents itself as blank lines when you have more than 6 TAGs with the same Item number. You will have a bunch of blank lines. Because of this, the BOM is much longer than it needs to be. Hence the writing of the .lsp program.
I still provide a list to purchasing but it is an all encompassing BOM to capture the items in the schematic that are not on the Panel.
Hi Bob,
Glad to hear that I did not offend you.
I know why it's leaving the spaces, the program sticks a comma as a place holder which takes up the space.
In your lisp routine you might want to have it remove trailing comma's. (or just remove any commas)
I also tried sticking an exported excel file through the "Spreadsheet to Table" command but it rips the descriptions apart so that wouldn't help. ( I thought I'd explore that route before suggesting it).
I hope this helps,
Regards,
James Alger
SolidCAD
Hi Bob,
I think I misread that forum String... LOL.
The other guys were just having problems implementing your fix.
I looked at the time stamp of the original post it was from last year.
My bad.
To answer Doug's question, yes you can adjust the width when placing the table.
Select "Define widths" then select "Define" and set the Column size it will auto Wrap the text for you.
I have included a picture so you can see what to toggle and the dialog box that pops up.
I hope this helps,
James Alger
SolidCAD
Doug McA,
Yes. The lisp file will remove the extra blank rows that are created when there are a lot of TAG values per ITEM. It is tied to USER Post 3. To get rid of the TAGs, I just removed the column from the report.
Thanks, had same issue with the blank rows for a few years. This works great!