Absolutely lost when it comes to Reports

[KarlHiggins]

I have a large Mechanical drawing comprising many different services and i'm trying to use the reports function to spit out an accurate BOM split into what one would assume would be obvious parts but the default reports dont show me what i need and when i try to set up my own it becomes a complicated mess for something that should be easy.

All i need reported is:

Service Name - For Example LTHW Heating Flow Welded

Item Type: PN16 Flange, LR Bend, Straight Pipe, etc

Item Size, Quantities & Overall Lengths of Pipe: 15m 150mm Pipe / 42no. 65 LR Bends

Is there an easy way to do this without resorting to the outdated help file?

My Hair thanks you in advance before i pull it out...

[philm87]

Hi Karl,

It is pretty complicated until you get used to the report system. It helps a bit if you've used reports on other programs such as Microsoft Access before.

Follow the steps below and it should hopefully set up a basic report:

- Bring up the item report builder.

- Add the following items to the table: Item Service Name, Item Source Filename, Item End Size 1, Item End Size 2 (presuming you have reducers), Item Qty/Length.

- Setting up each of these items is important as it will set the order and organisation of the report. Change the default values as below for each item:

- Item Service Name: Under the 'order' tab, select 'collect rows into tables' and set 'sort priority' to 1. This will split the report into separate tables for each service type. Under the 'column' tab, change 'column width' to 0, which stops the service name appearing again on each table.

- Item Source Filename: Under the 'order' tab, select 'merge rows together' and set 'sort priority' to 2.

- Item End Size 1: Under the 'order' tab, select 'merge rows together' and set 'sort priority' to 3.

- Item End Size 2: Under the 'order' tab, select 'merge rows together' and set 'sort priority' to 4.

- Item Qty/Length: Under the 'order' tab', set 'sort priority' to 5. Do not set 'merge rows together' here else it will not give you the total length or a piece of straight pipe.

This should hopefully display the data you need in the report. You can customise column headings etc. under the 'contents' tab and change the column widths to suit under the 'column' tab.

'Sort priority' and 'merge rows together' are probably the key to setting up reports correctly and can be very frustraiting. The 'sort priority' selects which data the report is ordered by first, with 1 being the starting point. 'Merge rows together' will merge common data together so it doesn't repeat unneccessairily. Be careful with merging any length data as it can just show the length of one item if merged instead of the total length. I suggest a bit of trial and error is the best way to learn, but just be careful that the data that is presented is a true value and not misrepresented because the settings are wrong.

Let me know if this still doesn't work, I could send you a report file if you send me your email address in a private message.

[KarlHiggins]

Thanks for the detailed response, much appreciated and it certainly got us set up with a basic report, i've enclosed ideally what we would like to achieve with our reports and i''ve currently raised it with Autodesk as a support question to see if they can help me out, i wasnt too sure if this sort of request would fall under support tbh 

[philm87]

Karl,

If you send me a private message with your email address on (won't let me send it on here) I can send you the report file, which you can drop into the following folder and you should be able to open it (change depending where the program is installed on your machine):

C:\Users\Public\Documents\Autodesk\Fabrication 2013\Metric Content\5.06\MIS\CADmep

Hopefully it will be something near to what you are looking for.

[davidronson]

Reports seem complicated at first until you understand where each print object is getting its information. It will take some tinkering around but you will eventually get it. Ive attached one of our reports if it will help you get on your feet.

[idesignher]

I am having a simular issue, except I have already tinkered so much I am lost on what I have tried and not tried. 

I am working with Duct and I can't get the exact length of the piece to show properly. It will only show for Spiral duct and for some reason only show a length of 120 inches when really it is supposed to be 66 inches. I have no clue on which length setting in the reports will get me to what I need and what the settings need to be. 

Attached is an example of what I have come up with after MANY weeks of dealing with this. 

[davidronson]

Which Print Object are you using for Length? I believe with Duct you need to use "Item Pattern Length." There are several print ojects for length but they dont all give the same results. It would be nice if they would clarify which circumstances to use one over the other but...it is what it is.