BOM QUESTION

[mikelee1966]

Hello all,

I have a question concerning creating BOM's. First a bit of background. I am creating steel connections for gluelam joints. We get a set of drawings from the customer and I take the steel from these and create the parts in inventor, and from the parts create all the assemblies. So now I have MK-1 assembly and its associated BOM and MK-2 and so on. What I want to know is if there is a way to create an overall BOM that shows how many of the MK-1 and MK-2 there are.

One idea I had was to just creat another assembly and add all the MK-1 and MK-2 etc. that are needed and then use that assembly to creat an overall BOM. This seems a bit hackish. Is there a better way?

[mcgyvr]

So are Mk-1 and MK-2 subassemblies in an upper level assembly?

or are you asking for the components of MK-1 and MK-2 to be shown in this upper level bom and not MK-1/MK-2.. (like setting them to "phantom")

or maybe you just want a structured bom like this

http://blogs.rand.com/manufacturing/2010/06/inventor-tips-and-tricks-expanded-structured-boms.html

or maybe something else.. Your problem is not really clear..

But default if MK-1 and MK-2 are subassemblies in for example the MK.iam file the parts list will show how many MK-1 and MK-2 are in that MK assembly..

[mikelee1966]

There isn't an upper level assembly. This is the problem. I have no need to creat an upper level assembly . My only concern is the steel connections. This is why I create an assembly for each steel connection but there are usually multiples of each steel connection and I am trying to figure out a way to create a bom to account for the quantities. As I stated in my first post the only idea I have come up with was to create a new assembly and just drop the correct multiples of each steel connection into this new assembly and then reference this assembly to get the correct bom that lists the correct quantities.

[mcgyvr]

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@mikelee1966 wrote:

There isn't an upper level assembly. This is the problem. I have no need to creat an upper level assembly . My only concern is the steel connections. This is why I create an assembly for each steel connection but there are usually multiples of each steel connection and I am trying to figure out a way to create a bom to account for the quantities. As I stated in my first post the only idea I have come up with was to create a new assembly and just drop the correct multiples of each steel connection into this new assembly and then reference this assembly to get the correct bom that lists the correct quantities.

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IF you want a the total # of subs to make up a beam then OBVIOUSLY you need to have an upper level assembly that includes all the subs needed to build the beam. plain and simple..

Inventor cannot magically read minds. 

If you don't want to model the full assembly then use excel or work or notepad or whatever you need to pass along to the next guy.

A notepad example.. 🙂

Dear Mr fabricator,

The gluelam beam for job #20302 needs 12 x MK-1 steel connections and 4 x MK-2 steel connections. 

[mikelee1966]

WOW! I would have expected a little more tact from an "EXPERT ELITE" I realize Inventor can't read my mind I also realize that i am not the only person to have this problem. I was hoping that someone may have already modified how the assembly bom acts, maybe like allowing you to change the quantity of the assembly. Or maybe someone knew of an add-in that allows you to manage this. Sorry I wasted your time!

[mcgyvr]

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@mikelee1966 wrote:

WOW! I would have expected a little more tact from an "EXPERT ELITE" I realize Inventor can't read my mind I also realize that i am not the only person to have this problem. I was hoping that someone may have already modified how the assembly bom acts, maybe like allowing you to change the quantity of the assembly. Or maybe someone knew of an add-in that allows you to manage this. Sorry I wasted your time!

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come on.. I put a smiley face.. 🙂  Were I'm from thats all you need. 

Sure you can override quantities of components in an assembly.. (right click on qty column cell and select "static" value then enter what you want) BUT MK-1 and MK-2 are not line items in any BOM you have..

If you only need to multiply the quantities of all the parts in the MK-1 and MK-2 boms then you can easily do that.. But thats not what you want.. is it? 

if it is

So for example you have assembly MK-1 which for my example here I will say its composed of 2 parts.. MK-1.1.ipt and MK-1.2.ipt..

Now if you only need to know the total quantity of MK-1.1.ipt and MK-1.2.ipt when you beam calls for 20 x MK-1.iam subs then simply open MK-1 assembly and change each column to a static value and multiple the number thats there by 20..

So now you have 1 x MK-1.iam file and its going to call for 20x the number of MK-1.1 and MK-1.2 parts..

If thats what you want then voila.

But other than that Inventor cannot possibly know how many of those MK-1 parts you might need if you don't have an upper level assembly of the beam calling for those because MK-1 is not a line item on any parts list/bom.

You could like you already said simply drop 1 x MK-1.iam and 1 x MK-2.iam into a new assembly and again override the bom quantities there too.. But you already knew you could do that..

[Mario428]

Am trying to understand your workflow.

Myself I would create a solid part roughly duplicating the customer assy. Then create the different steel connections. Place the steel connections as required on the customer part. I would then have a BOM with all the required parts and I could manipulate the BOM as required.

Would then also have a visual guide of how the steel connections were installed etc.

[mcgyvr]

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@Mario428 wrote:

Am trying to understand your workflow.

Myself I would create a solid part roughly duplicating the customer assy. Then create the different steel connections. Place the steel connections as required on the customer part. I would then have a BOM with all the required parts and I could manipulate the BOM as required.

Would then also have a visual guide of how the steel connections were installed etc.

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Yep.. Thats how I (and most others) would do it too..

It just seems he wants to do half the work (ie not modeling the complete beamassembly ) but wants to somehow magically have Inventor calculate how many parts are needed to build this beam. 

The steps/process in Inventor should follow real world..plain and simple..

If you are building beams..then build a beam.. don't just model the parts and expect some magic to happen. 

[mikelee1966]

There is no reason for me to create the whole beam assembly as all we do is weld the steel connections. And I am definately not trying to get out of doing something but why waste a day creating the whole gluelam assembly this is an entirer building with 200 steel connections. If I was taking this project from radle to grave then most definately I would create the entire assembly. But since all I am doing is creating the steel assemblies for our shop to plasma cut and weld together its very counter productive to create the whole assembly with all the wood and all the steel just to get a BOM to list the quantities of each steel connection. To that end yes I was looking for an easy solution.

[mcgyvr]

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@mikelee1966 wrote:

There is no reason for me to create the whole beam assembly as all we do is weld the steel connections. And I am definately not trying to get out of doing something but why waste a day creating the whole gluelam assembly this is an entirer building with 200 steel connections. If I was taking this project from radle to grave then most definately I would create the entire assembly. But since all I am doing is creating the steel assemblies for our shop to plasma cut and weld together its very counter productive to create the whole assembly with all the wood and all the steel just to get a BOM to list the quantities of each steel connection. To that end yes I was looking for an easy solution.

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Isn't there someone at your company that compiles a list of ALL components needed to complete the entire project? Surely "someone" knows you need X amount of MK-1 bracket assemblies and Y amount of MK-2 bracket assemblies and Z amount of wood or whatever and 50 gallons of glue,etc....  What about a BOM for the rest of the whole beam assembly.. who generates that? 

Does the customer supplied drawing show these MK-1/MK-2 parts?

see what I'm getting at.. Are you just supposed to tell the next guy.. "hey joe.. job 123 is going to need 50 MK-1 and 25 MK-2 and here are the individual prints to make those..see ya later at the country club"

Its the "details" of how it works at your company and why you even need a bom at all and what that bom is going to be used for and how its exchanged that will net you a suitable answer.