How to best represent a 'kit' of purchased parts?

[boatingcow]

I have an assembly of components connected by pipework which is bolted together in several places using flanges. The bolts, washers, nuts and gaskets for the flanged connections are bought from the supplier as a kit, and there are four or five different "bolt kits" we use. When the fitter puts the parts together, he looks for the "bolt kit" of the correct specification which includes all the hardware necessary for that connection.

At the moment, we are laboriously drawing each bolt, washer, nut and flange on the assembly so that the totals for each component appear correctly on the BOM. I understand that I could create an assembly called "bolt kit" so that it appears as such on the BOM, but then I loose the freedom to move the individual bolts to their correct location on the flange, it's not always the same thickness, not always the same diameter, nor equally spaced.

How should I model these components so that the fittings appear as "bolt kit #1" in the BOM, but I still have the freedom to place the individual components in the assembly? I've looked at phantom assemblies, but they seem to do the opposite to what I'm looking for!

I'm still getting up to speed with Inventor, so I may not be using the right terminology!

Thanks

[mcgyvr · Accepted solution]

Put all the parts from the kit into an assembly. Then to to tools..document settings..bill of materials tab and set the default bom structure to "purchased". Now when you drop that kit assembly into your upper level assembly you need to right click on it and check "flexible" now those parts can move around individually (limited by any constraints you applied in the kit assembly)

[boatingcow]

Sorry mcgyvr, just spotted your reply. Found the same solution that did the trick a while ago!