Ortho Bill of Materials BOM

[BuddyLegnon]

When setting up an ortho BOM in the settings, the ortho tool does not keep or use the fine tuned settings in terms of column width and such. 

Solution: Let the setup of the ortho BOM stay consistent among all the newly created orthos in the current project.

[Garrett.Brothers]

Hello.

I'm glad someone has posted this idea already!  Hopefully, this comment will help boost this idea.  Goodness knows enough people have run into it that it should have many more votes.

Outline of comment:

1. Links to previous forum posts
2. Description of issue including comments by others and my own screenshots
3. Mentions (all the @) (don't need to read)

1. Links to previous forum posts

Forums.  "Ortho BOM Table Style" (2014).  C_Hill makes the first post about this issue that I can find.  The 56 replies [at the time of this post] go all the way to 2020.  By far the most important discussion of this issue on the forums, including staff efforts to solve the issue.

Forums.  "2015 ORTHO BOM - TEMPLATE TABLE CHANGES TO SOME DEFAULT - WHERE IS THIS AND WHY" (2015).  Chacamasur reports the same issue, but the thread quickly ends when the first reply tells them about the above forum post.

Forums.  "Ortho BOM table Style" (2019).  Josh.cook reports the same issue.  Davidcruze brings up the workaround of copying the table and pasting it back into the drawing.  He also recommends the purge command.

2. Description of issue, including comments

BuddyLegnon gives a good, brief summary to the issue above.  Here are the details:

"It seems to pull the table style for adskiso table style" -- C_Hill (first link, original post)

"[...] All was well at this point. However, when I hit the Update Bill of Materials button to test (because nobody is ever finished with the model after they initially place views and bill, etc.) the bom reverted back to the "Adskiso" bom table style." -- jheisler56 (first link, fourth message)

Pdavidyancey is the first one to discuss editing the template and unlocking the format.  We'll get back to that idea.

---

Andre.a.de.souza wrote (first link, 17th message):

What I found out, it seems, is that the Table Style gets created outside of the drawing template.. a script or something, or maybe it pulls from a different file than the current dwt in use for the final Ortho.

I found that by renaming all TB styles under ortho dwt settings.

When I create the Ortho drawing I check that the table styles are not there before creating the BOM Table.

When you hit the BOM table.. it creates the adiskiso table on the fly.

---

"The third column thinks its the description field width rather than a Sch/Class column." -- Snomatic_Autocad (first link, 21st message) -- this explains why the spacing readjusts like it does.  See images with that reply.

KenFauver explains the cell locking idea in greater detail in the 24th message of the first link.  However, in the 29th message of the same thread, he was able to reproduce the issue and plans to pass it along to the dev team.

"If I highlight it all, copy, and paste, then delete the original, it breaks the link between the table and the Ortho drawing itself, and I am free to go about updating my views without ruining my BOM. [...] but you will have to manually add new columns and manually input the new features you added." -- dgreder (first link, 28th message)

This screenshot is the 31st message of the first link.  It is one of the best descriptions of what's going on:

andre.a.de.souza shares a macro in the 32nd message of the first link.  tsabinas hints at a script in message 33.  We'll get to scripts and macros more in a bit.

tsabinas advises to NOT unlock content and format (also 33rd message).

"As I understand it from Autodesk, each time the BOM is updated in the ortho, the ADSKIso table style is deleted and then reinserted. The problem is, no one knows where the ADSKIso table style comes from when it's reinserted." -- tsabinas (40th message of first link)

"Thanks Ted, that seems to be what I found. I thought I saw a thread where Ryan (Autodesk) had worked on it & if he can't find it, no one will." -- Stormbr (43rd message of first link).  I haven't encountered such a thread, but if staff was working on this issue at some other time then that's good to know.

Russell.Collins posts an amazing example of scripts in the 55th message of the first link.  Check it out if you're curious.

The other two links have some more descriptions and suggestions, but you get the idea.

Here's my own description.  Now, please understand two things.  First, I'm really new to plant and don't know what I'm doing as well as most of you.  Second, I don't actually have this issue myself.  Rather, I don't work with orthos at the moment, so I haven't had to deal with constantly working around this bug.  I just find it frustrating that so many people can have the same issue without it being fixed!  If this many people have posted about it on forums, there's bound to be more people across the world who also deal with it but aren't on forums.

With all that being said, here's a simple set of screenshots showing what happens:

I add a column to the BoM.  Now the spacing looks bad, so I readjust it.

I get everything exactly the way I want it.  (This is a simple example, so I didn't put too much effort into adjusting the table.)

  

Later on, I need to update the ortho.  This bug occurs whether I update the whole view or just the BoM.

After updating, everything goes back to the strange default spacing!

3. Mentions

I'm tagging everyone who seemed to have this issue.  Hopefully by doing so this idea will get the votes it needs to be fixed!

@Anonymous(First link, original post)

@Anonymous(First link, fourth message)

@Anonymous(First link, sixth message)

@Anonymous(1, 7th)

@albarney99(1, 8th)

@Anonymous(1, 9th)

@Snomatic_Autocad(1, 10th; also third message of link 2)

@Anonymous(1, 14th)

@Anonymous(1, 16th)

@KenFauver(1, 29th) -- since you were able to reproduce the issue, could you please vote on this idea?

@jason.drew(1, 31st) -- is this already on the dev team's radar?

@tsabinas(1, 33rd)

@Stormbr(1, 34th)

@HenkVink1983(1, 47th)

@Anonymous(1, 52nd)

@Diego.Faria(1, 53rd)

@Anonymous(1, 54th)

@Russell_Collins(1, 55th)

@Anonymous(1, 56th)

[Garrett.Brothers]

I can only mention 20 users in a post at a time, so here's the rest of the mentions:

@Anonymous(Second link, original post)

@josh_cook(Third link, original post)

@Anonymous(Third link, second message)

[ttower54FUB]

I am currently working with the 2023 Plant 3d version and this problem still exists where you set up Ortho drawing BOM style thru project setup.  It works great for the first ortho view BOM placed, however, once you update the view or update the BOM, it reverts back to some default version of the BOM.