BOM thumbnails in drawing BOM

[DraftID]

Is there a way to make a BOM on a drawing sheet but have it include the thumbnail images for each part similar to what you would see when you export to excel?

[A.Acheson]

I would think the closest you can get is to import the exported excel BOM into the drawing. Have you tried that approach?

[DraftID]

That was my though as well. Its a work machine so need to get excel installed before I can give it a try though.

[pcrawley]

The result is ugly - unless you make sure the thumbnails are all correct.  Often, a part edited in the context of an assembly will include bits of the assembly in the thumbnail.  There is iLogic code out there for opening and updating thumbnails - but it is time consuming.

The other problem is that the Excel object is pasted as an OLE object - so there's a limit to the amount of data you can paste - and the thumbnail bitmaps typically get compressed and become pixelated.  If you want this for presentation purposes, this probably isn't going to work.

[DraftID]

Thanks for the detailed answer. The idea was to make it easier for the assemblers to identify parts from the pick list. Do you think it would be better to just go the intended way and export the bom to excel which would be which would be printed out as part of the drawing pack?

[pcrawley]

As much as I hate to admit defeat, yes.  You'll get a much cleaner looking BOM if it is printed from Excel.

[DraftID]

In reply to pasting back into inventor as an OLE object and the size limit. Would an alternative be to print as PDF and then copy the PDF back into inventor as a work around to the OLE limitations?

[A.Acheson]

I would say the easiest would be to pdf from excel and compile the drawing pdf and thumbnails pdf.

[DraftID]

Compile as in use indesign or similar to make a new document and merge the pdfs?

[A.Acheson]

Merge the pdf's correct. If this is a super common thing you could even do the merging by code but it is more complicated. You could automate the bom/ partlist export and then thumnail pdf and drawing merge. Totally up to your frequency of operation and skill level in ilogic/vba of course. 

[DraftID]

Good point. Might be able to create a python app to palce and merge a cover sheet or something. Thanks for all the help.

[johan.degreef]

Seems handy - maybe submit as a new topic in idea station?