BOM Structure Overrides

[k.hendrickx]

At the moment, Inventor has the ability to override the BOM Structure of a part or assembly to be set to Reference at any time.

However, in some cases it would be handy if that were possible to change it to any of the current 4 options.

Example, we have a library with panels to clad a structure. These are set up as normal BOM structures (because sometimes we provide these), but sometimes we also want to use these purely for a visual reference of the finished product.

However at the moment these will either be included in the BOM (which we don't want then) or are displayed as see through reference objects (which defeats the purpose of having them as visual references).

In this case the Phantom option would be ideal.

Problem is that because these are library files, they are non-editable, so this means we have to copy the entire part to the workspace and modify it there which is also not desirable.

So, right clicking a part/assembly and have all the options under BOM Structure would solve this problem.

[pate_mackenna]

Was going to post this idea with the image below but I'll just add to this one.  There are many in my organization, including myself, who would like to be able to override to Phantom BOM Structure -- especially when it comes to individual parts.

I do have some reservations about allowing the override of a Phantom assembly to a type that participates in the Structured BOM.  However, any issues that would arise from that SHOULD be simple to detect and fix... hardly reason to restrict the list of options, if it's truly feasible to include all of them.

[gregory_nickol]

I think changing a subassembly to phantom for the reason in the OP would likely cause BOM issues, but I think the functionality would be good regardless. I can see it for items that would be sold as a set as spare parts with a specific part number, and always used in a model together, but internally BOM wise treated as independent items for documentation/manufacturing reasons.

I do want to add that the way reference parts are shown on a drawing is different as of Inventor 2022. You can now select to show reference items on an IDW the same as any other parts. But there are still problems with the options available in that case, which you can see on this other idea I posted a while back. https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/inventor-ideas/base-view-placement-remember-reference-settings-auto-a...