I have submitted this issue to my Inventor seller and Autodesk Support, but have received no solution. They told me that this is a normal behavior of the software. Now, I'm here to suggest an "idea."
The Inventor Help page (linked below) explains that when you use component.isactive in iLogic, the part should be set as a reference in the BOM structure.
Component Functions Reference (iLogic)
"When you use Component.IsActive to suppress a component, the BOM Structure of the component is set to Reference. This action prevents it from appearing in the Bill of Material."
The issue is that we use this function in many custom iParts in a large assembly, and many of these suppressed iParts are showing in the BOM, even though the BOM is set to "hide suppressed components" (Inventor 2024.2). I believe this is happening because of the BOM structure.
I was able to "isolate the problem" in a small assembly to demonstrate the behavior:
I created an assembly named 123.iam, and then I created two more parts (456.ipt and 789.ipt), both with the same part number "ADSK." However, in the properties, there are different texts mapped to keywords (iProperty).
- 456.ipt | PARTNUMBER = ADSK | Keyword = 456
- 789.ipt | PARTNUMBER = ADSK | Keyword = 789
To replicate the issue, let's say you want to suppress the 456.ipt item and leave only the 789.ipt item active. In the bill of materials, it will display only one active item. However, the keyword field, instead of displaying 789, is shown as VARIES. I understand that if the part is suppressed, the keyword field should not appear as VARIES, but rather as the corresponding active item, in this example: "789."
In this particular case, the suppressed part doesn't show in the BOM, but because the suppressed iPart BOM structure continues as "normal" instead of "reference," the keywords appear as "varies." If I manually unsuppress the custom iPart, change its BOM structure to reference, then suppress the part again, the iProperty of the active iPart is shown perfectly in the BOM.
The guidance Autodesk Support gave me so far is to customize the Part Number so the BOM doesn't "merge" the information. That is not applicable for many reasons:
- It's a large assembly with many suppressed parts.
- We use the Part Number to import data to the ERP system.
I understand that setting the BOM structure to reference in custom iParts is the correct behavior and solves the problem. And I believe there are others facing the same issue.