How to combine multiple Custom Properties in a SOLIDWORKS Bill of Materials

When going through the process of creating an assembly drawing, it is beneficial in most cases to make use of Custom Properties listed in individual Bill of Materials (BOM) columns. These could be a Part Description, Part Number, Manufacturer, etc. Sometimes, it may be beneficial to combine multiple part Custom Properties into one column in a BOM.

For the purposes of this example, an assembly was created using two screws. Individual Custom Properties were made that detailed the thread diameter, length, and type of each screw. When we make a BOM with these column headings, it appears as shown below:

SOLIDWORKS BOM

Each of the custom properties is contained in its own column. In this case, we may want to summarize the information in these custom properties in a single column. The three pieces of information would work very well as a description for this particular part. To do this, we will reference each Custom Property. To reference another custom property, the format below should be used:

$PRP:”custom property name”

In this case, our custom properties are THREAD DIAMETER, LENGTH, and SCREW TYPE. Therefore we can enter the data into each of our part’s “Description” Custom Property as follows:

$PRP:"THREAD DIAMETER" x $PRP:"LENGTH" $PRP:"SCREW TYPE"

Resulting in a BOM appearing as below:

Modified BOM with combined custom property values