Working with a SOLIDWORKS PDM Named BOM

A SOLIDWORKS PDM Named BOM, is a saved from a Computed BOM and can be treated like any other vaulted file. Named BOMs can be Checked In/Out, Versioned, and have their State changed. Like other vaulted files, the history of the BOM is captured and can be viewed.

Named BOMs can only be viewed by switching the Display of the Local Vault View, to Show Bills of Materials.

Show Bills of Materials

Each cell of the Named BOM is editable and changed BOM Items are highlighted.

Editable BOM with changed rows highlighted

Additional Columns can be added, by right-clicking on an existing column. The new column can be added to the right or left, of the selected column.

Insert New BOM Column

The new Column can be associated with an existing Variable, or Free Text.

BOM Column Association

The same procedure can be used to insert Rows.

Insert BOM Rows

Once all changes are made, the BOM can be saved by clicking the Save icon to the far-right of the BOM.

Save BOM

As with other file types, the BOM can be Checked-in

Check In BOM

When a BOM is Checked-in a new Version is created.  And there is a pull-down available, that allows different versions to be viewed.

BOM Versions

Once checked in, a bar will placed on the right-hand side of the a cell, to indicate that the cell has been manually changed. Deleting text in an edited cell will restore the linked value.

From the same location where the BOM is saved, different versions of the BOM can be compared.

Compare BOM

Any differences between the latest version and earlier versions are highlighted. The earlier version to be compared, can be selected.

Highlighted BOM differences

When defining Category or Workflow Conditions, BOM is an Argument for the Type, Object Type. This allows filtering of BOMs, if a separate workflow, is used to control the lifecycle of a BOM.

BOM Category Condition

BOM is also available as a Transition Condition.

BOM Transition Condition