CAD Forum

I have an assembly, and it has a drawing with a BOM and balloons:
I now have a different configuration for that assembly. I took the sheet in the drawing and copied it. I changed the drawing view so that it referenced the 2nd configuration. I also changed the BOM so that it referenced the 2nd configuration. When I try and add balloons to the 2nd sheet, it only gives me asterisks. The ONLY way I've found to fix this is to delete the view and start over:
Does anyone have a solution (or even a workaround) short of deleting the view?

Link the view to the BOM

https://www.gsc-3d.com/blog/how-link-bi ... olidworks/

Really?!? Linking the bom to a configuration and a view to a configuration isn't enough? I also have to link the balloons to the BOM?

Thanks for explaining what I was doing wrong. I never would have found it on my own.

The BOM may also need to have multiple configurations activated in order to reference parts in a second config that may not be present in the original configuration.

SPerman wrote: ↑Tue Mar 19, 2024 2:37 pm Really?!? Linking the bom to a configuration and a view to a configuration isn't enough? I also have to link the balloons to the BOM?

Thanks for explaining what I was doing wrong. I never would have found it on my own.

You can have multiple BOMs in a drawing. I'm guessing this is the case for you and that is why it is making the distinction or else it shouldn't really be.

I assume if you are working on giant assemblies with multiple sheets you could have the BOM on a different page from the view, and multiple BOMs all pointing to the same assembly/configuration. I can't imagine where that would fit in my workflow, but that's not to say it doesn't make sense in others.

I'm sure it is my solidworks ignorance, but I feel like the right click "View"-"Properties" is not consistent with the way most other options are set. (Like a new feature that was added recently, and they couldn't be bothered to put it with the rest of the view properties.)

Either way, now I know.

SPerman wrote: ↑Tue Mar 19, 2024 2:37 pm Really?!? Linking the bom to a configuration and a view to a configuration isn't enough? I also have to link the balloons to the BOM?

Thanks for explaining what I was doing wrong. I never would have found it on my own.

One of the things I feel like isn't commonly known by users is that, although a drawing is needed to insert a BOM, after inserting the BOM the drawing view can be deleted, or changed to a different configuration, without affecting the BOM. After it's inserted a BOM is linked to that particular configuration of the Assembly and not to the drawing view that was used to insert it.

AlexB wrote: ↑Tue Mar 19, 2024 2:39 pm The BOM may also need to have multiple configurations activated in order to reference parts in a second config that may not be present in the original configuration.

How do you link a BOM to multiple configurations? I only see a drop down list that allows you to select a single configuration.

SPerman wrote: ↑Tue Mar 19, 2024 4:04 pm How do you link a BOM to multiple configurations? I only see a drop down list that allows you to select a single configuration.

image.png

Change BOM type to Top Level Only or Indented and you can choose multiple configs. Each config gets its own qty column. I don't have any idea why this is not available for "Parts only" BOMs.

That could be handy, if it worked with "Parts only"

josh wrote: ↑Tue Mar 19, 2024 5:14 pm Change BOM type to Top Level Only or Indented and you can choose multiple configs. Each config gets its own qty column. I don't have any idea why this is not available for "Parts only" BOMs.

well, the configuration in the top level is what you could select from the assy, any other level down to the tree leaf is controlled by each component configuration. I can see it becomIng very messy outside the top level.

SPerman wrote: ↑Tue Mar 19, 2024 4:04 pm How do you link a BOM to multiple configurations? I only see a drop down list that allows you to select a single configuration.

image.png

You would un-check this options. It appears to only work on "top-level only" BOMs though as others have mentioned. Then you will have the option to select one or more configs to show in your BOM