SolidWorks 2010 Bible

Chapter 24: Working with Tables and Drawings

Item numbers in indented BOMs can be flat like 1, 2, 3, or they can be detailed like 1.1, 1.2, 1.3,

2, 2.1, 2.2 to reflect parts as members of subassemblies. This formatting option is available in the

BOM Type panel in the BOM PropertyManager, under the Indented option.

Adding rows or columns

To add a column, right-click near where you want to add the column, and choose Insert ➪ Column

Right or Column Left. Inserting rows is exactly the same. The next thing you will want to do with a

column is to assign what kind of data goes into it. You can use a custom property such as Part

Weight or Vendor, as shown in Figure 24.8. Access this interface by double-clicking a column

header and selecting Custom Property from the drop-down list.

FIGURE 24.8

Establishing the property driving the column content

One of the really beautiful aspects of custom property management in the BOM is that if you just

type text in a column set up to be driven by a part property, SolidWorks automatically updates the

part with the property. If the property didn’t exist in the part previously, SolidWorks also creates

the property. This is another very nice addition to the software.

Note
If you create a BOM with the columns and properties that you like, then you can save it to a template as
described earlier in this chapter. n

Editing BOMs

When you need to manually enter text in a BOM, for example in General Tables or custom proper-

ties in BOMs, starting in SolidWorks 2010, you can use the tab and arrow keys to move the cursor

between cells. In fact, most of the Excel-like functionality has been added back into the SolidWorks

native table format.