How to create SOLIDWORKS BOM (Bill of Materials) using OpenBOM Add-in

Oleg Shilovitsky
Oleg Shilovitsky
11 September, 2019 | 2 min for reading
How to create SOLIDWORKS BOM (Bill of Materials) using OpenBOM Add-in

If you use SOLIDWORKS to design products, one day you will obviously need to create a Bill of Materials for what you want to build. As every professional 3D Mechanical CAD system, SOLIDWORKS gives you a way to create a Bill of Materials (engineering) table in a drawings as well as to export BOM to Excel. 

While this is very much standard, it doesn’t help you when you need to calculate the cost, mass or plan purchasing. Also, sending Excel and Drawings to a shop or to a contract manufacturer is prone to many mistakes. 

OpenBOM is coming to help you. To make it really easy, OpenBOM created integrations with all CAD systems allowing you to collect information engineers and organize it in a way that allow you to manage data about all your parts (standard, fabricated, outsourced) as well as product structure. 

Below, you can find a typical scenario to follow in order to organize the data and create a first BOM from Solidworks. I assume, you already installed OpenBOM Add-in for Solidworks. And here are the steps: 

  1. To configure OpenBOM Add-in using settings and define templates
  2. Create an OpenBOM catalog from the assembly. Add business parameters you don’t want to store in Solidworks (Eg. cost, manufacturer and supplier names. 
  3. Create a catalog – this is a central place to store data about parts 
  4. Create a BOM – it is a structure that helps you to capture usage of parts in this particular BOM
  5. Connect BOM to a catalog to create a complete data representation of product structure. 

Please watch the video with step-by-step instructions.

Conclusion.

Establishing product structure including information about the parts, usages and other business information (Eg. cost, supplier) is a great step to improve the way you work in product design and manufacturer. OpenBOM Add-in for Solidworks allows you to capture data about BOM and keep related information closed, but noto messed up with multiple Excel files. 

OpenBOM Add-In for Solidworks is FREE and it is available with any OpenBOM subscription today.  

Best, Oleg @ openbom dot com.

Let’s get to know each other better. If you live in the Greater Boston area, I invite you for a coffee together (coffee is on me). If not nearby, let’s have a virtual coffee session — I will figure out how to send you a real coffee.

Want to learn more about PLM? Check out my Beyond PLM blog and PLM Book website

Related Posts

Also on OpenBOM

4 6
21 November, 2024

Manufacturing faces mounting challenges as product complexity grows, demanding advanced design and production capabilities to stay competitive. Cost pressures and...

20 November, 2024

In this article, we explore the story of Xtend AI, a company developing mobile intelligence and robotic platforms. With a...

16 November, 2024

OpenBOM’s open architecture empowers you to connect seamlessly with a variety of applications and services, enabling efficient collaboration across design...

15 November, 2024

With tariffs on Chinese imports potentially climbing above 60% and increases of 10% or more on goods from other regions,...

14 November, 2024

I’m thrilled to invite you to watch the second Design Projects Live Demo we held yesterday and check out more...

13 November, 2024

Product development success relies on the synergy between multiple team members. It is a teamwork. Engineers, project managers, procurement teams,...

12 November, 2024

I’m excited to share the great story of the Purdue Electric Racing Team and their journey to streamline CAD data...

8 November, 2024

As manufacturing companies are going deep with digital transformation and process optimization, the data integration between engineering and manufacturing has...

8 November, 2024

For most industries, including manufacturing, Excel has been the go-to tool for managing Bills of Materials (BOMs). It’s familiar, flexible,...

To the top