Using view representations in LOD BOM

As explained in a previous blog article, the LOD BOM always shows the Master LOD (=all components unsuppressed).

Consider a situation where you have already your assembly set up with an LOD and you don't want to create an extra iAssembly simply to obtain a parts list that leaves out the suppressed items?

Here is a technique that can be used to tweak the LOD BOM to obtain the desired result without too much extra work.

The technique is to use a parts list filter based on a particular view representation (I will use the term "viewrep" in short in the remainder of the article) .

As dataset I use the suspension.iam sample file and I created a LOD with name "No wheels" (both wheels are suppressed).

Here is the procedure.

1. Copy the LOD to a viewrep (via the context menu on the LOD).
    Use the default name (by default the viewrep will have the same names as the LOD).

2. Use the LOD to create your drawing view
The viewrep used in the Create view command is of less importance for the parts list (but it is important to pick the right viewrep in the Filter settings dialog later in step 4 though).

3. Add the parts list and balloons to the view.
Note that items 3 and 4, representing the wheels, are still included in the parts list.

 

4. Filter the parts list on the viewrep
The viewrep in the filter has to correspond to the same viewrep that was copied from the LOD (in our case the viewrep is called "No wheels").

The resulting parts list will only contain the components that are shown in the view (items 3 and 4 are no longer showing up in the list). And that is what we were after.

A couple of caveats though.

Caveat 1: It is best to use this technique only when your design is stable. When you change the LOD after the viewrep has been created, the viewrep does not update.
There is no associativity between LOD and Viewrep, so you will have to recreate a new viewrep from the LOD or adjust your existing viewrep when you make a change.

Caveat 2: This is related to the text that I have highlighted in yellow in the Filter dialog.
The filtered parts list continues to show the QTY from the master. So there is no way to show the QTY of only the parts that show up in the view (unless you override the values in the parts list) !
Only when ALL instances of a component are made invisible in the viewrep , that component will completely disappear from the parts list and with it the "misleading" QTY information as well.
To avoid possible QTY confusion between what is shown in the parts list and what is shown in a filtered view, I would think it is wise to use at least two parts lists on your drawing:

Parts list 1: the master parts list containing all items with a QTY column.
Parts list 2: a filtered parts list with the QTY column omitted. The item number can be used as common currency to look up the "real" QTY in the master parts list.

 Bob

 

Comments

[Theo Bot]

Bob,

There is a way to get the correct partlist. Ilogic.
If you suppress files with ilogic the bomstructure will be changed into reference. So they will not been visible for the partlist.

Gr. Theo

[Bob]

Thanks for pointing that out Leo. However not everyone wants to write code to create configurations. But I agree with you that using a line like

Component.IsActive("Part1:1")=False

is not overly complicated. BTW,we called the command isactive and not issupressed to clearly distinguish between a command that influences the BOM and the regular Inventor suppress command that does not affect the BOM.
Bob