Bill of Materials - Overview

You can insert a bill of materials (BOM) into the drawing of an assembly. You can insert table-based BOMs directly into an assembly or part. If you add or delete components in the assembly, the bill of materials automatically updates to reflect the changes if you select the Automatic update of BOM option in Tools > Options > Document Properties > Tables > Bill of Materials . Such changes include adding, deleting, or replacing components, changing component names or custom properties, and so on.

• If you do not select Automatic update of BOM, you must delete and re-insert the BOM to update it.
  To insert an Excel-based bill of materials in a drawing, you must have Microsoft Excel installed on your computer. See SOLIDWORKS System Requirements for the supported versions of Microsoft Excel.
• Rows in bills of materials are combined when all fields (except for Item Number) are the same. However, bills of materials in drawings created in releases prior to SOLIDWORKS 2000 are not automatically updated to combine rows.
• You cannot delete the PART NO. column.
• You can insert balloons or stacked balloons that label the parts in an assembly and relate them to item numbers in the bill of materials.
• SOLIDWORKS includes several BOM templates in the following directory: drive letter:\Program Files\SOLIDWORKS Corp\SOLIDWORKS\lang\language.
• You can embed dimensions and mass property parameters into values of custom properties in part documents. You can then include the custom properties in a bill of materials. The values in the BOM update automatically if the part dimensions or mass properties change.