A lot of people in the SolidWorks Enterprise PDM community were excited when EPDM Item BOMs were introduced, but the EPDM Item Explorer and its related features still cause some confusion about how to use both EPDM Document BOMs and EPDM Item BOMs.  Unfortunately, it’s impossible to definitively settle the question of whether to use EPDM Document BOMs, EPDM Item BOMs, or both, in a short article.    However, there are some general rules of thumb worth considering in determining whether EPDM Document BOMs or EPDM Item BOMs best fit a company’s business strategy:  Read the rest of this entry »

With so many different perspectives on the BOM in today’s organizations, companies have come to expect that different departments will be creating and re-creating content to describe their products.  Some will do it with Microsoft Excel, some with Microsoft Word, others with Adobe Illustrator, and others still with an alternative CAD package like AutoCAD.  With new tools like 3DVIA Composer, all of this extra effort can be saved.  Once metadata is stored in a set of CAD files, 3DVIA Composer lets users slice and dice the content and BOM information in whatever way is relevant for a particular audience, with full associativity for downstream changes.  Setting xBOM management in PDM aside, let’s look at how 3DVIA Composer can present very different views of a product’s BOM, visually.  Read the rest of this entry »

If you’ve been developing programs for a while, you probably either love autocompletion features or you hate them.  If you’re in the former camp, or you’re just getting started with programming, this tip is just for you.  Autocomplete, or the Microsoft equivalent, IntelliSense, is a feature within certain software that tries to automatically complete what you’ve started typing before you finish typing all of the letters yourself.  For a lot of people, this is a real time-saver and can prevent typographical mistakes.  But what if you’re working on code in a text file, or in a development environment that doesn’t have autocomplete?  Here are a few utilities that can help you out.  Read the rest of this entry »

BOM (Bill of Material) management discussions can get really tricky. Just perform a search on the definition of a Bill of Material and you will find a multitude of definitions out on the web. It is likely it even means different things to different people within your organization.  A CAD engineer is focused mainly on the physical structure of the product; a manufacturing engineer would be comfortable with a “As Manufactured” view of the product; the Service department may need a view into product BOM when ordering replacement parts, while, Purchasing is concerned with the latest version of BOM to make sure they are ordering the correct components.  Read the rest of this entry »

Design Automation is very powerful when creating unique “same as, but” models for new jobs. But in many cases, people are doing configure-to-order (CTO) just as much as they are doing engineer-to-order (ETO). Configure-to-order means utilizing standard components and using the automation to determine the logic for which component, or which size of a component, to put in an assembly. Configuring an automated design sounds simpler, and in many ways it is, but there are a few things to note and some design automation best practices to follow when planning to swap models in SolidWorks.  Read the rest of this entry »

Razorleaf will be speaking at COE 2010 Aerospace & Defense Workshop on October 12, 2010.  Jonathan Scott from Razorleaf will deliver “Cleaning Up CATIA V5 Data for PDM or V6” in support of one of Razorleaf’s partners, Adaptive Corporation.   This hands-on session is extremely timely given CATIA V5 users’ need to get their data under management in anticipation of CATIA V6.  It will also be relevant for those with no V6 plans, but who struggle with getting their CATIA V5 data loaded into basic file management systems like ENOVIA SmarTeam.  If you’re planning to attend COE Aero, please join us for this session, or stop by to speak with us while at the event.

SolidWorks Enterprise PDM offers a number of ways to work with BOMs (Bills of Materials).  In EPDM 2008, SolidWorks introduced the Item Explorer, along with Items and Item BOMs.  Although many in the community welcomed this addition to EPDM’s BOM capabilities, EPDM users should not overlook the possibilities inherent in the EPDM Document BOM.  Here are some of the key capabilities of, and possibilities for, using EPDM Document BOMs: 

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