A BOM is an essential part of every drawing record in that it provides a means of describing an engineering scenario in full.

The BOM function can also fulfill a range of other functions. It provides the design engineer with a full breakdown of the various parts involved, including precise descriptions of these parts. It provides the mechanical engineer with a detailed breakdown of the parts involved and their standardized names. It provides the purchaser with information on the availability of the parts in the warehouse, and on the costs of the materials to be used.

The AutoCAD BOM functions are a used-friendly tools package that can be used to display (or hide) technical data and other information on parts in a drawing (even during the design phase). Once the AutoCAD parts list (BOM) is complete, it is used to generate the SAP BOM.

We would now like to show you one possible procedure for creating a BOM. (When we say possible, we mean that, based on your BOM configuration settings, it is possible to create a BOM from only info points, from only item numbers, or from both.

The info point P_GENEMPT_INF_PT>(w95sec) appears as a cyan-colored block, and contains hidden object-based information. When you insert standard parts and perform tasks with other AutoCAD applications, this information is read automatically from the database, and stored in the info point. You can make changes to the database information, or you can insert info points yourself, and specify values for these. It is possible to generate a BOM from info points alone.

You can assign item numbers to the individual parts for the engineering/design drawing. You can use a command to generate item numbers easily from an info point. This procedure is called reading an info point. The item number is calculated on the basis of your specifications – it contains hidden information that is required for the BOM.

It is also possible to insert item numbers directly in the drawing (i.e. without generating an info point first). You can also generate item numbers or texts that do not contain any BOM information – you cannot use these to generate a BOM, though.

It is also possible to generate item numbers automatically in the drawing using existing info points.

You can also append item numbers to other item numbers that have already been inserted.

Once you have generated all the necessary item numbers, you can choose the function Generate BOM. A dialog box appears where you can enter the necessary information. You can then output the BOM to the drawing or to a printer.

You can edit the layout of your printout to meet your requirements. There is even a separate editor for the BOM printout.

Every time you generate a BOM, an file with the extension *.TXT is created. Information on the BOM is stored in this file for future use.