Overview of the Edit Bill of Materials table

The Edit bill of materials table is accessed by clicking on the  "Edit bill of materials…” command in the Bommer pane; clicking on that command will launch the following form:

Does your screen look different? You may be running an older version of Bommer. See Upgrading Bommer for more info on how to upgrade Bommer.

The form contains an expandable group of settings, the formula bar, an evaluation area, and an editable table of components and properties.  Within the table, there is a filter button that will show or hide a row of filters for each column. The table also has buttons to let you switch between the different categories of properties defined in your settings; each button press shows only the properties that are in that category and hides the rest of the properties.  For each category, the first data column will contain the part name.

Formula Bar

At the top of this form is the formula bar and evaluation area. This is similar to Excel's formula bar. For more information about writing formulas in Bommer, please see the Formulas and calculated fields guide.

To activate the formula bar, left-mouse-click into an editable cell in the table.  The selected cell will be editable from both the cell in the table and the formula bar above the table.  To change the cell you are editing, click into the new cell.  Note that pressing the TAB key when a table cell is selected may change the selected table cell but will not update the formula bar until an edit is performed.

Below the formula bar, Bommer will display the row and column being edited, the evaluated value or error from evaluating the formula, and a link to our guide on formulas.  When the cell is deselected, the table will show the evaluated value in that cell.  The formula bar can also be used to view and edit values of any length, simply by clicking into the cell you wish to view or edit.

Line item controls

By default, the table will display a structured (hierarchical) BOM. The very first column will contain  buttons on each subassembly, that let you show and hide children of that subassembly.  Next to the button is a column that displays the item number of each line item in your BOM, in the form of x.y.z.a...  Item numbers are generated by Bommer to correspond with the order in which it processes the components from Fusion; root components will have an empty level.

The last two columns are titled "Link" and "Enable Editing": "Link" will contain a button for rows that are contained in linked components, and when pressed will open the referenced design within Fusion 360.  Enable editing will contain a  button for rows that are not yet editable; when pressed, Bommer will set up the linked document that holds the component that corresponds with that line item.  Note that this will result in a new version of that document within Fusion 360; it's the only way to make changes that persist to a document within Fusion.

Filtering

Pressing the filter button in the top right of the table will show or hide the filter row; this row contains controls that let you apply per-column filters to the table:

The inputs on this row will vary based on the property type of each column:

• Text, Number, Decimal, and read-only properties will have text boxes
• Multiple Choice properties will have a drop-down box with possible values, and a special value for "empty" cells
• True/False properties will have a checkbox that has a question mark in it to indicate it is not set. Pressing the check box will let you filter on checked items pressing it again will let you filter on unchecked items; and pressing it a third time will reset it to unset

Table settings

The Settings group can be expanded, showing settings that can be used to change the table to make it easier to view or edit:

Show Root Component - Toggle to show or hide the root component (the top level of the current design) in the table.  Note that by default, all properties in the root component except the name can be edited in this table.

Show Excluded Components - Toggle to show or hide components that have “Excluded?” checked.

Flatten BOM - Toggle to switch between a hierarchical BOM and a flattened parts lists.  This primarily affects how quantities are tallied, and whether components will be duplicated in the table: Hierarchical BOMs will report quantities at the current level of the hierarchy; if a component shows up in multiple areas in the design (for example, the same screw component is used to fasten two different subassemblies), it will show up once in each area or subasssembly.  Flattened parts lists will count quantities by component irrespective of a component’s position within the assembly hierarchy, and will only contain one row for each unique component.

Isolate Selection - Toggle to switch selection behaviors.  By default, selecting an item in the tree will focus on that item in the table.  If this is checked, a selection in the design tree will isolate the corresponding row in the table.  Combined with Allow Multiple Selection and Show Isolated Selection Children, you can isolate a subset of components for easier editing.

Allow Multiple Selection - Only applies when Isolate Selection is checked.  Check to select multiple items in the design tree while the dialog box is open. By default, you may only select one item (when you select a new item, the old item is deselected).

Show Isolated Selection Children - Only applies when Isolate Selection is checked.  Check to show all children of selected items (in addition to the selected items).