Applied Parameters: None
Summary
This command is used to place a Bill of Materials table object into the active Draftsman document (*.PCBDwf). Presenting tabular data that is directly derived from the project PCB files, a Bill of Materials table provides a simple, visual way to convey crucial information for the PCB assembly process.
For a high-level look at how the Altium Draftsman Drawing System provides an interactive approach to the creation of production documentation for your PCBs, see
Draftsman. For detailed information about this object type, see
Bill of Materials.
Access
This command can be accessed from the PcbDrawing Editor by:
- Choosing the Place » Bill Of Materials command from the main menus.
- Locating and using the Bill of Materials command (
) on the Active Bar.
If the command has been recently used from the Active Bar, it will become the active/visible button. Where other commands are available, this is indicated by a triangle at the bottom-right corner of the button. Click and hold on the active button to access a menu of all associated commands for that grouping.
- Clicking the entry on the Tables drop-down (
) of the Drawing Annotations toolbar.
- Right-clicking in the workspace and choosing the Place » Bill Of Materials command from the context menu.
Use
If your PCB design project has more than one PCB, ensure that the board from which you wish to generate the BOM table is selected in the PCB Document field in the Source section of the Properties panel (set to present the Document Options when no objects are selected in the workspace).
After launching the command, data will be acquired from the source PCB document, and a Bill of Materials table will appear floating on the cursor. Position the table as desired and click to effect placement. If your Draftsman document has multiple sheets, you can zoom out and move the table to the intended sheet, while it is still floating on the cursor.
Tips
- A Bill of Materials table can be graphically modified after placement. Click and drag the table to move it to a different location within the current sheet.
- Most aspects of a placed Bill of Materials table are available for editing through the Properties panel. If the panel is already open, select a placed Bill of Materials table to populate the panel with its associated properties. If the panel is not open, double-click on the Bill of Materials table to access it.
- The Data Filtering options in the Properties panel allow the BOM content to reflect a selected board design variant and/or filter the content to that of any Board Assembly View that has been placed within the Draftsman document (the default is All content and All Variants).
- Setup the BOM table's available content and data grouping in the Bill Of Materials Configurations dialog. Access to this dialog is made by clicking the BOM Item button, at the bottom of the Properties section within the Properties panel, when browsing/modifying the properties of the selected Bill of Materials table. Of particular note is the Data Source property. This defines which PCB project data files are used to derive the BOM item list - by default, this the current Board design. The alternative Project option will extract BOM data from all design files in the nominated PCB project. The latter brings in all project data, including custom component parameters from the project schematic document(s).
- If changes have been made to the PCB document, using the Tools » Update Board command will ensure that a placed Bill of Materials table is kept in-sync.
- A BOM Table can be split over several pages, if required. Select a placed BOM (which is likely to exceed the document sheet height) and check the Limit Page Height box in the Properties panel’s Pages section. This will restrict the height of the BOM table to the nominated height entry (Max Page Height, mm), and therefore the number of lines shown in the table. Draftsman detects that the entire BOM is not shown, as indicated by the panel's Page entry (for example,
1 from 2), and the associated drop down menu allows you to nominate which page is shown. To add further pages of the BOM, place another BOM table and specify the next page under Page in the Pages section of the Properties panel. Since each page of the BOM is placed by adding another BOM table, and then configuring it accordingly, the individual BOM pages (sections) can be placed on any sheet in a Draftsman document. To place another, different set of split BOM pages, specify an alternative BOM Table ID on a placed BOM – say, 1 rather than 0.
- Defaults for this primitive type can be defined on the Draftsman - Defaults page of the Preferences dialog.
Altium Designer Documentation
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