Configuring Draftsman Bill of Materials Object Properties in Altium Designer

Parent page: Bill Of Materials

Draftsman object properties are definable options that specify the visual style, content and behavior of the placed object. The property settings for each type of object are defined in two different ways:

• Pre-placement settings – most Bill Of Materials object properties, or those that can logically be pre-defined, are available as editable default settings on the Draftsman - Defaults page of the Preferences dialog (access from the  button at the top-right of the design space). Select the object in the Primitive List to reveal its options on the right.
• Post-placement settings – all Bill Of Materials object properties are available for editing in the Properties panel when a placed Bill Of Materials is selected in the design space.

The Bill Of Materials default settings in the Preferences dialog and the Bill Of Materials mode of the Properties panel

General Tab

Title

• Title – the title name string that will be displayed (if enabled) with the Bill Of Materials table. Use the associated button to toggle its visibility. Enter the title name and any desired system/custom parameters to create a meaningful name for the placed view. See the Parameters section in the panel's Document Options mode for a list of the currently available parameters.
• Location – select the drop-down to choose from a range of relative locations for the title. The Manual option is automatically selected if the title is manually moved (dragged and dropped to a new location).
• Font – sets the displayed font used for the table's title string.
  • Use Document Font checkbox selected – the title font used is that defined by the document options. See the Document Font entry in General section of the Properties panel when in Document Options mode.
  • Use Document Font not selected – use the drop-down menus to choose the desired font type and size, and select the lower buttons to enable text attributes. The associated color button () opens the color selector where the font color can be specified by RGB or HEX value, by freeform selection, or from a range of presets. Note that the slider control sets the color Opacity level, where 0% represents full transparency.

Properties

• Table Line Style – the thickness, color and pattern style of the lines used to render the BOM table. Use the line weight drop-down menu to choose from a range of line thickness presets and the line pattern menu to choose from a range of line styles. The associated color button () opens the line color selector, as outlined for the Font property above.
• Even Row Color – select the contrasting color for even rows in the BOM table.
• Non-Even Row Color – select the contrasting color for odd rows in the BOM table.
• Font – sets the font used for the table data content.
  • Use Document Font checkbox selected – the font used is that defined by the document options. See the Document Font entry in General section of the Properties panel when in Document Options mode.
  • Use Document Font not selected – use the drop-down menus to choose the desired font type and size and select the lower buttons enable text attributes. The associated color button () opens the color selector, as outlined above.
  • Table Header Bottom – check to position the column header row at the bottom of the table and reverse item listing order.
• Data Source
  • Project – all BOM related data from the PCB project files are used to populate the Draftsman BOM Table, e.g., PCB project components that do not have a symbol or footprint are included.
    When the Data Source is set to Project, the BOM Table will be populated by data from an ActiveBOM document in the PCB Project, if one is available. Use Draftsman's Tools » Update Board command to pick up live changes in an ActiveBOM document.
    See BOM Management with ActiveBOM for more information on creating and configuring an ActiveBOM document.
  • Board – entries in the Draftsman BOM Table are constrained to component items that are present on the physical project PCB.
• Assembly View – use the drop-down menu options to filter the listed BOM entries to the items shown in a specified Board Assembly View. The options include any placed Assembly Views, or simply All items in the PCB design.
• View Mode
  • Base – a table row is assigned to each unique component type and lists all included items in the Designator column. If a Variant has been selected, only its items will be listed.
  • Flat – a table row is assigned to each component item. If a Variant has been selected, only its items will be listed.
  • Consolidated – if the source project includes Variants, the BOM Table will include component entries from all design variations. Selecting this option will automatically set the Variant option to All.
• Variant – use the drop-down menu to select a PCB design Variation, if available, as a data source for the BOM table. The Document:xx option is a Variant specified for the document under Document Options in the Properties panel (Source section).
  The placed BOM table will appropriately reflect assembly items that are not included or have varied parameters. When a Variant is selected, check the Show Not Fitted option to to include component entries in the list that are not fitted to that Variant – their Quantity entry will be zero, and if the Fitted column is included in the Table, the entries will show as Not Fitted (Base and Flat View Modes).

Pages

Use this section to configure Split BOM Tables. 

• BOM Table ID – a numeric identifier for a BOM table instance. The complete table may be split over several BOM table objects (pages) and the ID remains in common.
• Limit Page Height – when checked, the BOM table is divided into a sequence of virtual pages each with the height specified in the Max Page Height property.
• Max Page Height – sets the height, and therefore, the included number of rows, in each page of the table. Only one page is included in a placed BOM table object (see Page below), and additional BOM table objects are placed to cover all pages.
• Page – indicates the table page number (1 from 2, 3 from 5 etc.,) that is shown in the selected BOM table object. Use the associated drop-down menu to specify the desired page for the currently selected BOM table object.
• Show Empty Lines – when checked, blank rows in the BOM table are shown. These are typically on the last page of a BOM table where the specified page height has exceeded the number of available BOM data rows.

Columns Tab 

Columns

A tabular list of the columns and data shown in the BOM table. The entries may be edited to specify the BOM table's included (visible) columns and their text alignment (Align - Properties panel only), width (Width) and displayed list sort order/priority (Order). Enter an alternative name for a BOM Table header in its corresponding Alias entry – note that this entry cannot be edited if an ActiveBOM document is determining the BOM Table data (see Properties – Data Source, above).

• Column Type filter checkboxes (Properties panel only) – check the Schematic (), PCB (), Server () and BOM () options to populate the available columns list with matching parameter data types. Deselect all types to list only those columns that are visible () in the BOM Table. See ActiveBOM for more information about parameter data sources.
• Move Left / Right buttons – click to move the selected entry up or down by one count, and therefore, to the left or right in the BOM table column order. Available for columns set to visible.
• Default button – click to restore the table columns to the default entries (as defined by the BOM table object Preferences).