BOM CoDesign in Altium Designer

The BOM CoDesign functionality facilitates collaborative BOM design between the ECAD and Procurement domains. This functionality enables the designer and procurement expert to interact using the notion of Related BOM snapshots created with the BOM Portal. BOM CoDesign allows you to easily see a summary of differences between the design’s live WIP BOM and a selected procurement BOM and analyze them in detail. You have full control over whether to apply a change (where applicable), per detected difference, to the ActiveBOM document.

The BOM CoDesign functionality is accessed from the Related BOMs tab of the Properties panel for an Altium 365 Workspace project's ActiveBOM document. The Related BOMs region at the top of the panel lists the Managed BOMs related to the project. Expand an entry of a related BOM to see its releases.

• Each related BOM entry is listed with respect to its name, details (Managed BOM's description), and last modified date.

• Each related BOM release entry is listed with respect to its lifecycle state (indicated by the color icon), revision ID, details (release notes for the release), and last modified date.

Select an entry of a related BOM or one of its releases in the Related BOMs list to see its details in the lower part of the panel.

• When a related BOM entry is selected, its name will be presented at the top of the region. Click it to open the corresponding Managed BOM in the Altium 365 Workspace browser interface. Also, the Details region will be presented to show the Managed BOM's description ().

• When a related BOM release entry is selected, the name of its parent BOM, the revision ID of the release, and the lifecycle state indicated by its icon and name will be presented at the top of the region. Click the revision ID to open this release in the Altium 365 Workspace browser interface. Also, the Details region will be presented to show the release note ().

Analyzing Differences

Select an entry of a related BOM entry or one of its releases in the Related BOMs list to analyze differences between that BOM/release and the design’s live WIP BOM (ActiveBOM). The summary of differences is presented in the Differences region and includes lists of Added, Modified, and Removed BOM entries. Expand an entry to see details on a particular difference and access applicable actions.

Click the  button to access available additional actions that allow you to access tools for further analysis:

• Compare MPN – if a different manufacturer part number has been chosen for a BOM line item in the related BOM or if an alternative part is suggested to be added, select to open the Manufacturer Part Search panel where the current and suggested parts are selected for comparison (). Learn more about the panel's Part Compare Feature.

• Explore Component:

  • If a different supplier purchasing solution has been chosen for a BOM line item in the related BOM (and the manufacturer part number has not been changed), select to open the Manufacturer Part Search panel, where a search by the suggested part's SPN is performed ().

  • If a different manufacturer part number has been chosen for a BOM line item in the related BOM or if an alternative part that is not linked to a Workspace component is suggested to be added, select to open the Manufacturer Part Search panel, where a search by the suggested part's MPN is performed ().

  • If an alternative part that is linked to a Workspace component is suggested to be added, select to open the Components panel, where a search by that linked component's Revision ID is performed ().

Applying Changes

Where applicable, a difference can be resolved by applying a change from the Managed BOM to the current ActiveBOM document data.

•  When a change affects only a component's supply chain data, click the  button to apply the change directly to the ActiveBOM document.

  • If a different supplier purchasing solution has been chosen for a BOM line item in the related BOM (and the manufacturer part number has not been changed), priority 1 will be set for the suggested supplier  ().

  • If a different manufacturer part number has been chosen for a BOM line item in the related BOM, this manufacturer part number will be set as the primary solution ().

• When an alternate part is added to or removed from a BOM line item,  click the  button to add/remove the suggested alternative part ().

• When a change also affects the component revision (e.g., a different manufacturer part has been chosen for a BOM line item in the related BOM, and the linked Workspace component has changed), click the  button to select an appropriate action:

  • Replace component – select to open the Engineering Change Order dialog (). Complete the ECO process to replace the component in the design's schematics.

  • Set as Alternate – select to add the suggested part as an alternative part (). This may be a preferable option if you would like to keep the design intact.