Restructuring Assembly Components in a SOLIDWORKS Bill of Materials (BOM)

A bill of materials (BOM) is a comprehensive list of parts, assemblies and sub-assemblies of the design. Most SOLIDWORKS users know how to create and customize their BOM. However, some could miss out the functionality of restructuring assembly components in a BOM table without affecting the assembly structure.

You can:

• Dissolve subassemblies or weldments.
• Combine all items that are identical to a selected item, such as parts or weldments in the BOM.
• Drag items from one cell in the Assembly Structure column to another to combine like items or re-arrange the hierarchy.

First of all, you have to access the assembly structure within the BOM, which is hidden by default. It can be shown by clicking on the triple arrow on the left side of the BOM.

Dissolving Subassemblies or Weldments

You can remove individual parent components within the indented hierarchy of a BOM while retaining child components by dissolving items in the BOM. Right-click cells in the BOM Assembly Structure column to dissolve selected subassemblies or weldments, removing them from the BOM display.

In the indented display of BOM components, right-click the subassembly in the BOM Assembly Structure column and select Dissolve.

When subassembly is dissolved, its parts move to the main assembly.

Combining identical Items

Right-click on the component cell in the BOM Assembly Structure and select “Combine Identical Components”.

For example RMB on “Brace_Corner” and select Combine Identical Components.

All identical Brace_Corner are combined with the selected Brace_Corner. Item numbers and quantities are updated.

To separate combined items, right-click a combined item and clear Combine Identical Components.

Dragging Items to Restructure the BOM

You can rearrange items by dragging components and subassemblies in the BOM Assembly Structure column.

You can drag:

• Weldment bodies to weldment bodies or parts
• Parts or assemblies to parts or bodies
• Parts, bodies, or assemblies to assemblies

You can then right click on the sub assembly cell and restore the original structure at any time to undo the changes.