Best Of

I occasionally use BoMs on large projects producing drawing packages which fill a briefcase, involving hundreds of subassemblies and of course many more parts ... and the following list is perhaps tipped a little in that direction. Like most contract designers, I'm never doing the same sort of work long enough to develop easy expertise -- in this case with megaBoMs -- so cryptic and arcane user interfaces are disproportionately detrimental.

However if future capabilities are part of the early planning, they should be able to be integrated much more seamlessly and with a simpler UX when the time comes. In no particular order:

1) Ability to click on a BoM line entry, and go direct to the part or subassembly
2) Ability to edit part and subassy properties from the BoM
3) Ability to override number of instances of a subassy or part, eg where a higher level assy shows only selected instances. Override to be permanently flagged to the CAD operator
4) Sophisticated control over whether and how subassemblies 'dissolve' in the BoM to reveal nested subassies and parts. Hopefully as powerful as SW, but ideally less confusing for the uninitiated.
5) An easily accessed part property which sets an "Exclude from BoM" flag.
It would be great if there was also an ability to click on a BoM and see a list (even if only temporarily - we can grab a screenshot if need be) of excluded parts. The same, or a similar facility, could also list overrides in operation. (ref point 3)
6) Flexibility as to whether filenames constitute Part Nos for the purposes of the BoM
7) Ability to split balloon numbering sequences easily over a number of drawing sheets
8) Flexibility of balloon and box shapes (PLEASE either allow us to draw a master box ourselves, OR include options such as Obrounds, eg like a keyway or slot profile, and PLEASE don't shrink boxes tightly, unless we can override the amount of white space ... and ideally, perhaps allow for several 'compartments' per box, with vertical dividers, for segregated-designator item numbers)