Cuved Part and Flat Part as same Part Name/Part Number?

S_Regula

We have a custom flexible tapelight that is cut to length in 50mm increments and used on numerous products. Currently, I have a part studio which has a configuration variable for the radius of the curved surface to which the tape will be applied to. The tape model is created using a sketch which has a formula for the included angle of the part based on the radius entered (the height and thickness of the tape are constant, no matter what the radius is). Basically, the arc length of the tape needs to be 50mm, so I came up with a formula which ensures the arc length is always 50, no matter what radius is entered.

My question has to do with using this same part on a FLAT surface. I created a configuration list which has "flat" and "curved" as the options. But by doing this, the resulting parts are treated as (2) separate parts. There are instances where we use "x" number of curved pieces, and "y" number of flat pieces in the same assembly. Because of how I have set these up, the BOM for these assemblies show (2) different line items (one for the # of curved pieces, one for the # of flat pieces). Ideally, we want to know the TOTAL number of 50mm pieces used, regardless of whether they are flat or curved. We are struggling to come up with a way to include the flat surface configuration into the curved surface configuration. Essentially, the radius for the flat surface config should be "infinity" in order to get the result we are after.

Has anyone had a scenario similar to this? Or does anyone have any ideas on how to accomplish what we are trying to do?

This may be outside of Onshape's capabilities at this point, but I figured it was worth a shot to see if anyone had any ideas to help.

Have at it...

tim_hess427

This seems more like a problem suited for BOM management tool. For your situation, it sounds like you could be using a multi-level BOM. The top level would be your curved parts, but each curved part is structured like a sub-assembly built from one straight part. This would be pretty straight-forward to do in a BOM management tool, but I don't know how it would be accomplished in Onshape natively.

There is a BOM management tool that you can use within Onshape called OpenBOM, available in the app store. It may be worth a look!

john_mcclary

In SW we had the BOM options to combine parts with same name or configurations. Onshape's integrated BOM does not have this functionality yet.
Like @tim_hess427 said, maybe OpenBOM can handle this. @oleg_shilovitsky

Otherwise I would handle it in this way:
I have a custom property called "Qty" I use this for adding qty to detail sheets. I will copy the BOM Qty column and paste the values into my Qty column. then remove my qty column from the bom.

For this situation where I want to combine, I would take it one step further.
I would copy the qty over, then remove the built in qty column. Then add the qty's of the two part configs into one, then exclude the other one from the BOM.

It requires the next guy to be aware the BOM qty's are "manual" but it  is very recognizable when you open BOM, that a trained eye can spot  in right away.

 









You can tell that the Qty column is manual because of the white background rather than the light gray.
so future assembly changes which reflect qty will need to be double checked

Side note: you will not be able to balloon the parts you excluded from BOM

oleg_shilovitsky

@john_mcclary OpenBOM can solve the problem for you and combine it automatically in the single line. 

Please reach me via email- I will demo it to you (oleg@openbom.com). 

Best, oleg