Parts without geometry

Brian_McVeigh

How do people manage parts in onshape which have no geometry, or do not exist in CAD? I would like to add a lot of packaging materials to my BoM, but the 3D files do not exist or are needed for this. I know 'items' exist,but these establish the part number at the top level I think?  So if I created an 'instructions' item at company settings level, every BoM that is used in it would have the same part number which isn't very useful for me.  I would like to add a non-geometry item to my BoM, and establish the part number in the BoM.  (The part number for product As instructions is not the same as product Bs, nor is the label, the foam, the cellophane etc.)  I could have all these individually added to the company settings, but that doesn't seem like how this was intended to be used, and is an added frustration having to request those additions to company settings when I have control over all other aspects of my BoM.

Cheers,

B

brucebartlett

Have you tried setting these up as items in your company settings, I think you need the professional subscription for this? 

tim_hess427

@brucebartlett - @Brian_McVeigh did say he knows about the company-wide items. The problem, as he pointed out, is that it is a cumbersome process to go into the company-wide settings to create these items, when every other part number can be created within a document. This also limits item creation to company admins, right?

I've wondered the same thing, though. What types of things are the "item" list intended for? If, as mentioned in the original post, a company may have part number for many different documents that are used for different projects. Should all of those go into that items list? Given its location in company-wide settings, it seems like its intended for "standard" company-wide items. 

brucebartlett

@tim_hess427 yes I read the OP very poorly.  The OP makes a good about the process of creating items for company-wide use, it would be very frustrating having to request these items to be managed from the administrator. Being able to add all the info at the assembly BoM is really nice and saves a lot of time. It is frustrating when everything can not be added at the BOM, for example, I use a material list for stock materials and find a similar frustration having to go out and create a new material if it's not already on the list.