Onshape BOM for google sheet

H_Wang

Hi Lou, 
       I am using Onshape Bom for google sheet. I like how it is simple and easy to use ( and no bugs as far as I know), however, is there anyway we can add additional columns to the BOM, we would want at least unit cost, materials, vendor etc. to the existing columns. It would be really helpful if you can show us. 

Thanks,
Haibing

john_mcclary

@Haibing_Wang
When you want the attention of someone specific. It is good to @ them.
Then they will get an email notification. Otherwise another Onshape employee will need to go find him if he didn't see your message first

@lougallo

H_Wang

@lougallo
Here we go

H_Wang

@lougallo
Hi Lou,
Honestly, I think the BOM is so important to a CAD software, am definitely surprised it did not receive the amount of attention it should. After all, there are 5000 paying customers, and this software is going to go somewhere. It is not that we didn't want to pay for any third party BOM solutions, we did try it out but unfortunately, that did not work out! So Onshape/PTC team, please get back to me with a hopeful answer. 

NeilCooke

@Haibing_Wang have you tried the built-in BOM (tab on right side of assembly screen)?

H_Wang

NeilCooke said:

@Haibing_Wang have you tried the built-in BOM (tab on right side of assembly screen)?

Hi Neil,  
      Yes I have, but every time I have a little bit of update, I need to export it to a new spread sheet, this is inconvenient. Also I have to manually add columns like extended cost. If I had unit cost exported from Onshape BOM, and then I added a column extended cost. When I update the Onshape BOM, I need to export it again to a new spreadsheet, and then I have to add the extended column all over again, correct? 

NeilCooke

I'm not sure I follow the reason why you need to export/edit in spreadsheet - you can add a column using the button on the top right and that column will stay.

H_Wang

There are other reasons why we want to keep BOM outside of Onshape, which is why you can export Onshap BOM to a spreadsheet. Onshape BOM for google sheet created by Lou does just that. However, we are only able to add columns inside Onshape, not in the spreadsheet outside of Onshape. Let's say I wanted to get a BOM to our inventory or logistics department (NOT Onshape users), they will get a spreadsheet I exported from Onshape BOM, however, if had changes to that BOM, their spreadsheet does not get updated until I gave them a new one, then anything they added to the spreadsheet has to be done all over again. Hope I have explained our issues here. Thanks Neil!

john_mcclary

lou originally made the google sheet bom as an example of how to export bom. It's not really a maintained feature.

Have you tried OpenBOM? I think you can view the bom on openbom's website without needing to open onshape. It is much better for what you are attempting to track

H_Wang

john_mcclary said:

lou originally made the google sheet bom as an example of how to export bom. It's not really a maintained feature.

Have you tried OpenBOM? I think you can view the bom on openbom's website without needing to open onshape. It is much better for what you are attempting to track

We have subscribed to and used it for a few weeks now, but decided not to go with it because we were constantly running into numerous bugs (at times items won't show up). It is a bit risky to use a buggy software release for commercial purposes. I am sure they will keep improving it but at this time, it is not the best choice, we would rather manually build a spreadsheet instead. 

david_p_1235

I have an application for this as well.  Where I work, it's necessary to make separate BOM for Production (fabrication), Installation, and a Material Schedule as well.  Disclaimer - we make one-offs and short run so not all of the BOM data is useful. It would really help to be able to sort by these (custom) properties and insert those back into the drawing.  It would also make populating the ordering sheet (Smartsheet) faster and more accurate!

So far in our case, Lou's tool is the easiest way to sort a top level BOM.  Any other suggestions are welcome, Thanks!

H_Wang

david_p_1235 said:

I have an application for this as well.  Where I work, it's necessary to make separate BOM for Production (fabrication), Installation, and a Material Schedule as well.  Disclaimer - we make one-offs and short run so not all of the BOM data is useful. It would really help to be able to sort by these (custom) properties and insert those back into the drawing.  It would also make populating the ordering sheet (Smartsheet) faster and more accurate!

So far in our case, Lou's tool is the easiest way to sort a top level BOM.  Any other suggestions are welcome, Thanks!

Totally agree, we are kinda in the same situation. I mean I like Lou's solution a lot, if he can make it so that I can add more columns to it, it will be a great solution for us for now, at least I think it is a good solution for all of the small to medium businesses. 

billy2

We have small assemblies and I'm not having issues with onshape keeping track of the items. 

The link between the assembly and drawings seems good. Managing everything in an assembly is working for us. I'm writing this because I think it's well done. 

Not sure I'd be so quick to moving to an export regimen. 

H_Wang

billy2 said:

We have small assemblies and I'm not having issues with onshape keeping track of the items. 

The link between the assembly and drawings seems good. Managing everything in an assembly is working for us. I'm writing this because I think it's well done. 

Not sure I'd be so quick to moving to an export regimen. 

Hi Billy, Good to hear things works out well for you. I agree with you that works pretty well in Onshape. But different businesses have different needs. Exporting it is for other non Onshape users within the company to do, logistics and other aspects of business. And exporting it also allows to do data manipulations using formulas, lots of pros there. 

billy2

I get that. We have simple requirements and I can change company standards to meet a new CAD system's style.

We produce pdf's and share view only documents. The problem with PDF's is that you have to manage them and that's true with any export.

I'm trying to make 5 minute drawings and everyone thinks I'm nuts. If you have everything setup properly, you should be able to drop in an assembly and rip through the sheets. It's working pretty good so far.

There are small things that would make things better and Pete Yodis has shared some of the future ideas. It's moving in the right direction for sure. 

I'd recommend contacting Pete @pete_yodis and bend his ear. He's got a great plan for the future and I'm sure he'd like to hear from you.

tim_hess427

I'm in the same situation as @Haibing_Wang on this issue. 

I think the current functionality of Onshape BOMs is really good. However, I think that the term "Bill of Materials" is way too overloaded. It has too many different meanings for different people and situations. 

In Onshape (and CAD in general) a BOM is a "list of things on the drawing" or "list of things contained in this assembly". Whereas, in a larger production environment, a BOM is a "list of things required to make a product (along with supporting information like lead times, suppliers, costing)." While the Onshape BOM is great for quickly making tables on drawings, it isn't very useful for figuring out which parts I have to re-order this week in order to be able to ship product to customers in March. In order to do that analysis, I have to re-create the BOM from Onshape, which is extra work and creates the opportunity for things to be out of sync.

I'm really looking forward to the days when the CAD BOM is fully integrated with the ERP/MRP BOM. It'll be so nice to be able to enter part properties in one place, have everything linked and updated when revisions or substitutions are made, and also access ERP/MRP information in the design process. 
.

H_Wang

tim_hess427 said:

I'm in the same situation as @Haibing_Wang on this issue. 

I think the current functionality of Onshape BOMs is really good. However, I think that the term "Bill of Materials" is way too overloaded. It has too many different meanings for different people and situations. 

In Onshape (and CAD in general) a BOM is a "list of things on the drawing" or "list of things contained in this assembly". Whereas, in a larger production environment, a BOM is a "list of things required to make a product (along with supporting information like lead times, suppliers, costing)." While the Onshape BOM is great for quickly making tables on drawings, it isn't very useful for figuring out which parts I have to re-order this week in order to be able to ship product to customers in March. In order to do that analysis, I have to re-create the BOM from Onshape, which is extra work and creates the opportunity for things to be out of sync.

I'm really looking forward to the days when the CAD BOM is fully integrated with the ERP/MRP BOM. It'll be so nice to be able to enter part properties in one place, have everything linked and updated when revisions or substitutions are made, and also access ERP/MRP information in the design process. 
.

Thank you Tim for a much more comprehensive and detailed explanation, you have expressed exactly what I was trying to say! This is a very important part of a CAD system, I certainly hope this improvement will come in the very near future!

Piotr_Smektała_VB

@tim_hess427

Then, you are looking for...  Siemens Teamcenter? 

Or other $$$$$ PLM system.

billy2

So one of the thing that's happening that's not so obvious is a standardized communication protocol between cloud systems. You've probably heard about it. REST, will help the world of multi-systems work together trying to act as a whole. This might be an answer to this problem.

We're building rest frontends to our SQL systems. Crazy right? We also have cloud oracle which has a rest component. All this to enable data transfer between systems seamlessly.

I would suggest you start asking for a rest interface to all these $$$$$ systems. The desktop systems will probably have a hard time embracing this newer technology because they have older & stale communication sub-systems.

The cloud is coming and we need to push these guys into modern communication protocols.

Onshape's api is a rest interface and works well. There seem to be a push to have onshape api webinars. I'd attend these. The api will require you to have a server, so get good at that.

I wouldn't have any issues/hesitations writing an interface to google sheets. Lou did it using python; I use nodejs.

The cloud is servers talking to servers and the language they're speaking is REST.

Onshape has this......