How OpenBOM Can Create a Part List (Bill of Materials) from Onshape Part Studio
OpenBOM developed and supports CAD integration for all CAD systems. Some of them are out-of-the-box and available as part of OpenBOM subscription (including the free one). You can check more about what systems are supported and what subscription is required in our Integration page.
Today, I want to talk about OpenBOM integration with Onshape. OpenBOM Integrated Cloud Application is available via Onshape app store. It gives you a fully integrated experience of BOM management via Onshape user interface with bi-directional instant updates of data between OpenBOM and Onshape.
I’d like to demo one of the integration scenarios in which OpenBOM applications allow you to create a part list for Onshape Part Studios. Onshape Part Studio is a very special mechanism developed to support multiple parts. What I hear from customers, they often use Part Studio until they need kinematics in Onshape.
In a Recent Develop3D Live Onshape Review Q1/19 some key new features of Onshape were summarized. One of them was Onshape Bill of Materials:
Although, you can create a BOM in Onshape, but you need to put those Part Studios in Assemblies first, which requires additional steps.
There are pros and cons of using Onshape Part Studio and not using Assemblies, but based on what I hear from Onshape users it is just a simpler approach. I don’t have a dog in that fight and I will leave to Onshape to comment on what is right and what is wrong in this scenario.
But if you have Onshape Part Studio like this one and you want to create a list of parts with some additional information such as the geometrical size, you can do it in a very convenient way using OpenBOM.
Onshape doesn’t support BOMs in Part Studio (at least for now):
You can use OpenBOM and choose Part Studio option:
As a result, you will have Bill of Materials built based on the user-defined template with all information you need including preview image and additional metadata (eg. Part Size):
Bill of Materials by OpenBOM is also available outside of Onshape, if you need to share it with people who prefer not to touch Onshape environment:
The following video gives you an idea of how to do so:
Conclusion
OpenBOM can make your life easier when you need to create a part list from Onshape Part Studio to send it to manufacturing shop and share with your contractor. OpenBOM allows you to create a template with the list of parameters extracted from Onshape.
OpenBOM is a modern cloud-based data management platform tuned to manage product information such as catalogs, Bills of Materials, vendors, purchase orders, and data needed for your product development and manufacturing processes. It gives you real-time data sharing capabilities and full integration with all CAD systems including desktop (eg. Solidworks) and cloud (Eg. Onshape).
You can register for OpenBOM FREE user subscription today!
Best, Oleg
P.S. Let’s get to know each other better. If you live in the Greater Boston area, I invite you for a coffee together (coffee is on me). If not nearby, let’s have a virtual coffee session — I will figure out how to send you a real coffee.
Want to learn more about PLM? Check out my Beyond PLM blog and PLM Book website.
