Can't open BOM in Excel

Can't really say where Your specific problem comes from, but if You just need to get Your bom into a new spread sheet, all You need to do is highlight it, go to file on the menu and pick save as, this will save Your bom as an excel-file.

Krister

Sorry, but no. If I highlight the table (or rightclick > select > table) and go to File > Save As, I can only save as bom template, txt or cvs.

It looks like SW doesn't recognise that Excel is installed.

I tried a few drawings here and it works as always ....SW2004 and Excel

Krister

Are you using the new BOM format in 2004 or have you created one using the excel based BOM. It doesnt look like you can save the BOM to excel using the new SW POS BOM

Krister L wrote:

Hi Folks,

Let's not loose sight of the real situation with the new BOM. It's still in BETA, not in production release.

It will not be released for production until sometime around the 2004 SP 5.0 timeframe - q3 of 2004 perhaps.

(for anyone who has not appreciated the sarcasm, please be advised that the above diatribal proclimations are perhaps possibly not true.)

Desperately in need of (at least) a CSV or tab-delimited output, preferably an OLE to excel or save as XLS.

Are we really expected to retype all that stuff when we need to load data into MRP?

Do we hit the way-too-big-table formatting next . . . Or the MANDATORY config name prependment to QTY in the column name . . . Or maybe the apparent inability to alter bom item numbers by clicking the callout balloons . . . or . . . or . . .

I can't wait until all the oddities are addressed. It all looks promising, but that's all right now - too many quirks to navigate to be really usable . . .

My greatest fear -> SW pronounces it "complete" and ignores the many stumbling blocks, ignoring the excel BOM as legacy code and not making it the tool it needs to be.

Regards-

SMA

"Sean-Michael Adams"

Sean-Michael,

To get your info into Excel:

1. Generate your BOM in the new SW format.
2. Select the BOM and save as a .TXT file.
3. Open Excel and then open your TXT file.
4. In my Excel (Excel 2000 sp.3), The text import wizard opens automatically. Select 'delimited' as your original data type and in the next window, select Tab as your delimiter (these were defaults on my machine).
5. Select finish.

Your data should now be in neat little columns in Excel. Not exactly a graceful way to do it, but at least it's a means to an end. While I appreciate the fact that SolidWorks seems to be trying to break free of Microsoft, they seem to have overlooked the need to only print the BOM.

As we say around here.... It's still WAAAAY better than AutoCAD.

Deb

Deb,

You missed > "Sean-Michael Adams"

Hi Deb!

Thanks for pointing out my serious lack of knowledge in such a pleasant way. I'm still getting used to the differences here and the file "save as" was not very obvious to me.

I would have "gotten it" if the save-as was built into the RMB, but I can adjust.

The raw output to text worked very well, while the CSV was ok, but only because I have commas in the description was it unworkable when I input into excel.

Yes - I second that. After about 4 tries I got Sp 1.0 installed and have seen a few better things. The BOM is now sizable (it may have been before) by dragging the corners, the config name prependment in "qty" may be manually overridden and is persistent (was not before), the balloons act like they used too (double click) makes the BOM update. Progress is being made. My faith is restored. That was easy.

I agree. In so many ways it rules - my carpal tunnel / tendon trouble is at bay - more design - less drafting. Secretly though, I still use ACAD for some things because it works better for some 2D applications, but I must confess that my T-square sees about as much action as my Diazo machine (I see one "response" to your message that claims that the t-square beats acad).

Thanks again for gracefully schooling me (smile).

Regards,

SMA