extract BOM data to Excel

So, are you trying to skip the step of creating a drawing?

jk

to clarify, I would also like to maintain a link to th ebom in excel such that changes in th eBOM will be reflected in the spreadsheet.

Hi Steve,

Please take a look at our Gold Partner product ToolWorks BOM Manager.

Using this add-on you are able to export BOM from an Assembly without creating the drawing. Also ToolWorks BOM Manager offers a command-feature that can be triggered from ourside of SolidWorks to keep your MS-Excel BOM's up-to-date.

Best regards Jess G. Frandsen

I have done this with a macro.In a nutshell the macro reads every single instance of every component, suppressed or not and then I use an awk script to determine the count of all the resolved and lightweight components. Then I read the resulting text file into Excel. It works because I name configurations with the part name.

The reason I do it this way is that awk can plow through thousands of items much quicker than Excel can and requires a lot less programming.

The VB program I use as a basis for all this is found in the Online Help for the SolidWorks API and then modified. It will read custom properties which I think you are asking for.