Part naming, adding intelligence?

So...I want to create a library of, say, rivets. The part number would be MS20426. The official description of this part is:

RIVET, SOLID, COUNTERSUNK 100 DEG., PRECISION HEAD, ALUMINUM AND TITANIUM COLUMBIUM ALLOY

The first question is: Where do you put this description so that it shows-up on the BOM?

When it comes to modeling there are three variables, material, diameter and length. What is the best approach to this? Should one create a single part and use a design table to generate an array of configurations? This seems like the best idea to me. However, you are now encoding material, diameter and length into the configuration name. I'm not sure how to do material other than make it a part of the configuration name.

For example, MS20426A4-5 is an Aluminum rivet, 1/8in diameter and 5/16 long. The configuration could be named automatically by using the config table to something like:

"MS20426A4-5 - Al - 0.125 x 0.3125"

The issue here is that you don't want to have to remember what "A4-5" means, so some way to explicitly describe the dimensions of the part is needed. I can't think of any other place to put this other than the configuration name. If you could hover the cursor over the part number in an assembly and get a flyout that gave you a verbose description of the part then you could just name every configuration by the part number (i.e.: "MS20426A4-5") and be done with it. This keeps the BOM clean. The descriptive approach results in a BOM that has a part number with, effectively, a description mixed-in, and then, separately, a description field.

The extreme case would have one create a separate file for each configuration. I'm not sure that this is a good idea other than for one reason: There is no way for a vendor to screw-up manufacturing because each and every part is unique and there is absolutely no way to accidentally swap one fastener for another (say, change lenght or diameter).

Any thoughts,

-Martin

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Normally the MS number should specify the description of that part. If it does, then why include the complete description in the BOM. Otherwise you will end up with 1 page of nothing but description of parts. If you need all the information then you can include it in a config specific custom property of each part and have that column or columns within your BOM.

I would create a single part and use a design table for all of the sizes/materials. I have 1 soc hd screw Utilize concatenate within the design table for making the sizes/configurations match up easier.

You can > So...I want to create a library of, say, rivets. The part number

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