Under the Hood

Feature Friday: Sourcing Fields in PLM 360 BOM Views

In our last release, we extended what fields you can include in BOM views to include all fields from the Sourcing Tab – this is key for cases where end users may want to see information like the manufacturer of the part, the manufacturer part number, or the sourcing comments.

You’ll see now when creating or editing a BOM View you have access to all System Sourcing Fields (and any Customer Sourcing Fields you may have added).

And you’ll now see the system sourcing information in the BOM tab:

--Michelle

Feature Friday: Deep Compare on Attachments

Earlier in the year we made vast improvements to our BOM compare capabilities (we talked about this in previous blog post Orange You Glad You Can Compare Items in PLM 360).  In our last release, we made even more improvements – I’ll be highlighting them over the next few Feature Fridays. 

Back in February, we improved access to attachments – files attached to BOM items could be viewed and downloaded right from the BOM tab.  Well now it gets even better! When you do a BOM compare, you see more than just the fact an item has attachments – you can see the differences between the 2 version you are comparing.

If you click on the attachment icon, you can go into a deep compare mode and see what exactly is different:

You can learn more about all the new improvements in next week’s PLM Talk on What’s New – register and join us Wednesday June 11 at noon East Coast time.

--Michelle

It's all About the Positioning

As we continue editing the Bill of Materials in, you may notice a new property in Autodesk Vault 2015.  Well actually, its not that new, we have hidden the hard coded BOM property "Detail ID" and copied it's values to "Position Number", making it a whole lot more flexible at the same time.

What do we need a Position Number for?  

Glad you asked, when we create a Bill of Material from CAD, in this case lets say Inventor - each BOM row is assigned a number (in Inventor an "Item Number", or "Detail ID").  This number is used in the parts list and aligns with the balloons on the drawing so we can identify components.  Using these same numbers in our item BOM helps users line up the Item BOM with the drawing documentation.

Often times position numbers are used in a company's downstream processes including ERP, where the position number can be used to identify differences between purchased and manufactured parts for example.  This is historically where we have found issues.  In previous versions of Vault there was no way to add position numbers to item rows manually added to the BOM or in fact modify the default Position number applied to the row on item assign.  Many companies were required to work around the issue by doing things like creating a bunch of virtual parts in the model, this though has all changed.

Users now are able to modify position numbers for items as well as add position numbers for new item rows, meaning we have a much more complete and accurate Engineering BOM.  To help with the position editing we prevent duplicate row numbers with visual warnings and also highlight empty position numbers.

Its worth noting here that changes to an existing items position number does not change it in CAD and may be overwritten on update.

What does it mean when all the position numbers are blank and yellow?  

Oh - you haven't enabled the BOM view in CAD - you need to go back to the assembly and enable this, then all the position values will be filled out automatically.

What is the difference between a Row Order and Position Number? 

The row order is just the ordering of rows in the BOM view - this has no real bearing on the structure but may make the BOM easier to sort through and align with how the BOM appears in other applications (like ERP).

Don't want to have to number all the rows?  Good news, we can just drag and drop rows to create a new row order or reset back to the saved row orders if we mess it up.

So there we have it, a little change making a big difference - editable row orders and position numbers making it easier than ever for users to configure the BOM makeup.

-Allan

In Edit Mode, Not in Edit Mode, In Edit Mode......

By now Autodesk Vault Professional 2015 users have probably noticed the changes to the item editing and we have already touched on this in some of the earlier posts, but I thought it was worthwhile taking some time off the new BOM editing functionality to discuss how we edit items now.

The first thing to note is that we have consolidated the open and edit command - I am sure many of you have struggled in the past with accidentally opening an item you want to edit, having to close and re-select the edit command.  In 2015 we now simply open the item read only and if we so choose we can hit the edit command to enable read / write access to that item.

We have also changed where we can open items from - you will notice in the 2015 project explorer that users can right click on a file and open the associated item directly - no need to go to the item master to open this, which brings up an interesting point, we can have the item open and still access other areas of Vault Explorer....

To accommodate a number of the new work-flows (drag and drop work-flows for files and items, assign item to file edit view) a new item "mode-less" dialog has been implemented, which has a whole bunch of additional applications for item users.

In 2015 we can open multiple items, do quick visual checks across item details or between item and files, we can leave items open while we complete other tasks (inc modifying files, searching, updating) saving the changes as we go, we can leverage dual monitor setup to increase productivity or just enjoy a simpler way to work with items.

In order to edit an item, its simply a matter of selecting "Open" - with the item open select "Edit" from the toolbar or file menu.  You will see the item changes from read only (See dialog banner for status) and you are able to edit properties, modify BOM, drag and drop files etc.

Only one item can be edited at a time so if you do open a second item from the BOM, Item Master, Project explorer etc you will need to exit edit mode on the first item - you see here Vault will prompt you that another item is in edit mode and even supply a link to that item. To exit edit mode simply select "Exit Edit Mode" from the file menu - if you have made changes to the current item you are prompted to save these before returning to read only.

Once you are happy with your item changes we have a few options to move on - we can "Save" to keep the changes and the item active in edit mode, "Save and Close" to finish the current edit or simply close the item.  Again the user is prompted to save any changes on close.

Its worth noting too that when we are turning on new item rows or adding new items to the BOM, Save will commit these new items, creating them in the background.

So there you have it, Vault Professional 2015 making it easier than ever to work across multiple items in different contexts with the freedom to make and change your item details as you need.

-Allan

Create All! (Except for that one and that one and this one)

One requirement we've often heard coming from Item and Bill of Material users is support for long lead time work-flows.  For those of you that haven't enjoyed some of these manufacturing realities, the long lead time term refers to components that have a time to manufacture or deliver that means for "on time" product delivery they need to be defined, designed or ordered prior to finishing the complete design or Bill of Material.

Historically our approach to item assignment was a "one in, all in", meaning that if you wanted to create an item from a CAD file, items would be created for the entire structure and to execute any top level release process all children of that item would also need to be released.  This meant that early in the design process it was not wise or desirable to assign top level Bills of Material - who knows what changes lay ahead through the design process (removing items, adding items, changing CAD structure etc) so there was no good answer to building an incomplete BOM early in the process.  Individual components or sub assemblies could be created and released but there was no downstream context for where the parts fitted into the project, costing or quantity tracked.

In 2015 the ability to partially assign Bills of Material means that we can create the top level item and assign BOM rows to only those components we have confirmed or completed, so we can configure the item detail and start the ordering process. The rest of the item Bill of Material sits idle in the background, allowing users to add rows and structure as the design progresses towards completion.

Lets take a look at the process, remembering back to the earlier blog post on assign item here, we need to decide on and configure what the default behavior is on assign item: the legacy - create all rows, assign existing only or assign none.  In the image below we see the results of the "none" behavior, the top level item is assigned but all other rows appear greyed out and pending assignment.

 

Once we create the top level item we can start to move through the rows and modify the behavior.  Right clicking on a BOM row we will see that we can Add or Remove single items or a tree where the Item has child dependencies.  

Note the full item sub-structure is not visible until that row is enabled - and we can choose to only assign item to the top level of that BOM too!

The icons on the right hand side show us the item status- the "light bulb" means that the row is currently switched on - when a row is switched on we can see whether turning this on creates a new item (plus icon) or inserts an existing item.

Moving down the BOM rows switching on or off as required we get a partial Bill of Materials.  Using the view filters at the top of the window we can distill this down to what this current configuration will look like.

Its worth noting during this BOM row configuration, no items are actually being created - when you are happy with the structure hit "Save" and the parent item along with any new items will be created, they appear now in the BOM row as existing items.  (Note too that new items numbers can be assigned right in the BOM tab as we go)

With our partial BOM complete we can now even go so far as releasing the top level item - the fact that there are unreleased components unused in the BOM does not restrict any additional work-flows.

This new functionality on item assign enables a whole new approach to partial BOM creation and speeds up the long lead time ordering process.

-Allan

If Only There was Another Way to Assign Files to Items!

Oh wait, there is......  In the last few posts we looked at how to create our items, next we will start to look at how we edit the items once created and specifically today how to assign design files to existing items.

As we've discussed its now easier than ever to construct a BOM by adding rows of new items.  What happens though when we do create the CAD files that we want assigned to these items?  In the past we were able to grab a file and use the Assign Item command which was fairly painless, provided we had equivalence values set up which would allow us to associate the selected file properties and CAD structure with that Item.

In 2015 we are still able to assign items using an equivalence value, but have now added the ability for users to accomplish the same task using a simple drag and drop work-flow.  This method allows greater flexibility by doing away with equivalence requirements, allowing the user to edit an existing item and from the project explorer pick a file to drag and drop onto the item.

If that model is not currently assigned as a primary link to any other item (we can only have one primary link between file and item, but as many secondary / attachment links as you like) it will be made the primary link.  This means any file to Item property mappings are honored, filling out the item details card as well as transferring the CAD structure across to the Item Bill of Material.

Any related drawing files of course are also linked, basically replicating everything the assign item command does with drag and drop onto an item in edit mode.

The bonus feature here is the addition of drag and drop items.  Similar to the file drag and drop capabilities, users are able to open an Item for edit, and while on the Bill of Material tab, simply select another item they wish to add to the BOM structure and drop it onto the Bill of Materials.  The item is added as a manual row which can be modified to suit, typically a much faster methods than the traditional add from existing item approach.

This simple new work-flow is the perfect productivity accompaniment to our new create item methods allowing users to quickly associate file and item details and better supporting item first design approaches.

-Allan

Same Item but Different? Create Items Using Save As.

So far we have had a look at the new assign Item to CAD file process and creating a new Item as a BOM row, but another long requested option is to copy an Item to create a variation on the existing Item including its Bill of Materials, enabling users to define a different color or finish, a variance in handing or perhaps tracking separate machine numbers on the same basic design.

In order to build you new item in Vault Professional 2015, it's simply a matter of selecting "Save As" from the file menu on your current open Item.

 

Much the same as we saw with the create item from Bill of Material row, the new item is created in the background meaning there is no "new item" interface.

When you now browse to and open your new item you will notice that the detail from the source item is copied across including item properties (Title and Description as well as any user defined item properties) and any attached files.

You'll see here though that we do not copy across the linked files (for example those primary files on the original item used to define the mapped properties and item Bill of Materials) and this is worth noting.  Your new item will be created with a replica of the original BOM consisting of manual rows, which can be modified, but are static, meaning, as is the case with your new item properties,  the BOM will not be updated along with changes made to the original item.

Change your item number, modify the unique item properties to reflect the variations and there you have it, a nice quick way to build items on the fly using existing detail and BOM without having to start from scratch.

-Allan

Autodesk Vault Talk (It's like a talking blog)

As if reading about the new Item and BOM features in 2015 are not enough, on Thursday May 1^st at 2:00 pm EST, Anil Chintamaneni, Sr User Experience Designer for Autodesk Vault will be covering the Item & BOM updates within Vault Professional 2015.

To confirm your attendance please follow the link below, but even if you can’t join us live, be sure and sign up in order to access the post event recording.

Sign up Link - https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/833866488

A quick overview of the agenda includes:

1. Vault Talk Introduction
2. Item & BOM Updates
3. AU 2014 Update
4. Open Q&A

The data management team looks forward to hearing from as many of you as we can!

-Allan

A New Way to Make New Items

Last post we reviewed the new process of assigning item to a file in 2015, but as in past releases users don't have to necessarily assign items to CAD files in order to populate our Item Master and ultimately build Bills of Materials (BOM).  In fact there's a number of manufacturing workflows that require a less "CAD centric" approach to item creation, so we need to be able to create new items in the item master independently of the CAD BOM.

The process of creating a new item directly in the item master remains fundamentally unchanged, we are still  able to select create "New Item" and once one of these items is created attach files to it, add item properties or simply add it to a manufacturing BOM somewhere.  What we have traditionally not been able to do though is create items right inside the Bill of Material context.

As part of the 2015 usability enhancements BOM administrators can now, working directly in the BOM tab of an open item, without having to leave this environment to create a new item to insert, simply add an item BOM row.  That's it.  Select the parent item in the BOM tab and add a row "From New Item".

 

This method creates the row using the default item numbering scheme, which can be edited to reflect manual settings for things like quantity or position number and as we have added support to edit nested items in the BOM tab, the user can build multiple rows of any structure and on save generate the new items. Once created of course users are able to return to these items individually to attach or assign files and add additional properties when they need to.

This is a huge time saver in terms of the effort of constructing a BOM piece by piece, creating each item in isolation and adding them to the BOM manually or adopting other methods such as creating a BOM in an external tool like Excel and importing it back into Vault to generate Items and BOM structure without a CAD model.

Based on your feedback we have implemented this great shortcut to build basic items and one more method to create new items as copies of existing items - a method we are going to take a look at next.

-Allan

Starting at the Beginning - Assigning Items

So lets start at the beginning.

Based on your feedback we have done a lot of work addressing how users create items, focusing on making this process faster and smarter, and the results of this can be first seen in a streamlined more intuitive assignment process.  Before we dive in though, its probably a good idea to understand what's going on in the background and how we should configure item assignment for the best results - there are a few more settings here we need to know about.

From the tools menu select Administration and Vault settings, on the Items tab open up the Assign Item configure dialog.

In addition to the existing controls for assignment of design documents users can now set the preference for automated duplicate resolution (Auto-select first duplicate item - which uses an equivalence value to gauge when a duplicate item exists) and whether or not the user is allowed to override the automated duplicate behavior on a client by client basis in Options.  

We also need to decide how Bills of Materials will be created, using the legacy assign "All" behavior to create an item for all the CAD structure, add no BOM rows to the new Item with "None" or just add already existing items in the tree.  We're going to cover the affect and intention of these BOM settings in a later post but it should be noted that if you are migrating from Vault 2014 or earlier this will be set to "All" by default.

Once we have the behavior set, in order to create our item we simply need to right click our file and assign / update item.  The Assign Item progress window appears to let us know that there is something happening, but notice now that's it.  There is no preview screen, no item resolution screen and "are you sure about this" confirmations, we have removed all the fuss and noise associated with assign item and just do what you ask for. 

According to your behavioral settings the item assign process addresses duplicates, assigns item numbers, and presents the user with an item in the edit state ready for review before we commit the item create command, all while we are still in the original file context (we're creating and editing an item without switching to the item master).

The new item mode-less dialog means we can now either save and close the new item to create it "as is" and finish, save it and continue to edit, adding details, attaching additional files, editing the Bill of Material (again, a topic we are going to cover in the upcoming posts), changing item numbers, or just keep making your additional changes as needed then save to create the item(s) afterwards.  If so desired, users can even end their item edit session and keep the dialog open for reference while they work on other tasks and come back to it later - but we'll get into more of this as we dive deeper into item editing topics as we will with the other new methods for assigning files to an item.

-Allan