FreeCAD BOM Generator

From Open Source Ecology
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Tools That Can Be Used For Generating Bills of Materials by Counting

Structured Way

  • The simplest method of obtaining a complete BOM, line by line, is to export parts in a FreeCAD document, and simply count them. You can count phrases by using an online phrase counter - [1]
  • For this to work, the part names must be structured in an understandable way, such as "8 mm Screw #" such that every time it is copied, it appears as: "8 mm Screw #0",
  • Check out what happens when you copy a part, if its name allows for easy counting by examinging part name:

Partcopies.png

  • The count appears readily by observing the last number.
  • Out of the box - you can even include a BOM link to that part with URL or shortcut, so that the exported BOM can include links out of the box:

Part+url.png

  • FreeCAD allows CSV export of part spreadsheets - so further processing into finished BOMs can happen readily.

Extracting Parts Spreadsheet in FreeCAD

There is a macro:

obj = FreeCADGui.Selection.getSelection()
bom = App.activeDocument().addObject('Spreadsheet::Sheet','BOM')
cell = 0
for x in obj:
   cell = cell + 1
   bom.set("A" + str(cell), x.Label)
App.ActiveDocument.recompute()</nowiki>

FreeCAD Evolution

2018 Progress

  • Note comment: part organization is what makes for proper assemblies - not constraints! Exactly. [2]

2017

https://forum.freecadweb.org/viewtopic.php?t=23592