yang686526

api hooks for new bom reorganization functionality?
hi folks,
we were looking forward to the new bom reorganization features in sw 2009, such as combining like items, rearranging, dissolving assemblies, etc. unfortunately the ui is extremely slow and crashes often with our fairly large boms (1000+ components in indented view), even on fairly hefty 64 bit workstations.
what i've been trying to do is to use the api to process the bom programmatically, for instance by hiding/deleting rows based on custom properties in order to reduce the size. however, in looking through the api docs i can't find any hooks into any but the most basic bom functionality. for example, the bomtableannotation class doesn't appear to have methods for expanding and collapsing levels, rearranging things, combining like items, etc. so my first question is, am i just out of luck here because solidworks doesn't expose this functionality in the api, or am i looking in the wrong place? (btw i'm a software engineer but this is my first foray into the solidworks api specifically)
also, i did have some luck traversing the bom and hinding all but rows of interest with the rowhidden member. however, once i try to manually manipulate the bom further, all the rows that were hidden suddenly become un-hidden. is there another method call necessary to make the hidden state "stick", or is this expected functionality?
finally, one more question: what's the best resource for an experienced software engineer to get help on api topics such as this? the sample code included with solidworks is helpful, but i'm looking for something more interactive. is this forum the best place?
thanks
- rdo
firstly, the bom api is not exposed well at all i have similar problems when using to to do such things so i am afraid we are stuck in the same boat.
second, for info and the api you can use this forum,
answer luke,
thanks for the info. i'll definitely check out your book as well as the other resources you mentioned.
we're really getting frustrated with solidworks' bom functionality for large assemblies. we'd been hoping that the 2009 improvements would allow us to do what we need, but it looks like neither the ui or the api are going to allow that.
- rdo
if you require certain functionality from a bom you can create a program to create boms using general tables instead and analysing the assembly structure yourself to make the decisions, thats effectively all sw does anyway so you could write your own api. the only restriction you may have there is how much control you have on creating general tables for rows and layouts etc...
if you struggle with that or have a specific need i can quote you on some bespoke software to fill you needs, but at the moment i am fully booked in with other companies work until after christmas but i'd be happy to give you a quote.
luke,
using general tables to do what we want is an interesting idea... perhaps i'll spend some time looking down that path. i'd be concerned about getting item number balloon callouts to work (that's one of the requirements) but i haven't looked into the api for that yet.
thanks
- rdo
quick