BOM software
David N.
So far, I have a BOM in an Excel spreadsheet and part numbers with
prices in another. I need a script or seperate software to merge the
two and provide a cost for the entire project.
I may be able to get by with Excel, but what I really want is an
application that will store all my parts as well as arbitrary data for
the parts. For instance, I could have a part number and store the
datasheet, approvals, cost information, etc. with the part. Once all
the parts were entered, I could create a BOM that would automatically
pull the cost from the part numbers and show a total.
Anyone seen such a beast of an application?
Thanks,
David
--
Joel Kolstad
news:vMidnXkXO_K6uw7Y...@insightbb.com...
> Can someone suggest good parts management/BOM software?
Parts & Vendors from www.trilogydesign.com/. I don't think you can beat the
value for the money!
It's been a handful of years since I've used it, so I'm not certain how many
"arbitrary data" fields there are, but they have a free trial download, so I'd
suggest checking it out yourself and seeing if it'll work for your needs.
It definitely does a good job of storing hierarchical BOMs and rolling up
costs.
---Joel
Robert Adsett
says...
I use Parts and Vendors http://www.trilogydesign.com/ for that. It's
not trying to be an MRP system but for building BOMs it's a nice tool.
Robert
--
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Paul E. Schoen
If you are doing PC boards there is a free download of a program called
BOMbuilder at www.aapcb.com. It has many good features to assure reliable
manufacturability of PCBs, especially SMT designs. The software works with
PartsAndVendors, which seems to be a good inventory control package.
I use MS Access for some of my inventory and BOM, but it requires some
tricky VB programming to make it work for everything. I find that adding a
hyperlink is a good way to integrate datasheets into a part number
database, as long as the file is always available. A simplified data sheet
could be stored within the database as a memo. I have separate tables for
vendor information, and I can even generate POs with line items from my
parts database. But I may still get P&V if I expand my operations.
Paul
RST Engineering (jw)
years ago. Absolutely excellent and low cost.
Jim
"David N." <nov...@dajac.com> wrote in message
news:vMidnXkXO_K6uw7Y...@insightbb.com...
David N.
answers could save me a bunch of time...
Does P&V allow me to track multiple quantity price break levels and
multiple vendors for each part? A nice feature would be to tell the BOM
software how many I wanted to build and have it return a number based
on the quantity price break values.
Is there a way to feed P&V a BOM that was created by my schematic
software and get a cost in return?
Thanks,
David
RST Engineering (jw) wrote:
--
Robert Adsett
says...
> I know I could download the software and try it, but a few quick
> answers could save me a bunch of time...
>
> Does P&V allow me to track multiple quantity price break levels and
> multiple vendors for each part?
Yes
>A nice feature would be to tell the BOM
> software how many I wanted to build and have it return a number based
> on the quantity price break values.
Also does this. It doesn't automatically switch vendors to get the best
price break though.
> Is there a way to feed P&V a BOM that was created by my schematic
> software and get a cost in return?
It does have an import facility but I've not used it yet.
Joel Kolstad
> Does P&V allow me to track multiple quantity price break levels and
> multiple vendors for each part?
Yes and yes; see their "features" page at
http://www.trilogydesign.com/product_info.htm.
> A nice feature would be to tell the BOM
> software how many I wanted to build and have it return a number based
> on the quantity price break values.
It will do this.
> Is there a way to feed P&V a BOM that was created by my schematic
> software and get a cost in return?
Absolutely, although it requires that you use "accurate" parts (full names)
in your schematic. In practice I've seen this turn into one of three
approaches:
1) You actually keep hundreds of different, e.g., resistor parts in your
schematic libraries. 100 ohms, 1k, 100k, etc., and can export a BOM
directly and use it. Requires the most effort in library maintenance, but
arguably is the fastest and most accurate approach if you're doing a lot of
boards.
2) You use generic parts in your schematic (e.g., "Res 0603") and enter a
BOM manually into P&V or a similar package. For companies making a
relatively small number of different boards, this may be fastest overall.
3) You use generic parts in your schematic initially, and then manually
modify each one -- after you've tweaked and finalized component values -- so
that their part number fields reflect what you have setup in P&V. The idea
is to get a little more accuracy than approach #2 (since you have a
permanent link in the schematic to the part number) while not being quite so
time consuming as approach #1 if you're only doing a few boards.
---Joel