Promoting Items in the Bill of Materials (BOM)

This article goes over the Promotion process of the Bill of Materials for users who want to show the contents of a sub-assembly at the top level of a BOM. This is an alternative method to the Dissolve method, that can be used in all tables. Note that this is only for the BOM created in the Part/Assembly/Drawing and does not carry over into any PDM BOM.

The design process is often aided by separating an assembly into smaller parts or sub-assemblies. When it comes time to create the drawing or figure out materials, the Bill of Materials is a critical tool. Based on your options, the BOM will often only show the top level component; however, sometimes you want sub-assembly components to show in your table without using the Indented BOM or the Parts only options. 

The Promote feature is a great way to manage your BOM display of Sub-assemblies. You can use the feature both from the Assembly level or from the Drawing, both will be covered below.

Drawing Promotion

With your BOM made, use the arrows on the left to expand the table to show the part/assembly icons.

Select the assembly you want promoted and right click on the assembly icon. The fly-out menu should have the "Component Option" that you will want to select

This will bring up a small window in that gives you options. Selecting the "Promote" option along with the green check mark will bring the components to the top level display of the BOM.

You may receive a message that describes how the change will be shown and how to restore the values.

The resulting BOM in this example now has all 8 components showing, including the 4 that were part of the sub-assembly. All the parts included in the promoted sub-assembly will now be moved up one level.

Assembly Promotion

The same promotion can be applied directly to the sub-assembly. Within the sub-assembly you want promoted, go to the configuration tab, then right click on the configuration and select properties.

The resultant window has the same options in the drawing, allowing you to promote the children. Select the promote option and select the green check mark to apply these settings.

When you create a BOM, the promoted sub-assembly components will be a level higher when displayed in the BOM.

Restoring BOM to Original State

When components have been promoted, the sub-assembly in the feature tree has the "Dissolved in BOM" at the end of it's name.

To revert the BOM back to its original state, simply right click in the feature tree and select "Restore in BOM" and the components will be properly classified again.