Drawing Balloons Showing Different Information Than Bill Of Materials

Balloons are helpful in annotating drawing views and they typically refer to a component in a Bill of Materials (BOM).  One common issue is when the balloons shows an asterisk (*) or an incorrect value.  This is usually due to the drawing view being linked to the wrong BOM if multiple BOMs exist in a drawing.

In the example below, the following model is used.  Note that there are two parts in a subassembly in the top level assembly "Assem1".

In the drawing for "Assem1", there are 2 BOMs: a part level BOM that has both parts of the assembly, and an assembly level BOM that lists the subassembly.  A balloon is attached to each of the 2 components.

Right now, the drawing view is linked to the part level BOM so each balloon references a different part ("1" and "2").

To view the current BOM that the drawing view is linked to, we can right click on the drawing view and go to Properties.

If we changed the drawing view to be linked to "Bill of Materials2" (the assembly level BOM), both balloons will show "1", since both components are part of the subassembly.

By default, the drawing view will be linked to the first BOM in the drawing so if multiple BOMs exist, the BOM the drawing view is linked to will need to be manually defined.

If you have any further questions about linking drawing views to BOMs, please feel free to call Hawk Ridge Systems Technical Support at 877.266.4469 (US) or 866.587.6803 (Canada) or email us at support@hawkridgesys.com.