Suggested pre-requisite reading: BOM Properties

In addition to the mandatory Part Number,  there are seven (7) additional property types used by OpenBOM: Number, Text, List, Multi-selection list, Reference, Image, Checkbox.

Here’s a brief description of each:

Part Number: A mandatory Property for any kind of BOM or Part Catalog (= Inventory).  The only exception is a BOM generated from Onshape. There the property “Name” acts exactly the same as “Part Number”.

Number: A simple numeric number, e.g. 3, 3.01, 1000

List: A list property provides a simple drop-down list of text-based choices to choose from:

Multi-selection list: This property is a List Property where you can select multiple items from the list:

Reference: The Reference property serves as an external reference link. It is useful for referencing any external URL such as a catalog and cloud file storage (Google Drive, Dropbox, etc.). 

For example, we can create a Reference property, “CAD Drawing” that when edited, contains a link to a CAD drawing stored in Dropbox.

Here a CAD drawing reference property contains a link to a PDF in Dropbox:

Image: The Image property offers a small visualization which can be embedded into a BOM (a jpg or png).

Special note regarding removing an image from an Image property: Cached images are saved in about 15 minutes. If you add and then wish to remove an image from your BOM, you’ll need to wait 15 minutes before it is permanently removed.

Right-click the grid below the image property to add and/or edit an image:

Select the image when prompted by the dialog box. Click “Update” in the dialog box:

Checkbox: A Checkbox property is, intuitively enough, a visualization of a checkbox. Useful for approvals.