Tips and Tricks

Learn useful tips and tricks of OpenBOM

Index

  1. Windows message “Error JWT expired no longer valid”, cannot log in
  2. Ordering components in nested BOMs
  3. Why does my purchased assy still have a BOM?
  4. How to export multi-level BOM with sorted properties (eg. Part Number, Vendor or Item Type)
  5. Buying (or not buying) those CAD assemblies that are really parts – the purchased assembly workflow
  6. Part Numbering is hard – how to keep it simple?
  7. Quick Tip: Create a New Item in a Catalog When Editing a BOM
  8. Tip: How to use LENGTH as QTY
  9. Tip: How to change Properties Shown in Graph Navigation
  10. Can I export all my PDF’s in one operation?
  11. Using SOLIDWORKS Configurations with different Part Numbers
  12. How to clear local storage on popular browsers
  13. Export unrelated BOMs in one operation
  14. How to “hide” CAD data from my BOM ? Does “HIDE” work, ANSWER = NO
  15. Generate PDFs from CAD Drawings Troubleshooting
  16. Trouble Shooting Addin install on KiCAD on MacOS

Windows message “Error JWT expired no longer valid”, cannot log in

If you see this message check your computer clock. it is set to the wrong time or synching to an invalid source.

Ordering components in nested BOMs

Sample – Order BOM with Sub-assembly BOM structure
In my article today, I will take you through the 5 simple steps you need to follow to perform the order in a very typical situation – ordering components and building assembly that has a sub-assembly inside.

1- BOM and Catalog
Here is our BOM hierarchy. We need to build a product.

Defining vendors for each component is important. I put “Vendor1” for nut and bolt and I use “Built” vendor to indicate that the assembly will be created “in-house”.

2– Create an Order and PO
Now I’m ready to create an order (aka planning BOM), which will include a sub-assembly (SA). The sub-assembly is needed (based on the EBOM), but we don’t need to order it.

Here is our order BOM. You can see that 2x P1 and 2x P2 are needed. We also need 2x SA, but they will be assembled in-house.

There are 2 POs created, but we will be using only one PO to order P1 and P2.

Here is the PO for P1 and P2

3- Recieve PO and Update Inventory
Once components are received, you can click on Recieve PO and the QOH (Quantity on Hand) will be updated.

You can see above that we have 2 components for both P1 and P2 and we are ready to start the build.

4- Update Order
Navigate to the order and click Update Order to ensure you don’t have any gaps. In a simple example like ours, it is clear, but in a complex order, you want to validate that gaps are zero for all components you need to purchase.

5- Release Order to Production (aka Build)
The final state is to release the order to production. When we do so, the components are consumed and the final product is built.

As you can see by the end all components QOH are zeroed and the final product is created.

Conclusion
We live in the era of manufacturing democratization. Manufacturing technologies and tools are becoming more affordable and available via different business models such as Manufacturing on Demand and Contract manufacturers where you can order products to be built online and ship them to the customers. However, planning is essential. New product development is a critical element in manufacturing and to be able to move fast and accurately is extremely important. To rely on spreadsheets to manage inventory and perform orders is a bad idea and leads to costly mistakes and delays. OpenBOM gives you an easy and simple way to manage EBOM in the Ordering process. Check this out.

Why does my purchased assy still have a BOM?

Have you ever set your CAD options for sub-assy to “purchased” and found that the BOM in OpeBOM still has the child items (eg. the parts still exist in the assy BOM). If so, the answer is simple.

When you set a CAD assembly to “purchased” OpenBOM stops sending the sub-levels to OpenBOM,

However, if you built the BOM prior then they already exist.

Go to the Dashboard, search for the sub-assy Part Number and delete the BOM. Going forward oy will not have children for that CAD assy in the BOM.

Solidworks users can find specific details here: Purchased Assembly in Solidworks Bill of Materials – OpenBOM

Onshape: OpenBOM for Onshape – Purchased Assemblies and Phantoms – OpenBOM

Others are similar.

How to export multi-level BOM with sorted properties (eg. Part Number, Vendor or Item Type)

What if you want to have a multi-level BOM with sorted columns (eg. Part Number, Item Type, or Vendor)? While you can do a filter in OpenBOM to see what you need, sorting is critical when you export data to Excel or other formats.

Check the following video to learn more about how to do so: https://youtu.be/3xJCMHjDC3s

Buying (or not buying) those CAD assemblies that are really parts – the purchased assembly workflow

What do you do when you have a bearing in CAD as an assembly but you buy it as a part? Like this bearing
image

Use the OpenBOM purchased Assembly workflow. Here are the details for Solidworks:

OpenBOM helps you to solve this problem by supporting a simple design to the purchasing process. Check more our documentation for production planning.

These are the basic steps: 

1- Create and manage catalog(s) of items everything – assemblies, parts, etc.

2- Create and manage vendor list – these are companies you’re making orders from. 

3- Create and manage Bill of Materials 

4- Create an Order BOM and generate Purchase Order. 

Today, I want to focus on one very painful moment of this process. It is related to the management of Purchased Assemblies in Solidworks and creating of Bill of Materials for these assemblies. 

In a nutshell, here is a typical problem. You need to have a purchased assembly (eg. Electrical Motor) with all parts in your Solidworks design, but to include only top-level assembly in the BOM. 

I have a piece of very good news for you. Since the last update of OpenBOM add-in for Solidworks, we have the full support of child components display options. Here are how these settings will be used: 

This is the image to remind you how these options can be set in Solidworks.

  1. Show (Solidworks default) – show/include all sub-items in the BOM
  2. Hide (purchased assembly workflow) – do not include sub-items in the BOM
  3. Promote (the phantom assembly workflow) – do not include the assembly and move all sub-items to the upper level

In the following video, you can see a short demonstration of how the child component display option can be used to create a BOM with purchased assemblies from Solidworks directly in OpenBOM. Please check this out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LanJKpCKyvE 

Part Numbering is hard – how to keep it simple?

Are you thinking about part numbers at your company? Here is a nice blog to get you thinking simple…

Part Numbers are important and difficult at the same time. I don’t know any topic that causes so many debates, disagreements and leads to huge amounts of frustration and confusion in the engineering team and manufacturing organizations. It all begins with Part Numbers. Every engineering organization needs them and you need to put them straight. Without it, your organization can lose time, money and engineering and manufacturing processes can turn into a bloody mess. In this article, I will give you simple guidance on how to keep Part Numbers organized and avoid unnecessary complexity. 

There is always some legacy when it comes to Part Numbers. Even if you start a new company or project, you will bring some data from the past and it will raise the question about Part Numbers immediately. Engineers love efficiency. Combined with a historical lack of trust in data management, organizations always want to kill two birds with one stone. How to do it? Embed some information about a part, product, revision into a Part Number. It sounds smart, but very often ends up messy and adds unnecessary workload on everyone involved in the maintenance of these part numbers.

Documents and use information in multiple documents is another big reason why companies are leaning towards semantically meaningful part numbers. While it sounds smart, you will have to do a lot of work syncing all these documents and ensuring nothing wrong was stuck in one of these documents from the past when you reuse it between multiple systems. Investment in digital transformation and escaping from the methods that mimick documentation flow can be another good step towards simplification of information flow.

So, how to solve the problem? Below, I suggest 3 steps you can follow no matter what system you use to set up your data management system to manage Part Numbers.

Open and Flexible Data Management Platform
Pick the system you trust to manage data and specifically item records. Openness is the key- you don’t want your system to be stuck in some proprietary data management system that can’t be extracted. You also don’t want to have messy Excel spreadsheets without any chance of checking the uniqueness of Part Numbers. So, openness and transparency are the keys.

OpenBOM gives you a simple yet powerful and robust platform to manage any product information, which can be accessed by everyone and always allow you to export the data if you decide you want to move to another system.

Keep Part Numbers Simple and Rely on Attributes
Once you trust the data management system of your choice, you should stop thinking about how to identify data outside of the system. Data management platforms must be trusted and available to everyone. The last one is very important. Check the licensing and ensuring that you can easily bring everyone in the company easy access to the data. Place everyone on the same page- there is huge value behind this.

Once your Part Numbers are simple (numbers) or very simple strings with minimum prefixes and suffixes, heavily rely on the attributes to add any semantically meaningful information to items. This information will help you to slice and dice the data when searching, but also easily classify and have transparency about what a specific item is and what are its characteristics.

OpenBOM catalogs combined with a flexible set of properties is the simplest way to define items, Part Number patterns, and ensure data is semantically organized and can be accessed.

Unique Part Numbers and Sync with Other Tools (eg. CAD)
The last element of a robust and powerful system to manage data is usually integrations. The nature of the engineering and manufacturing world is a large number of different systems that must be used together. And these tools need these pesky numbers as well. How do you make it happen? The process should start from the ability to generate a unique Part Number and later use it everywhere.

OpenBOM catalog part number setup and company subscription provide a set of robust tools to manage the uniqueness of part numbers. OpenBOM integrations provide embedded mechanisms to retrieve a new Part Number and automatically save it in CAD (or other systems). Our recent development of CAD Part Number support shows how easy, unique part numbers can be generated in OpenBOM and placed in CAD systems.

Quick Tip: Create a New Item in a Catalog When Editing a BOM

When managing Bills of Materials (BOM) in OpenBOM, data creation is often a repetitive and time-consuming task. One such task is the addition of new items to a catalog. However, OpenBOM offers a handy feature that lets you do this seamlessly without having to leave the BOM screen. In this article, we’ll walk you through this streamlined process.

How to Simplify Data Creation with OpenBOM:
OpenBOM Catalog Management: Begin by using the OpenBOM catalog to manage your items. Although it’s not obligatory, configuring your Part Number settings can make the process more efficient.


(1) Adding a New Item: Once in your BOM, add a new item. You’ll notice an empty line where the new item will reside.

(2) Item Info Panel: Next, open the Item Info panel to view and modify details for the new item.

(3) Part Number Command: Within the panel, select the option to edit the new item’s Part Number and generate its unique Part number

(4) Fill Out the Properties: Once you’ve generated the Part Number, fill out the necessary properties for the new item

(5) Save: Finally, hit the ‘Save’ button. And voilà! Your item will now be added to both the catalog and the BOM with just a few clicks.

Watch the video to see how it works:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FBd7jhr0Gc 

What is the best Item creation method
There are multiple ways to create an item in OpenBOM – add it to a catalog, import it from Excel, save it from CAD, or add it from a BOM as I demonstrated above. Each method is good for a specific scenario. This one is good when you need to create an item seamlessly during the BOM creation process.

Fewer Clicks: The streamlined process means fewer clicks, resulting in faster data entry and reduced chances of errors.
Seamless Workflow: By organizing tasks in a way that they can be executed from a single screen, OpenBOM allows for a more seamless workflow.

Tip: How to use LENGTH as QTY

Examples:

SOLIDWORKS

For each Part on the Assembly open its File Properties, add the File Property for LENGTH and Set the Quantity from “-None-” to the File Property ex: Length:

image

Fusion

For each Component right click and check “Use Length as Quantity”

image

Videos on Raw Materials and using different units of measure:

Tip: How to change Properties Shown in Graph Navigation

You need to edit “Dashboard” view in user defined view. The first 4 properties are displayed in the graph.

image

https://help.openbom.com/get-started/where-used-graph-navigation/

Graph navigation in OpenBOM offers a new way to navigate between interconnected data objects, providing a novel approach to element navigation within the system. [Note, graph navigation is 4 top properties from “Dashboard” view]

image

This also changes the Items View

image

 

Can I export all my PDF’s in one operation?

Yes, you can certainly batch download files into a zip. You can use Export / Zip option. Assuming you’re organizing data in the way that allows you to do so. Typically, PDF files are tied to a specific “property” – an attribute in OpenBOM data model that holds the file. When you click on the export, you need to include this attribute and then select  zip option.

Here are a few example.

  1. If all your metal parts are managed in a seprate catalog, you can just export catalog with selecting PDF attribute and using zip option
  2. If all your parts in a single catalog, but you have a type (eg. Metal) that allows you to filter, you can first filter them and then use the export command as I explained above.
  3. You can do the same for the entire BOM. Although filtering can be a bit more tricky if you need to filter – you will need to create a specific view (or use a flattened option with a filter).

Using SOLIDWORKS Configurations with different Part Numbers

I have a strong option that using SW Configurations with different Part Numbers have more Cons than Pros, they are fragile

Configurations in SolidWorks allow you to create multiple variations of a part or assembly model within a single document. Configurations are a convenient way to develop and manage families of models with different dimensions, components, or other parameters.

You can create configurations manually, or you can use a design table to create multiple configurations simultaneously. Design tables provide a convenient way to create and manage configurations in a worksheet. You can use design tables in both part and assembly documents.

Let’s see the great functionalities of SolidWorks Configurations:

Design tables
You can easily represent different parts or assembly sizes in a single file

You can easily change parametric dimensions or Suppress or Unsuppress features or components
You can very easily change the configuration on Drawing Views or in an assembly switch the component to another config.
In my view, they are very good for:

Represent Simplified versions of Parts or Assemblies. Tip: Use Open Advanced to select or create a simplified config.
Simplify or Defeature the Part or Assembly for FEA analysis
For simulation projects to represent different study iterations
Represent different states of the same Part/Assy
Configs are a great way to conceptualize design quickly in a single file and then can be divided into separate files with Save Configurations.
Be used for Non-Revision manages Parts with the same Form Fit and Function (e.g.: Toolbox)

Important Limitations to know of using Configurations:
They are Fragile
You can simply overwrite all dimensions with a mistake and ruin your configured Model, this is usually only noticed (too late) when another user wants to re-use the design.

If you delete a configuration. Next time you open a parent file the configuration will be reattached to last active.

Files can be Bigger
By adding configurations to your SolidWorks files you are increasing the data stored within the file, resulting in the assembly or part files getting bigger. It will also consume more resources in RAM per file, although in the latest releases, SolidWorks Corp. has reduced this problem by enabling purge configuration data and loading to memory only the active config. Purging configuration data can lead to longer rebuilds to recreate it in favor of quicker opening files.

Lose One File, you Lose More
If you are working with your SolidWorks master models and all your automated design configurations are kept within one file – if anything happens to this file (e.g. it gets deleted or becomes corrupt due to working on network share) all your master model data could be compromised.

More Complex Relationships
Added complexity to manage the references between files, creates a matrix of dependencies harder to manage changes and permissions.

Limited Search Capabilities
You can search for file names not inside configurations.

How to clear local storage on popular browsers

There have been times when our support staff find issues with customers’ browsers that require the local storage to be cleared. Most often, when other apps are involved. In any case, if you are directed to clear your local storage, here is how you do it: (the image below is Chrome, details for other browsers are listed at the end o fhis post)

image

image3068×1741 490 KB

Here’s how you can clear local storage in your browser:

For Google Chrome / Microsoft Edge / Brave:

  1. Open the site whose storage you want to clear.
  2. Right-click anywhere on the page and select Inspect (or press Ctrl+Shift+I / Cmd+Option+I on Mac).
  3. Go to the Application tab.
  4. On the left, under Storage, click on Local Storage and select the site.
  5. Right-click any key and choose Clear (or click one key, press Ctrl+A to select all, then right-click and choose Delete).Alternatively, you can also:
  • Click Clear site data from the Application tab (this clears local storage, session storage, cookies, etc.).

For Firefox:

  1. Open the site.
  2. Press F12 or Ctrl+Shift+I (Cmd+Option+I on Mac) to open DevTools.
  3. Go to the Storage tab.
  4. Expand Local Storage and select the site.
  5. Right-click and choose Delete All.

For Safari:

  1. Enable the Develop menu (Safari > Settings > Advanced > Show Develop menu).
  2. Open the site.
  3. Press Option+Cmd+I to open Web Inspector.
  4. Go to the Storage tab (or Resources in older versions).
  5. Find Local Storage and clear the entries.

Export unrelated BOMs in one operation

Question: “Can I batch export several unrelated BOMs?”

Answer: YES

The answer is so simple it may not be obvious.

The trick is to create a Work BOM that contains a line item for each of the BOMs you wish to export. For example, if you have BOM1, BOM2 & BOM3 that you wish to export. Create a Work BOM (WBOM) and add three lines:
BOM1
BOM2
BOM3

Then, export WBOM as multi-level.

How to “hide” CAD data from my BOM ? Does “HIDE” work, ANSWER = NO

Occasionally we get variations of the same question in support,

Question: “How do I keep something in CAD from appearing in my BOM?”

There may be many reasons for this: It’s construction geometry, tooling, modeled in another cad like ECAD, etc

Answer: Use the CADs controls as follows

Mark as Exclude from BOM: YES. Many CADS have an option to mark an item or configuration as to “exclude from BOM”. OpenBOM will respect this setting.

Suppress: YES. OpenBOM WILL ignore suppressed CAD data

HIDE/SHOW: NO. This only affects the screen display of CAD geometry; it is still present in the feature and data structures. Hiding an item in CAD will NOT exclude it from the BOM.

 
 

Generate PDFs from CAD Drawings Troubleshooting

  1. For all CAD integrations, check you have available OpenBOM Storage you can check in your profile or in the Settings of the OpenBOM addin. if you are running out contact support@openbom.com

image

image

2. Drawing name or FileName.

For SOLIDWORKS, the Drawings File need to be on the same Folder as the Model, Part or Assembly and have the same filename without file extension. Ex: 1000984.SLDPRT and 1000984.SLDDRW and be on the same folder:

image

Note: If you are using SOLIDWORKS PDM, make sure all files are cached in your local view, get latest versions
For Autodesk Fusion
Document name with the same name or with “ Drawing” appended, this is the default naming convention in Fusion

image

Trouble Shooting Addin install on KiCAD on MacOS

This OpenBOM Addin Install requires a zip file.

It can be downloaded for your Os here:

OpenBOM™ Integration For KiCAD – OpenBOM

When you Open the Plugin manager in kiCAD and install from file, it expects a zip file

Safari in MacOS can auto unzip downloads and can compromise this install. Here is how to disable it:

To stop Safari from automatically unzipping downloads, follow these steps:

Open Safari and go to Preferences (or Settings in newer versions).

In the General tab, uncheck the option that says Open ‘safe’ files after downloading.

This will prevent Safari from automatically extracting ZIP files and keep the original files intact in your Downloads folder.

image

Proceed with the Instructions found in readme.txt

OpenBOM(tm) KiCad integration by Newman Cloud, Inc. Copyright © 2025

1. Register for an OpenBOM account if you don’t have one yet: https://bom.openbom.com
2. Inside the archive, you’ll find the kicad_openbom.app bundle — a standalone version of the integration app. You can place it anywhere on your disk.
3. After launching, if you see the message “kicad_openbom.app not opened”, go to System Settings → Privacy & Security, scroll down, and click Open Anyway.
5. You can automatically map the KiCad CLI using the standalone integration app.
6. To do this, open KiCad and go to KiCad → Settings.
7. Then switch to the Plugins tab and ensure that the KiCad API is enabled.
8. Alternatively, the integration app can be installed directly via the KiCad Content and Package Manager.
9. Open KiCad 9 or later, and locate the Content and Package Manager button.
10. Click “Install from File…” and select the downloaded archive to begin the installation.
11. Restart KiCad for the changes to take effect. Once reopened, you’ll notice the OpenBOM ribb

Loading...