BOM table in multi-body drawings

[Nick]

I'm trying to create a drawing of a multi-body part, with a bill of materials table, like an assembly drawing.

(I've created a multi-body part as it's quicker than modelling an assembly.)

I've named my bodies and created a BOM table using one of the built-in templates, which generates a unique item number per line, but I can't figure out how to make these item numbers appear as balloon notes.

'Create balloons' on the toolbar only seems to work for components, not bodies.

Is there a way to make this work?  Or do you just have to create manual balloon notes?

[Michael]

I know your pain. What you need to do is to export every body as a part … right click on the body and export as a part, give it a good name,  Then create an assembly and put these components back into place as default.

You be able to do what you want with the assembly, but you will have limitations  I would encourage you to talk about the problems that you’ve been having because multibody is not fully integrated into drawings IMO. 

[Nick]

Ah, that's not ideal.. I was hoping to avoid assemblies!!

One of the most common use cases for multi body parts is a weldment. Modelling as a single part can save a huge amount of time.

However for this to work properly, we absolutely need to be able to auto-generate BOM balloons for individual bodies.

Why is there a built-in BOM table for multi-body parts if it can't generate balloon notes?

Other things we can't do in drawings, as of Creo 8:

- Show/hide individual bodies

- Create exploded views

- Change shading/line style for certain bodies

If we didn't have these limitations then multi-body parts would be a lot more useful than they currently are.

[tbraxton]

If you use multibody for design, it is possible to create automation that would take the multibody part design and create the assembly model and the assembly drawing with the BOM ballons in Creo that is driven by a multibody part. You than have all of the assembly functionality available for use and your design is controlled with the multibody part model.

Develop the method to exploit using multibody for weldments and use it. Chances are high that you can get this working before any enhancement request is implemented for this issue.

[Nick]

I'm guessing that would involve JLink?  Never used it before so I'd have to learn.  I've used automation in CATIA before so that might help.

[tbraxton]

On the low end mapkeys can semi automate this process and on the high end using one of the Creo APIs of which J-link is one. If it something you use often, I would just pay someone to develop a Creo/Toolkit application.

[StephenW · Accepted solution]

There is a enhancement request for this. I *THINK* they are actively working on improving multibody. It's still relatively new for creo so there is lots of room for improvement.

Vote for this idea.

https://community.ptc.com/t5/Creo-Parametric-Ideas/Allow-the-use-of-Create-Balloons-buttons-in-a-drawing-with-a/idi-p/672818

[Nick]

Yep, that's exactly what I want, thanks...

Anyone visiting this thread, please vote as well.