yang686526

do you use the excel bom feature?
if you use the excel bom feature solidworks is not planning to support it. i've has an spr in for over 2 years. when i refused to continue maintenance until they provided a response they said replied it was not being supported. hawkridge systems advertises the excel bom as a top feature.
needless to say i have dumped hawkridge systems and have started to look for a replacement cad package.
ed danzer
i haven't used the excel bom since the sw bom was introduced. i look forward to the day when/if sw introduces it's own dt also.
"needless to say i have dumped hawkridge systems and have started to look for a replacement cad package."
why?

i like the excel dt. it has all the math functions in excel, and all the cut-copy-paste ability.
i am not looking forward to seeing a bland sw knockoff that is almost 25% as capable.
math functions and string functions! i like the ability to use the design table to build part numbers - as the attached file. i use the same dt template for all parts from this catalog. it makes it easy to model up the part once, change the dimension name to the corresponding dim name from the catalog, and then automatically generate the correct part number when i need to tweak it.
-handleman, cswp (the new, easy test)
having the usual spreadsheet functions in a dt is a must. i didn't think it was necessary to point out the obvious.
hopefully, when/if sw ever introduces its own version, it will have all the necessary functions built in. the vast majority of users do not need all the bloat of excel. also, imo, the less dependence sw has on microsoft products, the better it will be. i would like to see sw offer users a choice of using various spreadsheets.
anyway, sw would never release a half-baked function ... would they?


what exactly do you mean, independence from microsoft products?
you can run sw without excel. the excel functionality is licensed and installed w/ sw whether excel is already present or not.
are you sure about that? i've never actually tried to run sw without having ms office already installed.
cbl,
i've installed and used swx on my personal laptop that doesn't have any components of ms office installed. i've not done anything with design tables or excel boms on this machine, but swx functions ok.
guys,
my take on this is excel and sw tables have never been very stable in the sw software, especially on the drawing side of the software. i constantly fight with excel (very little) and sw tables moving around, fonts changing when you edit the tables, and column's not freezing when making a width change, etc...however, excel works the best in design tables and would hate to see that change. i love the capability of saving an excel bom because i can import it into our erp system.
just may take on this.......
have a good day,

colin fitzpatrick (aka macduff)
mechanical designer
solidworks 2008 sp 4.0
dell 490 xp pro sp 2
xeon cpu 3.00 ghz 3.00 gb of ram
nvida quadro fx 3450 512 mb
3d connexion-spaceexplorer
you know you can save a swx bom as a comma-delimited file that can be opened in excel, right?
as far as excel being included with swx, you can check this quite easily. go to your office install directory and change the filename for excel.exe. then try to edit a dt.

-handleman, cswp (the new, easy test)
the basic sw program, yes of course, but not the dt or excel bom, which is what this thread is (was ?) about.