Whatever the CAD application used by the customer (CATIA V5, SOLIDWORKS, 3DEXPERIENCE CATIA or any other CAD), we recommend the following methodology in order to understand how the designer can control which data should be visible in the engineering definition and which should not:

Designers/product engineers are recommended to define two (or more) “containers of design data” that will hold separated content:

• Container 1 – (can be called “Design delivery”):
  1. Represented by an engineering item
  2. Holds the master definition of the CAD data that should be published and integrated in the engineering definition. Such data will hold also the part numbers.
  3. This data will be displayed in the “Engineering Release” widget as part of the engineering definition of the root item
• Container 2  (can be called  “Work in Progress”):
  1. Represented also by an engineering item
  2. Holds the CAD only IP: with potentially relational links, design in context, skeletons, interfaces referential etc…
  3. This data will not be displayed in the “Engineering Release” widget as it is not part of the engineering definition of the root item

These “containers” can be defined in widgets like:

• Engineering Release (Role: Product Release Engineer (XEN))
• Product Structure Editor (Role: 3D Product Architect (PAU))

Here is an example of a definition of such "containers"  (in “Engineering Release” widget):

Users of any CAD can access these “containers” from their CAD application and add the relevant design data accordingly.

Other possible solutions to "Hide design data in BOM":

In R2019x FD03, a new solution was introduced for SOLIDWORKS designers interested in ‘hiding’ certain design data from the engineering definition (in widget “Engineering Release”):

This is implemented in both:

• SOLIDWORKS - select the option “Exclude from bill of materials"

• Widget “Engineering Release” - role Product Release Engineer

Using the preference “Show the xCAD’s Not in BOM” components:

Similar solution will also be available in CATIA V5 starting from 2019x FD04.

To implement this solution for other xCAD, the following steps will be required:

• Create a new attribute in  CAD (that represents the “Not in BOM” intention)
• Map this new attribute to the following existing one in the platform: V_InEBOMUser

Note:

This solution is planned to be supported on the cloud for SOLIDWORKS and CATIA V5 starting from as of R2020x FD01

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