Thanks to ‌ and Goengineer, I believe I made a breakthrough in BOM reliability. For those of you that use multi-body part files and generate a cutlist BOM from a top-level assembly, have you ever seen issues with quantities being off? If so, read on.....

When there are multiple instances of the same part file in an assembly, the "detailed cutlist" option will only count the first instance. Don't ask me why this is... The solution is to RMB on the BOM flyout tab showing thumbnails and selecting "Combine Identical Components". (There is a macro to do this too, see below.) This combines bodies that use the same description in their cutlist properties. If two separate bodies from two separate parts use the same cutlist description, they may combine.  This was driving me up the wall until I realized what was happening.

Now, there are two cases where it is usually acceptable to have identical description fields.

1) Weldments. Their description field is linked to the profile and they are typically immune from this behavior.

2) Sheet metal parts with the default "Sheet" value that is still linked. These will also typically be fine.

The problem only rears its head when some genius decides to give generic descriptions to every cutlist body such as 1/4 plate (laser). (No, no, wasn't me! )