Presently implementing EPDM for our group.

I'm frustrated by the issue covered in SPR649406:

"Enterprise PDM “parts only” BOM doesn’t display subassembly (in) SolidWorks BOM if option “child component display when used as subassembly” is set to "Hide"

We often use the configuration BOM option "hide" when we want to represent a Solidworks assembly as a BOM part.  Examples include PEMs in sheetmetal, threaded brass inserts in plastic, and PCB components in a PCA.  Since we get the "inseparable assembly" from the manufacturer with the items already installed, it's treated as a single part on the BOM and we don't want those PEMs/inserts listed on the BOM.  But we like the convenience of modelling it as an assembly for reasons similar to those covered in https://forum.solidworks.com/message/29910.

We used to have a convention where we would "promote" the assembly and "hide from BOM" all the PEMs/inserts.  The sheetmetal Solidworks part would get promoted to the "parts only" BOM like we wanted.  But that was a lot of work on large assemblies.  We would inevitably forget a PEM or two and see it on our top level parts list later.

The SPR suggests a possible workaround by displaying the Solidworks BOM instead.  That'll work as good as we were doing pre-EPDM I guess.  But I'm surprised EPDM doesn't "natively" handle it.  A big reason we went with EPDM over competitors is because we thought it would understand the intimate file relationships best, being another Solidworks product, and offer the most functionality.

Does anyone else have other thoughts on this topic?  Thanks!