This entire situation needs a detailed review in terms of programming, OR, there needs to be a good explanation of SW's process flow in terms of determining what item number to associate with a part OR a part AND its configuration OR a part AND its configuration AND its configuration name.  Sometimes, even though I have checked the options "Follow assembly order" and "Follow sub-assembly order" the balloons that I attach to a part (which has multiple configurations) get an asterisk OR they the item number which is assigned is an index value of +/- 1 off from its actual value.  Ex. part number XXYY is item number 25 in BOM, which given the options I've selected, corresponds to original part AND configuration combination #25 in the Feature Manager Tree in my assembly, or at least it should in my understanding of this BOM ordering and item numbering methodology.  The problem is, instead of being item number 25 in the balloon that I attach to the part, its either item number 24, 26, or *.  I can't figure out what linking error would make this happen, especially when on the same drawing view I can attach balloons to other parts without any indexing or asterisk problem.  Like item 30 is actually item 30 in the BOM.... this is terribly confusing.  My solution has been to bite the bullet persay, and just change the "Balloon text" option for the incorrectly assigned item number to "text" and then manually input the correct item number from the BOM.  Problems stink, but its always liberating to figure out the answer so someone please help.  Plus, I'd really like to know what the process flow for assigning item numbers and assembling a BOM in SW. Thanks.