Solid Edge Users Please Help

Hi
I know this is going to be a bit contraversial but here goes.

I am using SW to design aluminium boats and sell flat pack kits.Boats require a lot of weldment parts (used for plate stiffeners),and most of them are mirrored.

When I create a BOM from an assembly drawing I have 3 majorproblems.

1. it wont give me a summary of materials required for ordering.Getting total quantities out for ordering materials is such a basicneed I am amazed it cant do it. Sure you can go to excel and add upall the cut lengths but then you lose the advantage of parametricmodelling.
2. It doesnt recognise mirrored weldment bodies in assemblies. Soif I mirror a weldment with 100 bodies the bom just shows 1mirrored item. So when I export to excel to add up the cut lengthsI have to find all the mirrored bodies and double the quanities ofeach one.
3. when using display states the bom lists items of parts that arehidden. So I deleted the rows I dont want and the next day I openedthe drawing and they are all back.

If I knew about this there is no way I would have boughtSolidworks. I am so fed up with how bad the BOM's are and how muchtime I waste manully doing material takeoffs that I am thinking ofswitching to solid edge and writing off the cost of SW.

Just like the SW VAR, the SE resellers are also saying that it isperfect for boat building and can do everything I need. The SW VARlied to get the sale and I'm sure the SE guys would do the same.

I know SE can give totals for ordering sorted by member type but Idont know about the rest so I am hoping that someone that has agood knowledge of both programs can tell me more about the BOMcapabilities in Solid Edge before I waste more time and money.

I know I will still have to do a trial but if SE has the sameproblems then I wont bother. Maybe SE is just as bad.

I am a 1 man band so if an inaccurate BOM causes me to under quotea job, or order the wrong amount of materials, then the loss comesout of my pocket, and that can be more than the cost of switching.So at this point a I am prepared to live with any other limitationsof SE as I'm sure they wont cost me as much time (and expose me toas much financial risk) as this BOM issue does.

Thanks
Steve
SolidworksBill Of Materials