This question may be better posed in the BOMs area, but it's a function of the routing feature so I'll post here first.

Let's say I have a straight run of threaded pipe. In this run there are valves, unions, standard-length pipe nipples, and usually one specially cut/threaded nipple to make up the length at the end.

The standard pipe nipples are kept on the shelf and each one has a part number. When I draw the route, I use threaded pipe and dimension the lengths such that they match up with the standard lengths (i.e. 1", 6" 5.5" etc).

The problem I have is this. When I go to generate a BOM, I'd like Solidworks to say "Hey, that 1 inch threaded pipe is 6 inches long so that's a standard part" and assign the proper part number in the BOM. Otherwise, someone has to sit down and manually interpet the lenghts into part numbers (that's pretty lame-o considering what we paid for Solidworks ).

At first, it sounds like some custom coding might be needed, but I'm thinking there's someone else out there who deals with the same issue who may be able to share their thoughts.

Tommy