ACTIVEBOM®

Workshop

Altium Designer ACTIVEBOM® Workshop, page 1

Table of Contents

Module 1: ACTIVEBOM® Overview 4

1.1 ACTIVEBOM® What is it? 4

Module 2: ACTIVEBOM® Basics 5

2.1 Sign in to Access the Altium Content Vault 5

2.1.1 Sign in to your Altium Account ............................................................... 5
2.1.2 Ensure configuration of Altium Content Vault ...................................... 5

2.2 Open the Project 6

2.2.1 Extract the Workshop Design Files ........................................................ 6

2.3 Using ACTIVEBOM® 6

2.3.1 ActiveBOM document .............................................................................. 6
2.3.2 ACTIVEBOM® and the Properties Panel ................................................ 6
2.3.3 BOM Items ................................................................................................ 7
2.3.4 BOM Component Views ........................................................................... 9
2.3.5 Item Line Numbers ................................................................................. 10
2.3.6 BOM Item Grouping ............................................................................... 11

2.4 Solutions 12
2.4.1 Manufacturer Part Number .................................................................... 12
2.4.1.1 Changing the Manufacturer Part Order .......................................... 14
2.4.2 Suppliers ................................................................................................. 14
2.4.2.1 Configuring Suppliers ..................................................................... 14
2.4.2.2 Checking When Supplier Data Was Updated ................................ 15
2.4.2.3 Changing Supplier Search Order.................................................... 16
2.4.2.4 Manually Changing Supplier order ................................................. 16
2.4.3 Supplier and Manufacturer Column Display ........................................ 17

2.5 BOM checks 18

2.5.1 Checking the BOM ................................................................................. 18
2.5.2 Cleaning up the BOM ............................................................................. 19
2.5.3 Setting a Manual Supplier ..................................................................... 20
2.5.4 Adding a Custom Item ........................................................................... 22

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2.6 Setting Number of Production Runs 23

2.7 BOM generation 24

2.7.1 Generating the BOM from an OutJob ................................................... 24
2.7.2 Generating the BOM from the BomDoc ............................................... 27

Module 3: Conclusion 28

3.1 Conclusion & Useful links 28

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Module 1: ACTIVEBOM® Overview

1.1 ACTIVEBOM® What is it?

ACTIVEBOM® is the Enhanced Bill of Materials Management solution for manufacturer and
supplier information within Altium Designer.

It is geared for solving the component management process and is the recommended approach
for BOM management in Altium Designer 18 and beyond.

With ACTIVEBOM®, PCB Designers can quickly assess various cost scenarios throughout the
PCB design process, including, but not limited to:

• Concurrent assigning and maintaining supplier links.

• Defining supplier priority, including pricing and part availability.
• Performing cost per board analysis.

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Module 2: ACTIVEBOM® Basics

2.1 Sign in to Access the Altium Content Vault

For this workshop, it will be necessary to have internet access on your computer, as we will be
accessing the Altium Web Services to pull supplier and manufacturer data. Although it not
necessary to have access to the Content Vault to use ActiveBOM, most of the components in the
provided example have their supplier links defined in the Altium Content vault, so it will be
necessary to both sign-in to Altium Designer as well as verify the connection to the Content Vault
as described in the following steps.

2.1.1 Sign in to your Altium Account

1. Click the button, at the top-right of the main application window.
a. Select the License Management entry from the associated menu.
b. If you are not signed-in, click the Sign in button and sign-in with your Altium Live
email and password.
c. Once signed-in, right-click the License Management tab at the top of the dialog, and
select Close License Management.

Figure 1. Sign-in with Altium Live account.

2.1.2 Ensure configuration of Altium Content Vault

In Altium Designer 18, the Altium Content Vault is enabled by default. The next steps will walk
you through verifying that it is enabled.
1. Click the icon at the top-right of the main application window to open the Preferences.
2. On the left-side folder tree, select Data Management, then Servers.
3. In the right side area, listed under the Know Servers area: (it may be necessary to click the
arrow to the left of the Known Servers to expand the section):
a. Ensure that On is selected and the Content Vault shows Connected as shown in the
image below.

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 Figure 2. Connection to Altium Content Vault.

b. Additionally, ensure the checkbox is enabled for the “Automatically Connect to

Altium Content Vault”.

2.2 Open the Project

2.2.1 Extract the Workshop Design Files
1. Start by extracting the zip file named “ACTIVEBOM Workshop.zip”.
2. Once the files are extracted, open the PCB project by double-clicking the file named
“WiFi_MiniPCIe.PrjPcb”.

2.3 Using ACTIVEBOM®

2.3.1 ActiveBOM document
1. First, start by opening the Connector_WiFi.SchDoc by double-clicking on it in the project
section.
2. Create a new ActiveBOM document by right-clicking on the Project name in the Project
Panel and selecting ‘Add New to Project » ActiveBOM Document’.

Only one ACTIVEBOM document can be added per project. If ActiveBOM Document
is not listed in the menu, this means that an ACTIVEBOM document already exists in
the project.

2.3.2 ACTIVEBOM® and the Properties Panel

When an ACTIVEBOM® document is in focus, the Properties Panel will update with
ACTIVEBOM®-specific information.

1. Ensure the Properties Panel from the Panels button.

a. Click the Panels button at the bottom left of Altium Designer and select Properties if
it does not have a check.

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 Figure 3. Enabling Properties Panel.

2. For this exercise, click the Pin at the top of the Properties Panel to prevent it from autohiding.

Figure 4. Pinning the panel to prevent autohiding.

2.3.3 BOM Items

In the top area of the new BomDoc file, the components from the schematics in the project will
automatically be loaded. It is divided into two sections, Items and Solutions.

1. Find the columns listed under the Item Details section.

Figure 5. BOM Item columns

The displayed columns can be dragged to change the order.

2. In the Properties Panel, select the Columns tab.

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 Figure 6. Properties Panel Columns tab.

3. The eye symbol to the left of the Name indicates if the column is visible or not.
a. Try clicking some columns on / off and notice the data change in the BOM item area.
4. Find Comment in the list and notice that the Name has been entered in the Alias list.
a. If an Alias is set for a column name, the Alias name will be used when generating a
Bill of Materials.
5. Above the Columns section, the icons shown can be clicked to pull in parameters from other
sources. Listed in order are PCB, Database, Document, and Altium Cloud Service
properties.
a. Click on the Document Parameters Icon to show available columns from defined in
the Project Options Parameters tab in the list.

Figure 7. Enabling document parameter column source.

Just to the left of a column name, hovering over the displayed icon will show its
source.

6. Click back on the General tab in the Properties Panel.

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2.3.4 BOM Component Views
At the top of the BOM List area, there are the component grouping buttons:

• Flat
• Base
• Consolidated

1. Click Flat and notice that all the components are listed individually, one item per row.

Figure 8. Flat View

2. Click on a column name to sort the items.

3. Hover over a column header and notice the filter icon that appears

Figure 9. Filter icon.

4. Click the Filter icon and select ‘(Non blanks)’.

5. The filter will appear beneath the BOM item area and can be removed by clicking on the X,
or click the Pencil icon to edit.
6. Click the X next to the filter to delete it (this resets the filter back to All).

Figure 10. Filter added to displayed data.

Clicking the checkbox to the left of the filter will enable / disable the filter without
deleting it.

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2.3.5 Item Line Numbers

For PCB designs with assembly drawings, or for BOM data exchange between design
engineers, cost engineers or purchasing specialists, the BOM line number (BOM Item
position No) is a simple method used to individually distinguish BOM lines, which can
then be used to explicitly identify or find the corresponding callout, component and
depiction in the design.

1. Click on the Base View.

Figure 11. BOM Base View.

2. Click the down arrow to the Right of the Set Line Numbers icon and select ‘Line # Options…’

Figure 12. Accessing Line number options.

3. The starting number and increment can be set to any value. For this exercise, ensure they
are both set to 1.

Figure 13. Configuring Line number options.

4. Click OK

5. Click the Set line numbers icon,

a. Clicking once, the numbers are automatically assigned.
6. Note that grouped components will share the same line number (this can be seen in the Flat
mode).

Line Numbers can only be assigned in the Base View. In addition to automatic
assignment, they can be manually entered, pasted, and deleted. Once assigned, they
are persistent.

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2.3.6 BOM Item Grouping
In the Base and Consolidated views, BOM items can be grouped together by attributes.
Grouped items will appear on the same BOM item row. This makes the BOM easier to read,
however, you will want to ensure only items to be purchased together are grouped on the same
line item.

1. In the Properties panel, in the General Tab under the BOM Items section:
a. Click the Edit… button to open the Component Grouping dialog.

Figure 14. Edit button to configure component grouping.

b. In the Component Grouping dialog, enable the Footprint checkbox.

c. Click OK to close the Component Grouping dialog.

Figure 15. Configuring parameters used for component grouping for non-vault components.

Clicking Add in the Component Grouping will present a list for all parameters used by
components in the schematics.

2. In the General tab of the Properties panel, under BOM Items, find the designator Grouping
section. Changing the selection will change the display for how grouped designators are
displayed.
a. Try changing the Designator grouping and observe the changes in the displayed
BOM items.

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 Figure 16. Changing designator grouping display.

In ActiveBOM, the default grouping for the Base and Consolidated views is by the
component ItemID, or Library Reference for unmanaged components. You can also
manually group unmanaged components by any parameter, by adding that parameter
and enabling it for checking in the Component Grouping dialog.

2.4 Solutions
Under the BOM Item section are the solutions. This consists of two sections.
• Manufacturer Part
• Supplier Part Numbers

The Manufacturer Part defines the what is called a solution for a BOM item. One or more
Manufacturer Parts can be assigned to the selected BOM item. Each Manufacturer Part can have
one or more suppliers associated with it.

2.4.1 Manufacturer Part Number

1. Click on a few of the items in the BOM item area. Observe at the bottom of the dialog, the
information updates with the manufacturer part number and the configured suppliers.
2. For example, clicking on C38 will display the Manufacturer Part for TDK. The Manufacturer
Part Number, or MPN, will be displayed in light blue, e.g., C2012X5R1C106K085AC.
Clicking on the MPN will open a Web browser with supplier information displayed from the
Octopart Web site.

Figure 17. Manufacturer Part for selected BOM item, designator C38.

3. Right-click on D2 in the BOM item area and select Cross Probe » D2

Connector_Wifi.SchDoc to cross probe to the part in the schematic.
4. In the schematic, click on LED2 to select it, then select the Parameters tab in the properties
panel.
5. Custom parameters have been entered, Manufacturer-X and PartNumber as shown in the
image below.

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 Figure 18. Custom Parameters to define manufacturer and manufacturer part number.

6. Return to the BomDoc

7. In the Properties panel, make sure the General tab is selected.
8. In the Solutions section of the Properties panel, click the Edit… button as shown below.

Figure 19. Setting custom manufacturer properties.

9. Click Detect Fields. This will detect and list parameters used by the Vault and any added
Supplier Links, in this case, Manufacture and PartNumber. Next, we will add our custom
parameters.
10. Click the Add button.
11. Click Select parameter under the Manufacturer Name parameter column.
a) Select Manufacturer-X from the list.
12. Click Select parameter under the Manufacturer Part No parameter column.
a) Select PartNumber from the list.

Figure 20. Defining Manufacturer Links.

To add additional parameters in the Manufacturer Link section, click Add. Click in the
Select Parameter field twice, and select the parameter you wish to use.

13. Click OK to close the dialog.

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 14. At the upper right of the BOM Item area, click the Refresh button,
. You will see Loading Data momentarily as the data is pulled
from the Altium Web server, and the you should see the manufacturer data
has been pulled in and added to the LED part, along with several associated
suppliers.

Figure 21. Manufacturer Part linked from the defined parameters.

2.4.1.1 Changing the Manufacturer Part Order

Multiple solutions, or manufacture parts can be assigned to a BOM item. These can be ranked
so that the highest ranked manufacturer will appear on the top of the list.

Ranking is set by clicking on the stars next to the Manufacturer Part.

In the next steps, we will set the rank for BOM item D1.
1. Click on D1 in the BOM Item area.
2. Notice that in the solution area, there are two different Manufacture Parts listed. If these are
not ranked, they will be sorted based on minimum cost and then maximum stock.
3. Set the Dialight priority by clicking on the rightmost stars to set highest rank. Note that the
Dialight part becomes the top entry, see image below.

Figure 22. Setting Manufacturer Rank.

4. Once a rank is set, click the trashcan icon to the right of the stars to un-rank.

2.4.2 Suppliers
Supplier data is pulled from the Altium Web server. Suppliers are attached in the Solution area
to the manufacturer part. Supplier selection is configured in the preferences as we will examine
in the following steps:

2.4.2.1 Configuring Suppliers

1. Click the Gear icon in the upper right corner of Altium designer to open the preferences.

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 Figure 23. Accessing the preferences.

a) Select Data Management » Parts Providers.

b) Here, you can select which regions, currencies, suppliers which will be used as shown in
the image below.

Figure 24. Configuring Suppliers in the Preferences.

c) Click Cancel to return to the BomDoc dialog.

2.4.2.2 Checking When Supplier Data Was Updated

The Altium Web Server supplier stock and pricing is updated regularly. To check when the
Supplier data was last updated:
1. Click on U1 in the BOM Item area.
2. In the Solution section, hover over the dual arrows for a supplier to show when the
information was last updated, as shown in the image below.

Figure 25. Checking when supplier data was last updated.

The arrows will turn red if the values have not been updated for over a month.
Supplier data is only updated when the information is made available from the
supplier. For an out of stock item, an update might not be provided from the supplier,
and results in updates showing a fair amount of time since last updated.

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 2.4.2.3 Changing Supplier Search Order
When Supplier data is pulled from the Altium Parts Provider, the resulting suppliers are
automatically sorted based on stock and price.

Searched suppliers as well as the resulting order can be ordered can be set in the Favorite
Suppliers as follows:

1. To open the Favorite Suppliers dialog, in the Solutions section of the Properties panel, click
the Edit… button located next to Favorite Suppliers List as shown in the figure below.

Figure 26. Editing Favorite Suppliers in Properties Panel.

a) In the Favorite Suppliers dialog, the enabled suppliers in the preferences will be listed
here. Unchecking a check-box allows you to quickly disable a supplier without changing
the preferences.
b) Supplier priority can be set also to specify the order suppliers are added to a
manufacturer part. Enabling the Use supplier priority checkbox at the bottom of the
dialog will use supplier search priority for sorting the results.

Figure 27. Favorite Supplier configuration.

2. Click Cancel to close the Favorite Suppliers dialog.

2.4.2.4 Manually Changing Supplier order

The supplier order can manually be changed by clicking the down arrow next to the number in
the upper right corner of the attached supplier, as shown in the image below.

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 Figure 28. Changing the Supplier order.

1. Click on BOM Item for R15.

2. In the Favorite Suppliers section below the BOM Item area, click the down arrow in the upper
right area of the first supplier header and change the priority from 1 to 2. Notice that the 1st
and 2nd suppliers change order.

2.4.3 Supplier and Manufacturer Column Display

In the previous sections, we saw how to change the display order for a solutions’ Manufacturer
and Supplier results. This order is important, as it can affect the data displayed in the BOM Item
area, which can subsequently affect the generated Bill of Materials report. Next, we will see to
configure the number of displayed columns for solution results.

The number of Manufacturer Parts and Suppliers displayed are set in the Supply Chain area in
the properties panel. Here, we can control the displayed column data in the BOM area for the
manufacturer part number and suppliers.

1. To illustrate, find and select D1 in the BOM List area. Notice the hatching. Unhatched titles
will be displayed as columns in the BOM list area along with the corresponding Manufacturer
Part.

Figure 29. Unhatched Supplier.

Figure 30. Corresponding displayed columns.

2. in the Properties Panel, find the Supply Chain section.

Figure 31. Specifying number of columns to display.

3. Change the number of Solutions per Item from 1 to 2 and press Enter or Tab.
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 a. Notice the hatching for the supplier for the secondary Manufacturer is removed.
Additionally, the columns for both the secondary MPN and the corresponding first
supplier will be displayed in the BOM Item area.

The Supplier per Solution setting behaves in a similar way, controlling the number of
supplier part numbers to display if more than one is assigned to a Manufacturer Part
Number.

Figure 32. Each solution has its own corresponding columns.

2.5 BOM checks

2.5.1 Checking the BOM
For each BOM item, a BOM status is displayed at the far right. Hovering over a status icon will
display an information hint to indicate if there is an issue with the attached solution for the item.

Figure 33. Information popup hovering over BOM Status indicators.

These checks can be configured in the bottom of the Properties Panel.

1. Scroll to the bottom of the Properties Panel to the BOM Checks section. Any violations /
warnings with the BOM items will be displayed here.
2. To only show an error / warning, click on the filter icon to the right of each error / warning to
limit BOM item display for only the enabled violations.
3. Click the main filter icon at the top to restore all items.
4. Click the topmost filter icon just to the right of Violation Type at the top to clear any selected
filters. This will make all the filter icons gray.

Figure 34. Filtering to limit display limited to items with selected errors / warnings.

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2.5.2 Cleaning up the BOM
Let’s use the BOM check reports to clean up the BOM item list.

Solutions are automatically ranked from highest to lowest, based on the part's
availability, price and manufacturer lifecycle state.

1. Most of the white informational BOM check items, , are showing that no Manufacturer
Part Number, MPN, have been manually ranked. Clicking on the stars for the manufacture
will manually override the automatic ranking. Highest ranked manufacturer MPNs will
appear at the top of the list, with 5 starts for highest, and 1 star for lowest rank.
a) Click on C10 in the BOM item area.
b) Set the associated Manufacturer Part to 5 stars as shown in the image below. The
information icon to the right of the BOM item should turn to a green check, .

Figure 35. Setting Manufacturer Rank.

c) Click the trash can icon to remove manual ranking.

2. Rather than setting all the MPNs manually, we will disable the BOM check.
a) Click the gear icon below the BOM Checks area in the properties panel.
b) Find the BOM Check for ‘No MPN ranked’ to No Report as shown in the image below.

Figure 36. Disabling the No MPN ranked check.

c) Click Cancel to close the BOM Checks dialog. In the next steps, we will set the MPN
ranks automatically.
3. To set Manufacturer checks, we will use the Set Ranks Automatically command to set the
manufacturer with the highest stock and lowest price as follows:
a) left-click anywhere in the BOM item area.
b) On your keyboard, press Ctrl+A to select all BOM items.

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 c) Right-click on any of the selected items and choose Set Ranks Automatically from the
menu popup, see image below. This command will only rank the best choice.

Figure 37. Setting Manufacturer Ranks automatically.

d) Note that the information warnings for No MPN Ranked have now changed to green
checks.
e) Click on some items and observing the Manufacturer Part area the best Manufacturer
has been set to five stars.

2.5.3 Setting a Manual Supplier

The Serial WiFi Server component does not have a Manufacturer Part Number assigned to it. We
will assign a supplier which will assign both the MPN and Supplier solution.
1. Find U1 in the Bom Item list, the Serial to WiFi Server, and click to select it. The BOM check
shows this does not have a configured Supplier.

Figure 38. No configured supplier for U1 WiFi server.

a) In the Solution section below the Bom Item area, click the Add Solution button and then
select ‘Add Manual Solution’. This can also be selected from the right-click on U1.

Figure 39. Adding a manual solution.

b) In the Keywords section, change the value to: SPWF01SA.11

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 Figure 40. Changing the keyword search.

c) Click Search.
d) Before making a selection, right-click on any column header and enable Stock. This can
help selecting, as you want to sort by Stock, and select from those displayed with a Unit
Price displayed.

Figure 41. Enabling Stock and Unit Price Columns.

For each selected Supplier in the Add New Part Choice dialog, pricing and stock will
be listed at the bottom of the dialog and can be useful to browse to help decide which
supplier to select.

e) Select Mouser and click the double Arrows, >> to add the manufacturer and supplier
information into the Part Choice details.
f) Click OK to add the supplier.

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 Figure 42. Adding selected solution.

2. Repeat adding a manual solution, this time, add Arrow. Don’t forget to change the
Keywords to SPWF01SA.11.
3. After clicking OK, notice the supplier order, as supplier with the lowest cost automatically
becomes the first entry.
4. Set the Manufacturer rank to 5 stars.

Figure 43. After adding Supplier Links MPN is automatically configured.

2.5.4 Adding a Custom Item

There are a couple ways to add items for purchase such as miscellaneous hardware required for
the PCB assembly. One way to do this is to add Mechanical Parts on the schematic, and pile
them up for the quantity needed. In the next few steps, we will add an order for some Nylon
Screws.

1. From the top of the Bom Items area, click the Add new button and select Custom Row.

Figure 44. Creating a custom row to create a new BOM item.

2. Double-click on the new row’s description cell and change the value to:
Nylon screw #4.

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 3. In the Quantity cell, enter 4.
4. Click Add Solution » Add Manual Solution.
5. In the search field, enter: Nylon screw #4.
6. Select Mouser and click the >> button to populate the Part Choice on the right.

Figure 45. Adding a supplier to the item custom row.

7. Click OK.
8. Set the Manufacturer Part rank to 5 stars.

Figure 46. Ranking our custom hardware solution.

2.6 Setting Number of Production Runs

The ability to set the number of production runs will drive the set the total price for the order and
additionally check against available stock available for purchase from selected suppliers.

In the next steps, we will set the number of production runs to 50 to see if there is enough stock
to purchase from the configured suppliers.
1. Switch to the Properties Panel and enter in 50 for the Production Quantity and press Enter.
This will set the Price per Board and Order price in the panel.

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 Figure 47. Setting the production quantity.

2. In the BOM item area, if there is insufficient stock for any of the items, a BOM indicator will
be flagged.

Figure 48. BOM check flagging insufficient stock.

3. It may be necessary to contact the supplier to place an order. This is beneficial to catch
insufficient stock early, as the lead time might be significant. For example, the lead time for
the selected Arm processor is approximately 20 weeks. Clicking on the blue part number
under the supplier section for Arrow will take you to the supplier Web site.
4. For now, back in the properties panel, change the Production Quantity to 25.
5. Click Enter, or press Tab to commit the new change.

2.7 BOM generation

The Bill of Materials document can be generated in two different methods.
• Directly from the BomDoc by selecting ‘Reports » Bill of Materials’
• From an OutJob
The configuration between these two methods is the same. The advantage of using an Outjob is
that the BomDoc can be sourced by several different jobs, allowing various configurations.
Additionally, any custom changes for column visibility will be remembered.

2.7.1 Generating the BOM from an OutJob

Next, we will use an OutJob to configure the Bill of Materials generation.
1. With the BomDoc in focus, in the Properties Panel Column Tab, find and enable:
a) “Footprint”.
b) “LibRef”.
2. Save the BomDoc using File » Save
a) Keep the default name and click the Save button.

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 3. From the File menu, select ‘New » Output Job file’.
4. Under the outputs section, under ‘Report Outputs, click the [Add New Report Output]
a) Select ‘Bill of Materials » [ActiveBOM Document]’.

Figure 49. Creating a new Bill of Materials job.

5. To configure the Bill of Materials, double-click on the new entry, “Bill of Materials”.
The Report manager will open and automatically set the production quantity to the value set
in the BomDoc. The columns that had been added in the BomDoc will be enabled by default
in the Report Manager and will maintain the order if columns had been dragged around.
6. The View Mode is set towards the bottom of the report under View Options. Here, you will
see there are the three different modes, Base, flat, and consolidated. Make sure this is set
to Base as shown in the image below.

Setting the View mode to Flat will allows custom grouping to be made in the BOM
Report Manager.

Figure 50. Setting the View Mode in a Bill of Materials.

7. When using an Excel template to format the data, it is necessary to ensure the columns
referenced in the template file have been enabled. We will enable all the properties for the
configured solutions in the following steps:

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 a) In the bottom of the All Columns section, check the box next to Solution 1, which will
enable all the checkboxes in that category. Note the arrow to the left of Solution 1,
clicking on this will expand all the sub-columns.

8. Next, we will add the Excel template to use.

a) Click the button next to the template name and browse to and select “BOM Supplier
Links WiFi.xlsx”. The file is in the extracted ACTIVEBOM Workshop directory.

Figure 51. Specifying the Excel Template

9. Click OK to close the Bill of Materials Report Manager.

10. In the main Outjob window, in the right-side section under ‘Output Containers’, click on
Folder Structure in the Container section.
11. On the left side, under the Outputs section, click the radio button just to the right of the Bill of
Materials job we created. A line will appear from the Bill of Materials job to the folder
structure.

Figure 52. Configuring output location.

12. Click File » Save All to save all changes made so far.
a) Click Save when prompted for the OutJob.
13. Finally, click ‘Generate content’ under the folder Structure section to generate the report.
The file should open in Excel for viewing.

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 Figure 53. Generated Excel Bill of Materials report.

Additional outputs could be added to the output job file to create a complete output set for board
assembly purposes. For example:
Pick and place file, Assembly drawings, PCB Composite drawings, PCB Prints, Schematic
Prints, Drill Drawing Guides, Final Artwork Prints, Gerber and NC Drill files, ODB++, Test
Point Reports, etc.

2.7.2 Generating the BOM from the BomDoc

The setup is similar as with the OutJob, however, options are limited and customizations not
remembered. However, exporting the BOM from an ActiveBOM document is a fast way to
create a BOM report.

1. With the BomDoc in focus, in the Properties Panel Column Tab, find and enable:
a) “Footprint”.
b) “LibRef”.
2. Save the BomDoc using File » Save
a) Keep the default name and click the Save button.
3. With the BomDoc document in focus, select ‘Reports » Bill of Materials’.
4. The Report Manager will open and its appearance is identical to what we saw earlier when
configuring the Bill of Materials from an OutJob.
5. In the Export Options section, check the Open Exported check-box

6. Click the button next to the template name and browse to and select “BOM Supplier
Links WiFi.xlsx”. The file is in the extracted ACTIVEBOM Workshop directory.
7. To export the Bill of Materials Report, once everything is setup, click the Export button at the
lower left section of the dialog.
a) Click Save when prompted for the export location for the Excel file.
14. Click OK to close the Bill of Materials dialog.
a) Close the Excel document that should have opened.

Altium Designer ACTIVEBOM® Workshop, page 27

Module 3: Conclusion

3.1 Conclusion & Useful links

That concludes the ActiveBOM workshop. Some useful documentation links for ActiveBOM are
listed below:

- ActiveBOM:
http://www.altium.com/documentation/18.0/display/ADES/((BOM+Management+with+Act
iveBOM))_AD

- ActiveBOM Properties Panel:

http://www.altium.com/documentation/18.0/display/ADES/InteractiveProperties_Pnl-
Properties((Properties))_AD/?help-
data=ActiveBOM.Dlg.Properties_SupplyChain#!Properties-ActiveBOMSupport

- Using an Excel Template with your BOM:

http://www.altium.com/documentation/18.0/display/ADES/((Including+Design+Data+in+t
he+Excel+BOM))_AD

- Output types for configuring an Output Job file:

http://www.altium.com/documentation/18.0/display/ADES/((More+about+Outputs))_AD

Altium Designer ACTIVEBOM® Workshop, page 28