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Integrated BIM tools, including Revit, AutoCAD, and Civil 3D
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Professional CAD/CAM tools built on Inventor and AutoCAD
Integrated BIM tools, including Revit, AutoCAD, and Civil 3D
Professional CAD/CAM tools built on Inventor and AutoCAD
In this lesson, we look at how you can associate a CAD file to an item that already exists in Upchain. You may need to do this if a team member has already created the item as a guide for the overall structure of the assembly.
Before you start:
You may want to work through some of the BOM management courses to learn or review how an item without CAD is created in the web application. However, doing so is not a requirement for this course.
In this video, we’ll show you how you can take a CAD file and register it to an existing item in Upchain that doesn't already have CAD.
Transcript
00:05
In this video, we'll show you how you can take a CAD file and register it to an existing item and Upchain.
00:11
So, let's take a look.
00:14
It might be the case that at the beginning of a project,
00:17
a skeleton BOM is created in the web application, for designers to use as a guide as to what the structure is going to be.
00:24
In this case, the items already exist, and it is up to the designers to associate their CAD to the appropriate item later.
00:33
This can be achieved from the CAD plugin, as long as the item doesn't already have a CAD file associated with it.
00:43
To associate an assembly file to an existing item, open the CAD file in your CAD system, and refresh the cBOM view.
00:52
Then right click on the top assembly in the cBOM view, and select Find item.
01:00
This opens a search window.
01:03
Where you can locate the item, you wish to associate the CAD file to.
01:07
You can search by any item attributes and include any additional information here,
01:12
including project or customer information to locate the item that you want.
01:18
Here, we're searching by the item number.
01:23
The search results are displayed,
01:24
and you can click on the item to display it item details on the right-hand side where you can confirm that you have the right item,
01:31
and that it does not already have a CAD file associated with it.
01:36
Once you've located the item that you want to associate CAD to, select it there, and then click the Select button.
01:48
Upchain now begins the process of associating that CAD file with the chosen item.
01:54
The find item process is a one to one process, meaning it will only associate the CAD file for the assembly to the chosen item.
02:03
All child components in the assembly do not get items created for them because that is a separate process.
02:10
Instead, they are created as phantom files because they have to at least be registered as part of the assembly cBOM.
02:18
Here's the result.
02:20
The assembly has been associated to the chosen item, and all child components are phantom.
02:29
You can also see in the lower pane that the file has been renamed according to this tenant's file naming rules.
02:37
All child components are phantom.
02:41
However, they're all left in a checked-out state, which means you can now create items for these phantoms.
03:01
The create item process now brings up the BOM wizard where you can confirm which components you wish to have associated to new items.
03:08
As indicated by the check marks, and by default, everything is assumed to have an item created for it.
03:15
And we'll leave it like that. Click OK.
03:22
This process of creating items for phantoms also works for any unregistered CAD that you may have added to a registered assembly as well.
03:34
If you don't want to search for the item you're looking for, you can instead go to the project BOM and locate the item that way.
03:46
Selecting it there, you can confirm that, again, this item has no CAD file associated to it.
03:54
Then you can right click on that item and choose attach active CAD.
04:02
This saves you the hassle of searching for this item, but the process is exactly the same as what we did with find item.
04:10
It associates the assembly file with this item, renames the file according to the file naming properties in this tenant,
04:19
and any child components are registered as phantom files.
04:37
Let's confirm that in the cBOM view.
04:42
The assembly file has been associated with the item, renamed accordingly, and all child components are phantom.
04:49
And, again, at this point, we can use the create item function to create items for any of those, phantom components if we so choose.
Video transcript
00:05
In this video, we'll show you how you can take a CAD file and register it to an existing item and Upchain.
00:11
So, let's take a look.
00:14
It might be the case that at the beginning of a project,
00:17
a skeleton BOM is created in the web application, for designers to use as a guide as to what the structure is going to be.
00:24
In this case, the items already exist, and it is up to the designers to associate their CAD to the appropriate item later.
00:33
This can be achieved from the CAD plugin, as long as the item doesn't already have a CAD file associated with it.
00:43
To associate an assembly file to an existing item, open the CAD file in your CAD system, and refresh the cBOM view.
00:52
Then right click on the top assembly in the cBOM view, and select Find item.
01:00
This opens a search window.
01:03
Where you can locate the item, you wish to associate the CAD file to.
01:07
You can search by any item attributes and include any additional information here,
01:12
including project or customer information to locate the item that you want.
01:18
Here, we're searching by the item number.
01:23
The search results are displayed,
01:24
and you can click on the item to display it item details on the right-hand side where you can confirm that you have the right item,
01:31
and that it does not already have a CAD file associated with it.
01:36
Once you've located the item that you want to associate CAD to, select it there, and then click the Select button.
01:48
Upchain now begins the process of associating that CAD file with the chosen item.
01:54
The find item process is a one to one process, meaning it will only associate the CAD file for the assembly to the chosen item.
02:03
All child components in the assembly do not get items created for them because that is a separate process.
02:10
Instead, they are created as phantom files because they have to at least be registered as part of the assembly cBOM.
02:18
Here's the result.
02:20
The assembly has been associated to the chosen item, and all child components are phantom.
02:29
You can also see in the lower pane that the file has been renamed according to this tenant's file naming rules.
02:37
All child components are phantom.
02:41
However, they're all left in a checked-out state, which means you can now create items for these phantoms.
03:01
The create item process now brings up the BOM wizard where you can confirm which components you wish to have associated to new items.
03:08
As indicated by the check marks, and by default, everything is assumed to have an item created for it.
03:15
And we'll leave it like that. Click OK.
03:22
This process of creating items for phantoms also works for any unregistered CAD that you may have added to a registered assembly as well.
03:34
If you don't want to search for the item you're looking for, you can instead go to the project BOM and locate the item that way.
03:46
Selecting it there, you can confirm that, again, this item has no CAD file associated to it.
03:54
Then you can right click on that item and choose attach active CAD.
04:02
This saves you the hassle of searching for this item, but the process is exactly the same as what we did with find item.
04:10
It associates the assembly file with this item, renames the file according to the file naming properties in this tenant,
04:19
and any child components are registered as phantom files.
04:37
Let's confirm that in the cBOM view.
04:42
The assembly file has been associated with the item, renamed accordingly, and all child components are phantom.
04:49
And, again, at this point, we can use the create item function to create items for any of those, phantom components if we so choose.
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