From the course: Cert Prep: SOLIDWORKS Drawing Tools

Using equations with BOM data - SOLIDWORKS Tutorial

From the course: Cert Prep: SOLIDWORKS Drawing Tools

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Using equations with BOM data

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- [Instructor] SolidWorks has the ability to add equations to your build materials. All we really need to do is add a new column and then we can assign an equation. So the first thing I want to do here is add a new column. So we'll go ahead and choose the building materials here. Right click on this column and come down here to insert, column to the right. Now it gives me the option to choose a custom property, and the property name I'm going to choose here is going to be the cost. Notice each one of these items already has the cost established here. Now, if you didn't have a cost category, or a property name inside of your custom properties, you'd, of course, need to go and add one or choose from one of the property names that are available. But in this case here, we do have one called Cost, which is great. Now what I want to do is I want to create an equation that multiples the quantity times the cost to get a subtotal. So let's go ahead and add one more column. So I'll go up here to insert, column to the right. There it is. And this time, let's just leave it blank. It's okay. Now, let's click either in the top of this thing, or actually in the cell itself. Either way, you can add an equation. Let's go ahead and choose this one here, and go ahead and add an equation right here. Click on that. And the equation I want to add, is I want to choose a custom property here which is the cost, and then I want to multiply it. So I'm going to use Shift + the number eight to give it a little star and then I'm going to go over here to columns and I'm going to choose the quantity. Alright, so now I have cost times quantity. That's what I'm looking for. Go ahead and click on OK and notice that it adds it to each one of those cells. Now at the very bottom of the screen I'd probably like to add a total of all these costs. So let's go ahead and add a row. Right click over here. Insert row below. There's my row. And over here we can change this one to a new equation. If you look under here you can see we've got the custom properties. Over here we have some different functions, and that's what we're probably looking for, is the function called total. So go ahead and choose total. Click on OK. And what that does is it sums up all these things above it to get the total value. So there's a couple quick ways to add equations to your build materials. You can easily adds things like cost, you can figure out what the subtotals are, and you can figure out what the final total value might be. It's always good to double check yourself with a calculator when you're first setting up to make sure that you do have the correct equations in there. And this is definitely something you might see very similar on the exam.

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