Altium ActiveBOM grouping ... Bug? User error? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: smoothVTer
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: May 15, 2024, 03:24:26 pm
content: How do I get Altium to ungroup my components with disparate parameters in ActiveBOM or regular BOM? I've tried everything mentioned in similar posts here and other places on the web, the posts' prior solutions are not working for me and I cannot make sense of what Altium is trying to do here and why. Logically, Altium should be able to make separate lines for capacitors with disparate parameters, for example:C1,C3,C4 4.7uF 10V X7R 0603C2,C5,C6 4.7uF 10V X7R 0402C7,C10,C14 4.7uF 16V X7R 0402C8,C9,C11,C12,C13 4.7uF 10V X5R 0805etc etcWhat I'm stuck with right now is:No matter what I try to group by, the capacitors with disparate <anything> will still be grouped together by what I can only deduce is the 'Value' field. For instance:... or ...I cannot find a combination of any "Group By" dropdown options to put all the 4.7uF with different voltage ratings, packages, footprints etc. on separate lines. I believe I have exhausted all combinations. In the first screenshot, I am not grouping by anything except designator. So it doesn't make sense that altium would group capacitors with different 'Package' or 'Voltage Rating' fields. Similarly for the 2 other grouping options shown in the last 2 screen shots.Further details:My R and C libraries are totally generic ( C's for ceramic caps ) The "Manufacturer" and "Manufacturer P/N" fields are never populated, unless it is a special capacitor. For ceramic C's, the only parameters that get populated are Value, Package, Dielectric, Tolerance, Voltage Rating, Footprint. The reason for this being is that we became tired of all the churn back-and-forth when a certain MPN is not available currently or got sunset, between us and the CM ... so, we always just say to use equivalent parts from any manufacturer and report back prior to assembly. Therefore I cannot sort by unique part number here. It does not exist in any schematic. I do not know of a way around this at this time. It would take ages to create new R/C libraries based on unique MPN's for every resistor in every tolerance from 0.05% - 1% Such library work is beyond our scope. We are a tiny office and I am one of two EE's. There is always the option to populate a unique Manufacturer and Manufacturer P/N, however, in their fields, which all C's and R's contain.We're still on Altium version 21.2.1 by the way. Thanks for any advice!

author: ajb
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 15, 2024, 04:09:36 pm
content: Selecting value, package, dielectric, voltage rating, and footprint doesn't get it?Do you have separate components defined in your library for different values, dielectrics, etc, or are you using a single component and manually changing those parameters? If the former, it may be helpful to assign your own internal part numbers to each item, and then use those for grouping.I haven't messed with ActiveBOMs in a long time, but I do recall them being very clunky and obtuse. Do you actually need to use the capabilities specific to ActiveBOMs, or do you just need a customized BOM? Outjobs are a lot more flexible for the latter.Quote from: smoothVTer on May 15, 2024, 03:24:26 pmOne way to help solve this would be to include a list of acceptable MPNs in your library. This is very easy to do with a dblib, which is what we do. As a specific MPN goes EOL or whatever, it can be removed and a replacement added. Then you can just update component parameters from the library before generating manufacturing outputs.

author: smoothVTer
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: May 15, 2024, 04:18:42 pm
content: Selecting package, dielectric doesn't get it. It seems to have no effect, as in my screenshots above in initial post.Ceramic caps are a single component, named 'C' You're correct: I'm using a single component and manually changing those parameters. When I place C, I choose the footprint I want to use and then update Value, Dielectric, Voltage Rating etc. from within the schematic. My Components panel looks like:I probably don't need the capabilities of an ActiveBOM ... but ... I like using it because opening up a document attached to the project is more convenient than creating using Report-->Bill of Materials every time.

author: thm_w
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 15, 2024, 08:43:07 pm
content: I assume you just need a unique field per group as none of the screenshots show one.Try add a field or edit the MPN field to be: =Value+', '+Voltage', '+Footprint

author: tszaboo
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 15, 2024, 09:05:37 pm
content: That 3 icons in the top left corner do the grouping.I don't like that UI choice either.

author: smoothVTer
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: September 16, 2024, 05:02:58 pm
content: Sorry this took so long to reply to you, but:I created a "UniqueGroupingCap" parameter on all capacitors now:Ungrouped, the ActiveBom shows grouped capacitors still:When I choose to group by this new parameter, ActiveBom still continues to group all voltages, dielectrics, and packages together into one giant line!Not sure what the heck Altium is trying to do here, still, with a unique parameter per group it still cannot display a BOM correctly. Any thoughts?

author: ajb
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 18, 2024, 02:39:56 pm
content: I'm not sure that Alitum evaluates parameters in the grouping/sorting process, but it could be doing the grouping before evaluating your parameter string. In that case it would make sense for them to be grouped, since they all have the same pre-evaluation value. Or maybe this is just an ActiveBom limitation or bug in your version

author: tooki
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 18, 2024, 07:10:44 pm
content: Quote from: smoothVTer on September 16, 2024, 05:02:58 pmIt absolutely can do what you want.The cause is really simple: theGroup bydrop-down in the toolbar isn't where you control how the list is compiled.Instead, in thePropertiespanel, in theBOM Itemssection, next toComponent Grouping, click theEditbutton. "Check" here means "evaluate this parameter for grouping". Anything that isnotin this listandhas the checkbox selected is ignored. Note that as you change grouping here, under the list, the total number of lines will change.When you group with the Group by menu, you're just changing how the list is filtered, not how the list is compiled. (You'll notice that the total number of lines doesnotchange.)