This macro exports Bill of Materials to Excel with thumbnails. You definitely need this one if you are on SOLIDWORKS 2018 or older. When you run the macro, a new session is Excel is opened, the BOM is copied there and a thumbnail preview is created for each of the visible components. You must have Microsoft Office Excel installed to able to use this macro. Be aware that it only works on parts-only BOMs.
To use this macro:
- Open SOLIDWORKS and load a drawing that contains a drawing with a Bill of Materials. Make sure it’s the active document.
- Go To Tools > Macro > New …
- Save this macro to a place of your choice.
- In the VBE, clear up the text area and copy paste the code below.
- In SOLIDWORKS, make sure the Bill of Materials feature is selected and nothing else.
- Click on the green play button to start.
- If a dialog pops up asking you to choose which subroutine to run, select main
- Click on Run.
- The macro will get the bill of Materials and copy it to Excel with thumbnails.
Problems running the macro? Report a bug here
This macro has limitations. It cannot process large assemblies. xlBOM with thumbnails has to the ability to process large assemblies and more.
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xlBOM with thumbnails$250.00
Hello, Mr. Amen,
first of all I would like to say briefly that I am glad that there are such persons as you. I am very interested in your solution regarding the parts list with preview. If all this works with the BOM I will try your PDM solution. Is it possible to get step by step instructions for the parts list? I always get an error message (You have not selected any bill of materials). I'd love to get it done, but I'm not getting any further. I'm always grateful for help.
With kind regards
Ilyas Zorla
Thanks for your comment Ilyas. I appreciate your interaction.
If you are getting that message, it means that you have not selected a bill of materials.
Follow these steps:
- Open you SOLIDWORKS assembly document
- Insert a bill of materials
- Select the bill of materials in the three 3D space
- Run the macro
Thank you Amen for the quick help.
I have tested it and I am excited how easy it is and how well it works.
Thank you very much for your support. Now you've got one more fan.
Keep up the good work
Thanks Ilyas Zorla!
Hello Amen,
This script works very well and as intended for assemblies with a small number of parts (less than 30 to 40) but for an assembly with larger number of parts I'm having Solid Works crash. I had a hunch and it seems that Solid Works is hitting the GDI limit of 10k. I can up the limit to about 16k but that will only delay the crash. It seems that when opening and closing each part the GDI keeps climbing and is not being let go after each part is closed.
Any way to make this work on larger assemblies? Ideas?
Sincerely,
Gord Evans
Hi
There is error in this line!
Set swTableAnnotation = swSelectionManager.GetSelectedObject6(i, -1)
Macro is not working?!
Regards,
Mucip:)
Hi Amen,
Thanks for your code it works fine and generate image preview in excel sheet but saving the excel sheet i can only see the latest thumbnail image in all the rows, Any suggestions ?
Can you check the temporary folder and see if the images all get saved there.
I have the same issue. It only saves the last reverenced thumbnail. I believe that the code overwrites the previous image, and doesn't create a new one. Any suggestions on how to modify the code so that it creates a new unique file name?
Can you try running your SOLIDWORKS with administrator privileges?
Even when I run it as an administrator, it still only remembers the last image. When I look in the temp folder for the image, it only has one file there isn't a temp image with multiple numbers, so when the Excel file is opened after saving it references that single image and only shows that thumbnail.
When you run the Marco it works and shows all the images, its just when you save it and reopen it, that it shows the last thumbnail.
Ben,
I think that is an excel problem. The only way I see this being fixed is through a SOLIDWORKS add-in.
I have solution for this problem.
I solved this problem by modifying the code to create a folder for the BOM and a Thumbnails folder inside it. I had it save as Thumbnail (i), where (i) is the index of each thumbnail. Did the trick for me!
Hi Genia,
Would you share how you fix the problem? Regarding the problem you mentioned in other reply (can't work with a large number of components), I think you can below in-between line 131 and 132
swApp.CloseDoc swComponentModel.GetTitle
Your help is much appreciated!
Thanks!
TK
I have tried to use this macro. I have run into a few problems. If I run it from the assembly, it exports the BOM but with no thumbnails. If I run it from the drawing of the assembly it only exports a few of the thumbnail.
Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Thank Amen
whats about assemblies components ?
regards
Amen,
you are the best. Thank you very much for this marvellous work. I have learned a lot from your code, also how to handle an Excel document.
Cheers, Miro
Can you make it close the part file when its finished with the part entry? Mine crashes around 20 parts after solidworks runs out of resources.
Yep, mine also crashes, it would be a great amendment
Dear Amen
I am using SW 2016 SP5 and excel 2016 when I operate the macro it is not working and it shows a message: "run-time error '424' object required", and in the visual basic for applications line 59 in the code in marked ( If swSelectionManager.GetSelectedObjectType3(i, -1) = swConst.swSelectType_e.swSelANNOTATIONTABLES Then).....
can you help me fix the problem?
Thanks in advance,
Shiran
Hi Amen,
Many thanks for your macro. Unfortunately I´m at the same situation of most of us.
The solidworks crash after running the macro for the first 20 to 30 parts.
Can you let us know if there is any solution? or better start to write the macro from the 0.
Again many thanks for your help.
Best regards.
Sergi
Thank you sir for this awesome macro...
Perfect Thanks Man
Greetings Amen,
First of all I would like to thank you for providing this awesome Macro, it really rocks.
But unfortunately i am facing the same issue as the others. After aproximetly 30 (sometimes 38) items perfectly linked to excel BOM, my SW always collapses. Is there any possibility, how to avoid this unpleasant situation?
Thank you for your respond.
Please use the add-in posted on the article header.
Hi
Thanks for the program. Some of the items when exported show as N/A on the excel spreddsheet. Excel 2010
What are you using: the add-in or the macro?
I solved this problem by modifying the code to (instead of saving in the temp location) create a dedicated folder for the BOM and a Thumbnails folder inside it. I had it save as Thumbnail (i), where (i) is the index of each thumbnail. Did the trick for me!
Hi Amen,
Fabulous work, I must say! I heavily modified it to do a few extra things :-) I am also running into the issue where I can't get it to work with a large number of components... is there a setting I can change somewhere? I'd like to keep it in macro form (unless there is a way to modify the source code in the add-in)...
Warm regards,
Genia
Hmm. This is the reason why I developed the add-in. :(
Anybody else notice that Solidworks won't export a thumbnail if you only have ONE part? Thumbs export correctly to Excel if you have multiple parts or assemblies, but if you have only a simgle part, the BOM exports but the thumb is missing. I was hoping this macro would resolve that, but it doesn't. It's a Solidworks issue. Can anyone confirm or have a workaround? THANKS!
Interesting find! I'll look at this later. Meanwhile, check https://bluebyte.biz/product/xlbom-with-thumbnails/ for a better solution.
Hi,
I'm curious if this will export different thumbnails for difference configurations of a part file? For instance, if I have a part that is used twice in an assembly, and each instance of that part is a different configuration, will it export a thumbnail of each configuration?
Unfortunately, no but xlbom with thumbnails ( https://bluebyte.biz/product/xlbom-with-thumbnails/ ) will do. If you are interested in a live demo, let me know when and I will send you an email.