Can I attach A File To The Item in OpenBOM?

Oleg Shilovitsky
Oleg Shilovitsky
10 January, 2021 | 2 min for reading
Can I attach A File To The Item in OpenBOM?

Old paradigms and habits are dying slowly. Files is one of the oldest paradigms used in engineering manufacturing software. The reality that even today, 90% of engineering data is still stored in files  – CAD files, spec sheets, and many others. Therefore, we often getting these questions in OpenBOM support – can I attach a file to an item stored in OpenBOM? 

The quick answer to the question – yes, OpenBOM allows you to include files and file references in the information about items, bills of materials, and other OpenBOM objects (eg.  purchase order). Before jumping into the detailed explanation, I recommend you to check out the article from OpenBOM Training Library about OpenBOM basics. The foundation of OpenBOM is data objects-  catalogs, product structure (BOM), order (BOM), etc. are fully customizable and can include a variety of properties (eg. text, number, image, currency, etc). These properties allow you to the customer the records and the important property to get familiar with is reference property. 

The Reference property serves as an external link. It is useful for referencing any external URL such as a catalog part (Trace Part, Octopart, for example) and cloud file storage (Google Drive, Dropbox, etc.).  Use a reference link to point to documentation or installation instructions, etc. Very handy for manufacturing assembly instruction stored as a PDF on your company’s Google Drive.

You can edit reference property manually or via OpenBOM REST API. 

Based on the fully customizable data schema, you can create a set of properties associated with each specific data object (eg. Item), which then will be used to store files and references to files in OpenBOM

In the following picture, you can see the demo BOM in a typical OpenBOM account and how you can see references to different files. 

Conclusion 

OpenBOM provides a very flexible and easy to configure data management system architecture allowing you to define data records with flexible property sets. Reference property type allows to store files (using OpenBOM integrated storage or references to linked cloud data storages (eg. Google Drive, Dropbox, Box, Microsoft One Drive, and Box). 

Check out OpenBOM capabilities by registering FOR FREE. You can also start a free 14-days trial to test all OpenBOM professional, team, and company features. 

Best, Oleg

Want to learn more about PLM? Check out my Beyond PLM blog and PLM Book website. Read OpenBOM customer reviews on G2 Crowd to learn what customers are saying about OpenBOM. 

Related Posts

Also on OpenBOM

4 6
22 March, 2023

Welcome to the March 2023 edition of “What’s new in OpenBOM”! We’re excited to share the latest updates and improvements…

21 March, 2023

The demand for innovation and speed in manufacturing has never been higher as it is these days. For the last…

17 March, 2023

These days everyone wants to accelerate their activities. The speed of the business is growing. We need to have a…

17 March, 2023

Manufacturers have always been looking for ways to gain a competitive advantage. In the past, they have looked to hire…

16 March, 2023

The world of product development has undergone a significant transformation in recent years, with digital technologies revolutionizing how businesses design,…

15 March, 2023

OpenBOM for Altium Add-in is a powerful tool that can streamline the process of creating and managing bills of materials…

14 March, 2023

Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) software was traditionally only used by large enterprises due to its complexity and high cost. However,…

10 March, 2023

You might have been in a position where you have seen a quality problem and no matter how insignificant this…

10 March, 2023

Releasing a new product into the market can be an exciting, yet nerve-wracking experience. A lot of time, effort, and…

To the top