AutoCAD Tables

ShipConstructor 2006 uses AutoCAD table entities to display data in production drawing Bills of Materials (BOMs). The tables are based on easily customizable table styles. Each table style consists of three sections - title, header, and data. Each of these sections can be formatted independently using the table style editor.

AutoCAD tables are very flexible. You can resize the entire table, column, or row, and change the formatting and contents of each cell individually. There are many options available for you to tweak the table using either the right-click menu, the grip points, or the Object Property Manager (OPM). For example, to have all columns evenly sized, right-click on the table and select Size Columns Equally.

In a ShipConstructor BOM, the underlying AutoCAD table entity has all the properties and functionality of an AutoCAD table and more. You can even export the data contained in the AutoCAD table to a .CSV which you can then open in Excel.

Follow these steps to define a BOM in a ShipConstructor template drawing such as a pipe spool or arrangement drawing:

1. Create and open a ShipConstructor 2006 production drawing template.
2. Define text styles:
   1. Block (for BOM title)
   2. Bold (for BOM header)
   3. Standard (for BOM data).
3. Define an AutoCAD table style using the text styles defined in Step 2. Provide a name for the table style (for example, Arrangement Table Style).
4. Use Manager > General > Production Output > Bill of Materials to define a BOM definition, using the table style you just created for the BOM’s ACADTableStyle.
5. In the template drawing use SC Assembly Template > Insert Empty BOM. Select the BOM definition that you just created.

During the creation of production drawings, using this template, the data fields of the BOM table are automatically populated, and later updated on command.

- Ms. Rebecca Sorensen, Software Developer