Live Supplier Data - BOM Generation
Contents
Main article: Live Links to Supplier Data
Being able to cost a project and determine the quantities of design components to be ordered from suppliers/distributors, is an essential part of the overall design process. Once you have added the required live Supplier Links to your Altium Designer components, the linked supplier data – including pricing and stock information – can be included at design release time, in a Bill Of Materials.
Supplier data is only available when generating a Bill of Materials for the project. It is not available when generating a Bill of Materials for a PCB document, and is also not included when generating a Simple BOM.
Included Data
The following supplier-based data can be included in a Bill of Materials – simply enable the corresponding check box for each, in the All Columns region, at the left-hand side of the Bill of Materials dialog:
Supplier 1– name of the Supplier (either Digi-Key, Farnell, or Newark).
Supplier Currency 1– alphabetic code for the chosen currency used for pricing data.
Supplier Order Quantity 1– number of units required to fulfil the desired production quantity of the product.
Supplier Part Number 1– part number for the Supplier Item.
Supplier Stock 1– how many units of the Supplier Item are current held in stock by the supplier.
Supplier Subtotal 1– the Supplier Order Quantity multiplied by the Supplier Unit Price, giving the subtotal for that item.
Supplier Unit Price 1– cost, per unit, of the Supplier Item.
Specifying Production Quantity
You can fully cost a project based on the number of units of your product that you intend to produce – the production quantity. Use the Production Quantity field, in the Supplier Options region of the Bill of Materials dialog, to specify the required value.
The Production Quantity is used to determine the Supplier Order Quantity – the quantity of component that would need to be ordered to produce the given product quantity.
In turn, the Supplier Order Quantity is used to determine the Supplier Unit Price that applies. Remember that suppliers typically offer various quantity pricing levels, depending on how many units of an item you purchase. To have Altium Designer round up the Supplier Order Quantity to take advantage of the next (reduced) pricing level, simply enable the Round up Supplier Order Qty to cheaper price break option, in the Supplier Options region of the Bill of Materials dialog.
Changing Supplier Currency
Related article: Live Supplier Data - Currency Conversion
You can specify the currency used for pricing-related data in a Bill of Materials, from a range of supported currencies. Simply choose the required currency from the drop-down field available to the left of the Production Quantity field, in the Supplier Options region of the Bill of Materials dialog.
The Supplier Unit Price and Supplier Subtotal data will update accordingly. Be sure to include the Supplier Currency column in the BOM, to distinguish which currency is in use through an associated alphabetic code.
Currency exchange rates are refreshed on a daily basis, provided you are signed in to your Altium account.
Using Cached Pricing Data in BOM Parameters when Offline
When working online – signed in to your Altium account through the secure Altium Portal – pricing-based data imported as parameters to components with live links to the Supplier Items is updated. When generating a BOM, you will have the latest pricings at that point in time. For specific currencies, the exchange rates are updated on a daily basis.
When working offline, you have the ability to use the last cached pricing data in these pricing-based parameters. To do this, from within the Bill of Materials For Project dialog, simply enable the Use cached pricing data in parameters if offline option – in the Supplier Options region of the dialog.
cached pricing data in parameters.
Example BOM Template
The Excel template file BOM Supplier Links.xlt provides an example BOM template that includes supplier link information. This file can be found in the \Templates folder of the installation.