Quoting an assembly part from a PDF

Because Paperless Parts can extract a BOM hierarchy from a CAD file, quoting an assembly part off of a PDF rather than a model requires a few additional setup steps. In this document, we'll walk through the fastest way to quote an assembly part from a PDF - both when your buyer gave you individual detail drawings for each child part and when they didn't. 

Outline

• Quoting an assembly part with all product definition in one PDF
• Quoting an assembly part with detail drawings for each child part

Quoting an assembly part with all product definition in one PDF

When an assembly is fully defined on one PDF file, you'll need to build the BOM structure that best represents your shop’s desired method of manufacture and assembly steps  before you cost and price the part. 

Start by uploading the PDF to a quote to create a new quote item. Once it loads, click the three dots next to the quote item and select Make assembly to turn it into an assembly part. 

Navigate to the Components section of the quote item to start building the BOM structure.

To add a child part to the assembly, click Add components to top level and select the type of child part you would like to add. 

• To add a manufactured component (a part that you will make out of a raw material workpiece in your shop), select Add Manual Manufactured Component.
• To add a subassembly, select Add Manual Sub-Assembly.
• To add hardware, select Add Purchased Component. 

Adding a manufactured component

Once you click  Add manual manufactured component, you'll need to assign a part number to the child part as well as a node quantity (the number of child components at that level of the assembly). 

Assign a process, material, and quantity and select Confirm to add the part to the assembly. This will add a cube icon to the BOM tree in the navigation bar. 

Adding a subassembly

Adding a subassembly to your assembly part will create a new level in the BOM hierarchy. After clicking Add manual sub-assembly, add a part number and node quantity to the child assembly part. Be sure to select a process that is compatible with assembly parts. 

Select Confirm to add the subassembly. This will add a grid icon to the BOM tree in the navigation bar. 

To add a child part to a subassembly, select the subassembly from the Components section and scroll down to the Sub-assembly components section. Click Add components to sub-assembly and select the type of part you would like to add, assigning a process and node quantity (number of parts per subassembly).  

Any child parts you add to this subassembly will appear below the subassembly in the tree in the navigation bar. 

Adding purchased components

Select Add purchased component to browse your purchased component library. Either select an existing entry and enter a node quantity or (if the part does not already exist in your library) click Create new component. 

Once you've finalized your selection, click Add component to add it to the BOM structure. 

Once you've completed the assembly BOM structure, you can add costing to each child part and price the top-level assembly before sending your quote. 

Note: Check out our article on quoting from PDFs for tips on how to quickly arrive at a price when working off of a print. 

Quoting an assembly part with detail drawings for each child part

Sometimes, buyers will send you an RFQ whose data package contains an assembly-level drawing with assembly-specific information (like welding instructions, coating specifications, Parts list, torques, etc) along with several individual component drawings that contain item-level product definition. In this scenario, you can use the line item navigation bar on the left side of the quote and  Merge quote items into assembly action to quickly create the desired BOM structure.  

First, upload all of the files into the quote - either by dragging and dropping them onto the navigation bar, or by creating a new quote item and selecting Upload file. Do not enter a process, material, or quantity when prompted - we'll assign these to each line item individually. Click Confirm to create a line item for each file. 

Note: To ensure that the files come in correctly, make sure each component detail drawing is a unique file and that the files are not in a zipped folder. 

Once the quote items have loaded, select all files that should be part of the assembly part. Click Actions and select Make assembly. 

Select which quote item should become the top-level assembly part. This should be the PDF with the assembly-level information. Click  Merge and then Yes to confirm. This will turn all of the selected quote items into manufactured components of the top level assembly part. 

Next, add structure to the assembly BOM. Navigate to the Components section of the quote item, where you can:

• Change the quantity of child parts
• Move child parts up/down a BOM level
• Add purchased components

Once you're satisfied with the BOM structure of your assembly part, add costing to each child part and price the top-level assembly before sending your quote.