Model machines, BOMs and options

Exploded drawings and hotspots

Click the drawing, get the part.

The exploded drawing is the primary navigation of a spare parts shop. A technician who cannot name your article can point at the thing that broke. This article covers getting drawings into the catalogue and connecting their position numbers to real parts.

Before you start: your bill of material must already carry the drawing's position numbers. A hotspot is a link from a region of the drawing to a BOM position; without the positions there is nothing to link to.

1. Create the drawing asset family

Drawings are assets, and they need their own family because their metadata differs from a product photo.

  1. Go to PIM › Data model › Asset families.
  2. Create a family exploded_drawings.
  3. Give it these attributes:
AttributeTypeWhy
drawing_numbertextZT-4400-07 — the number printed on the sheet
revisiontextD. Drawings are revised; parts lists change with them
valid_from_serialtextThe first machine serial this sheet applies to
valid_to_serialtextEmpty on the current sheet
sheetnumberMulti-sheet drawings are normal
formatsingle-selectsvg, pdf, png
  1. Set a naming convention if your files are named systematically. Files named ZT-4400-07_RevD_sheet1.svg can be recognised and filed on upload instead of matched by hand — on a few thousand sheets that is the difference between an afternoon and a month.

2. Upload the drawings

Go to PIM › Assets, select New asset, choose exploded_drawings, and upload the file or point at an external URL if a DAM or PLM already serves them.

Use SVG where you can. A vector drawing scales on a phone in a factory hall, and — the reason that matters here — an SVG exported from a CAD illustration tool keeps the position callouts as identifiable elements, which is what makes bulk hotspot mapping possible. A flattened PNG or a scanned PDF gives you a picture and nothing else, and every hotspot has to be drawn by hand.

3. Link the drawing to the assembly

  1. Create an attribute of type asset on your products, targeting the exploded_drawings family — call it exploded_drawing.
  2. Assign it to the assembly family.
  3. On each assembly, pick the drawing.

An assembly can carry several drawings — several sheets, or several revisions. Make the attribute multi-valued and let the sheet and valid_from_serial attributes on the asset decide which one to show.

4. Map hotspots to positions

A hotspot map is a list of entries, each saying: this region of this drawing is position 030. Position 030 is already an association on the assembly, so the hotspot resolves to a part, a quantity and a price without any further data.

The mapping is per drawing revision, and it holds three things per entry:

  • The position number — 030.
  • The region — coordinates of a shape, or the id of an element in the SVG.
  • The label anchor — where the callout number sits, so you can highlight in both directions: click the drawing to select the row, hover the row to highlight the drawing.
The hotspot editor is a planned capability. There is no Cockpit screen today for drawing regions onto an asset. What you can and should do now is get the prerequisites exactly right — drawings as assets with a revision, position numbers on every BOM association, and SVG rather than raster where the source allows it. That is the data a hotspot layer consumes, and preparing it is the part that takes months.

5. Bulk-map from CAD and PLM exports

Drawing hotspots by hand is viable for twenty assemblies and hopeless for two thousand. Where the drawing comes out of a technical illustration tool, the mapping usually comes with it.

  • SVG with structured ids. Exports from Creo Illustrate, SOLIDWORKS Composer and Arbortext IsoDraw can carry the callout number in the element id or a data attribute — <g id="pos_030">. If the id matches the BOM position, the map is derivable by a script rather than a person. Ask whoever owns the illustration tool to standardise the naming before the next export batch; it costs them a template change and saves you the entire mapping effort.
  • A separate coordinate list. Some tools export the callout positions as a CSV alongside the image: position number, x, y, width, height. That is a hotspot map in a different file format.
  • The S1000D / iSpec 2200 route. If your technical documentation is already produced to one of these standards, the illustration-to-parts-list link exists in the source data. Use it rather than rebuilding it.

Whichever route you take, the join key is the position number, which is why position discipline in the BOM is worth the effort it takes.

6. Handle revisions

A drawing has a revision and so does the parts list that goes with it. Rev C of ZT-4400-07 and Rev D differ in three positions, and a machine built in 2014 belongs to Rev C.

  • Keep every revision as its own asset. Never overwrite a drawing file.
  • Record valid_from_serial and valid_to_serial on each revision.
  • When you replace the current drawing, close the previous one's validity range instead of deleting it.
  • If you cannot resolve a buyer's machine to a revision, show the current sheet and say which serial range it covers. See Maintain BOMs and drawings.

What to check

  • Every assembly with a parts list has a drawing. A parts list with no drawing is a table of article numbers, which is the thing you were trying to replace.
  • Every drawing position resolves to a BOM position. Callout 030 on the sheet must exist as an association. Mismatches are the main source of "I clicked it and nothing happened".
  • Every BOM position appears in the drawing. The reverse check catches positions added to the parts list after the illustration was last updated.
  • Both checks run as a report, not by eye — see BOM and drawing quality.

Next

Model a bill of material

Assemblies, positions, quantities.

Compatibility and fits-with

Which part fits which machine.