Why are special steel design bills of materials necessary?

Steel design places significantly different demands on parts lists than mechanical engineering. The design is based predominantly on standardized profiles, sheets, pipes, and complex cross-sectional shapes. These must be listed in the parts list with precise dimensions, cutting angles, and lengths. This information is essential for manufacturing, ordering, and structural analysis.

In addition to pure geometry, steel design lists typically require additional values, such as net and gross weights, as well as relevant surface and coating areas. This data influences not only transport and calculations, but also coating, welding technology, and corrosion protection. This information is usually absent in classic mechanical engineering parts lists.

A steel design bill of materials also has a specific structure. Components must often be grouped according to profile type, sheet thickness, assembly section, or manufacturing step. Additionally, recognizing identical parts geometrically is crucial. Only identical components may be grouped together; differences in drilling patterns, cope cuts, or finishing result in separate items.

These aspects make it clear that a bill of materials suitable for steel design requires logic far beyond SOLIDWORKS's standard features.

Automatic creation of steel design-specific BOMs with SolidSteel parametric

With the geometric equal parts detection, two profiles of the same length and type, but with different hole patterns, will be assigned different position numbers, for example.

Rotational invariances are also taken into account. In the following example, the components are assigned identical position numbers even though the angle is different in the global coordinate system and the orientation is mirrored in the component level coordinates:

Special component attributes – fully and automatically integrated

In addition to classic steel design parameters, SolidSteel parametric generates attributes often required for specific projects or customers. These include exact material designations according to standards; defined profile names; assembly and component information; cutting angles; miters; cutting data; and standardized machining operations, such as drilling and cope cutting. All this information is automatically transferred to the bill of materials, eliminating the need for manual rework.

Compatible export for manufacturing, ERP, and documentation

Conclusion: Create steel design-specific bills of materials quickly and reliably

SolidSteel parametric for SOLIDWORKS allows you to generate steel design-specific parts lists much faster, more accurately, and more reliably than standard tools alone. The software automatically performs all relevant calculations and ensures that all necessary data, such as lengths, weights, profile attributes, and surface dimensions, is recorded correctly and completely. Geometric equal part recognition ensures that only identical components are grouped together, which effectively reduces manufacturing errors. Extensive sorting and grouping options guarantee the availability of the exact parts list required for every application, from manufacturing to on-site assembly.

Companies benefit from significantly more efficient workflows, higher-quality technical documentation, and fewer potential sources of error. For those working with SOLIDWORKS in steel design, SolidSteel parametric is a powerful, indispensable extension that supports modern steel design project requirements.