AutoCAD Electrical 2021 - Component Descriptions are Blank in a Bill of Materials Report

by Miles Nicholson

If you produce a bill of materials and the descriptions of the part are blank, there are several reasons why this could have occurred:

1. The part does not exist within the manufacturers parts database i.e. it has simply been typed in the Edit Component dialogue either as a primary part number or as an optional accessory.

Solution: Define the part in the manufacturers parts database

2. The part number exists within a secondary manufacturers parts database where the secondary manufacturers parts database hasn’t been linked with the current activated project.

Right click over the activated project > Properties

Solution: Select   and define the secondary manufacturers parts database

3. The part is an optional part where the optional part belongs to a different component category and the optional parts component category has been changed incorrectly.

As an example a terminal has a category of TRMS. If a fuse is assigned as an optional accessory it has a component category of FU. If however, the component category of the fuse, which belongs to FU, is changed to TRMS, the part description information will be blank in the bill of materials as the bill of materials can’t find the information.

 with the correct component category assigned:

  with an incorrect component category assigned:

Note the table isn’t mentioned in the incorrect dialogue either!

Solution:  Define the parts component category correctly

4. The Catalog part number has trailing spaces after the actual part number in the manufacturers parts database. If you copy and paste from a PDF or web site be careful that you only copy the part number and not trailing spaces after the part number. If the part number has trailing spaces defined within the manufacturers parts database, the description text will be missing from the bill of materials.

Will mean a Catalog Check has blank Description text.

Removing trailing spaces will show Description text.

The above issue only relates to the information entered into the CATALOG field.

Solution:  Define the part correctly in the manufacturers parts database with no trailing spaces.