Excel macro to export your HarnWare Bill of Materials (BoM) to PTC Windchill for multiple harness designs.
Press: Ctrl+I to run the macro which will open Visio.
Browse to the drawing(s) that you wish to import the BOM for.
Highlight the Visio file(s) and select open.
Each file will open in Visio temporarily and then close. At the end of this, the excel page will be populated.
At this stage there are a few things to check.
There should be no pink highlighted cells within the working area (other than after the last line).
If there is, then this indicates a problem that will cause the import to fail.
The most common issue is in the first line of each harness list. Column ‘C’ needs to have the CONTRACTORS DRG No. from the front sheet of Visio in it. This is automatically added from the more recent Visio Templates but older ones will not work. Just overtype the PINK cell with the correct number.
The other cells in column ‘C’ contain the MM No. for each part in column ‘K’. Therefore, any incorrect part numbers from the drawing may cause an issue in column ‘C’. These need to be rectified before continuing with the import.
If there are any new parts that are not recognised, then the team will need to create an MM number for the parts. This then needs to be added to the HarnWare Access Database “PartNum.accdb”
Once the excel sheet is ready, save to somewhere local then open Windchill:
Browse to “Details” for your project in Windchill (tip: make sure Java is enabled for attachment uploads)
From the Actions dropdown select ‘Import from Spreadsheet’
Browse to the file that you saved and click OK
The file will now run through Validation check
At this point, you may instead get a message that you do not have permission for this action. The required permission is not part of the standard user setup and will need to be separately granted.
Click Ok to import the BOM
On successful completion you will get a confirmation email
If there was a problem, you will receive a failure email
If this occurs it is often due to the BOM – or part thereof – already being loaded into Windchill. Incorrect parts will need to be removed and a re-import performed.
In the Import from Spreadsheet box, there is the option to ADD ONLY or UPDATE ONLY as well as the standard ADD AND UPDATE so this can also be used to resolve issues.
