Bounding Box

Using SW3
I have two questions for consideration.
Thank you to all are kind enough to offer help.

1) Since SW is smart enough to automatically create a bounding box around a
component, is there a way to access and use the size of this box for a BOM
Material Size entry? Right now I am linking each xyz dim to a Special
Property.

2) Can a macro be written that will link a part on sheet 2,3,etc. to the BOM
Item# on sheet 1? If so, I would like to discuss $$ for someone to do it for
me.

This is why:
I always use multiple sheets and include an informational Block with each of
several items detailed on the sheet (usually four to six Items per sheet).
I have been able to do some very nice linking to Custom Properties for the
Name and Material of each Item, but I also want to include the Quantity and
BOM Item# of the part.

This is how I think it could be done.
If the Item# and Quantity can be determined by a spread sheet that looks at
the assembly Feature Manager tree, then, is it not possible to also link
that data to an updateable (replaceable) Custom Property for each Item of
the assembly?

 

Were you, by any chance, at the combined Chicago,Milwaukee, Rockford,
SolidWorks user group meeting that happened last Thursday? This exact
question came up in a roundtable discussion.
Some guy said it could be done with a macro, with a command like 'Getbox'.
Maybe someone else who was in attendance will chime in with a more lucid
recollection.

 

You're right about the API call, Ed. It's Component2.GetBox .

Alluvium: Implementing a macro feature that takes advantage of it would not
be complex, but might be intimidating if you haven't done any API work
before. If you want to tackle it yourself, there was a presentation by
Trevor D'Arcy Evans at SolidWorks World 2003 that included this topic and
his example files are posted on the SolidWorks site:
http://www.solidworks.com/pages/services/APIDownloads.html. The bounding
box is an approximation, so it may or may not be appropriate depending on
your needs. You can tweek it to be more accurate by adjusting tesselation
quality. Paul Salvador's recommendation of minBBox might be worth looking
into.

Brenda