Part naming, adding intelligence?

So...I want to create a library of, say, rivets. The part number
would be MS20426. The official description of this part is:

RIVET, SOLID, COUNTERSUNK 100 DEG., PRECISION HEAD, ALUMINUM AND
TITANIUM COLUMBIUM ALLOY

The first question is: Where do you put this description so that it
shows-up on the BOM?

When it comes to modeling there are three variables, material,
diameter and length. What is the best approach to this? Should one
create a single part and use a design table to generate an array of
configurations? This seems like the best idea to me. However, you
are now encoding material, diameter and length into the configuration
name. I'm not sure how to do material other than make it a part of
the configuration name.

For example, MS20426A4-5 is an Aluminum rivet, 1/8in diameter and 5/16
long. The configuration could be named automatically by using the
config table to something like:

"MS20426A4-5 - Al - 0.125 x 0.3125"

The issue here is that you don't want to have to remember what "A4-5"
means, so some way to explicitly describe the dimensions of the part
is needed. I can't think of any other place to put this other than
the configuration name. If you could hover the cursor over the part
number in an assembly and get a flyout that gave you a verbose
description of the part then you could just name every configuration
by the part number (i.e.: "MS20426A4-5") and be done with it. This
keeps the BOM clean. The descriptive approach results in a BOM that
has a part number with, effectively, a description mixed-in, and then,
separately, a description field.

The extreme case would have one create a separate file for each
configuration. I'm not sure that this is a good idea other than for
one reason: There is no way for a vendor to screw-up manufacturing
because each and every part is unique and there is absolutely no way
to accidentally swap one fastener for another (say, change lenght or
diameter).

Any thoughts,

-Martin

 

Normally the MS number should specify the description of that part. If
it does, then why include the complete description in the BOM. Otherwise
you will end up with 1 page of nothing but description of parts. If you
need all the information then you can include it in a config specific
custom property of each part and have that column or columns within your
BOM.

I would create a single part and use a design table for all of the
sizes/materials. I have 1 soc hd screw Utilize concatenate within the
design table for making the sizes/configurations match up easier.

You can include a description field in your design table so you don't
have to remember which size is what. The top row should be $Description.
When you pick on a configuration, there are a couple extra boxes for
description & comments that you can now include in your design table and
the description will show up if you use the design library to drop parts in.