Simplest Bill of Materials

[rbryanharrison]

Being a nube, I'm baffled by something which is likely simple.

 

Let's say I'm building custom fences entirely from 2x4s.  A lot of fences.  They're fancy enough that none of VW's fence or rail objects will do the trick.  I have to generate my own objects.  When I'm done, how do  I determine the linear footage of material required?

 

I'm familiar with parametric objects, records, worksheets, but try as I might, I can't figure out how to accomplish this.  As I'm just starting the project, I'm open to pretty much any approach.

 

Thanks.

[Tom W.]

Are your 4x2s all Extrudes? If so just put them in their own class then create a report that searches for extrudes in that class + returns the function 'length'. Summarise the length column to get the total linear feet of 4x2 used.

 

If your posts/rails are symbols but the 3D components are extrudes the worksheet will report the length in the same way as long as 'including components of symbols' is enabled in the search criteria.

 

Or another option if using symbols would be to attach records to them

[rbryanharrison]

Ah!  I was unaware of the entire cadre of worksheet functions that extract data from objects.  Obvious in retrospect.  Magnificent.  So many possibilities.

Thanks.