Keep Balloon Numbering Consistent

Recently, I received a call from a customer in Columbus, OH, that designs and manufactures a variety of sheetmetal components for shelving and fixtures. As you can imagine, a complex shelving design may require several drawing sheets to adequately describe the product to the shop floor. The Shop wanted the Engineer to maintain balloon part numbering from the first drawing sheet to the last drawing sheet. Personally, I don’t blame the Shop for wanting their information as clean and concise as the Office personnel – they already learned about stable item numbering in Enterprise PDM several months ago.

Sheet1 is an assembly drawing with an Indented Bill of Materials using the Flat Numbering option. I’ve added the balloons for two components that make up one of the sub-assemblies for a pressure vessel. The Shop wants the Engineer to create drawings where the numbers are consistent, regardless of the drawing sheet. For the example, balloons 26 and 27 need to identify the same component on all drawing sheets.

Sheet2, shows the sub-assembly that includes components 26 and 27 from Sheet1. With a simple RMB in the drawing view, select Properties. This brings up the Drawing View Properties dialog. Check the box for ‘Link balloon text to specified table’ and then select ‘Bill of Materials1’, which is on Sheet1 of our drawing, the balloon numbering on Sheet2 matches Sheet1.

Give it a try the next time the Shop complains about your drawings and balloon numbering!