Supplier Solutions - Live Bill of Materials

Parts includes an option to use Supplier Solutions. 

There are some performance costs related to using Supplier Solutions.

The performance issues are due to fetching pricing, stock, etc . . . from supplier web sites. See Bug Crunch #388: BOM Generation Takes Eternity

Updated 2/17/2019

Now that Altium uses Octoparts to gather the supplier data creating Active BOMs and using Supplier Solutions has greatly improved.  However it's still slow compared to generating BOMs without Supplier Solutions.

If you wish to use Supplier Solutions . . .

1) Rename two fields the Parts backend database.

Supplier field to Supplier 1
Supplier Part Number to Supplier Part Number 1

2) Install Suppliers in Altium (AD17)

Admin > Extensions & Updates > Installed > Configure > Select Suppliers





3) Enable Network Activity to Suppliers in Altium (AD17)

DXP Preferences > System > Network Activity > Suppliers




4) Configure the Outjob in Altium


Outjob > Report Outputs > Bill of Materials > Configure > Select Solution 1 Parameters and Supplier Options > Ok


Click on image to view




5) Generate BOM in Altium Outjob

click on image to view



Notes: #388: BOM Generation Takes Eternity

click on image to view




Suggestions:

To generate BOMs quickly, uncheck Solutions for stock, price, etc . . .





Use Octopart or Ciiva to get BOM pricing, stock, and availability :)

For faster DXP starts and a more responsive Libraries Panel uninstall all Suppliers and disable Supplier Network Activity in DXP Preferences.

To see Supplier Part Details right click in the Libraries Panel. Or right click on a symbol placed in the schematic and select Supplier Part Details.

Best of Both Worlds:

If you would like to use the Supplier Search feature in Altium without the performance hit when configuring and generating BOMs then don't use Supplier 1 and Supplier Part Number 1 parameters in your libraries.

DXP Preferences > System > Network Activity > Suppliers > Enabled

That's It !