Generating Balloons

You can generate all the balloons automatically in a generative view. In addition, you can configure generating balloons.

Note: Balloons are not created for parts with the EBOM collaboration intention set to Not instantiated in EBOM. For such parts, you can create balloons separately. See, Creating Balloons.

Before you begin: Open a drawing representation of an assembly product. Generate a bill of material of this product.
See Also
About Balloons
  1. Double-click the view in which you want to generate the balloons.
    The view is now active.
  2. From the Annotation section of the action bar, click Automatic Balloons Generation .
  3. Select the following options in the Automatic Ballooning Options dialog box to generate balloons:
    1. Select the required bill of material (if there are several bills of materials in the drawing pointing to the same root (reference) product as the active view) in the BOM list.

      Note: At any point, you can choose a different bill of material and change your selection if required.

    2. Select the required bill of material column in the BOM column list.

      The balloons are created with reference to the value of the attribute shown in the selected column of the bill of material.

      However, if you do not select any value in the BOM column list, then, by default, the value of the attribute shown in the first column is used.

    3. Select the Phantom products check box if you want to generate the balloons on the parts specified as phantom products.

      If you do not select this check box, the parts specified as phantom products are ignored in the balloon creation.

    4. Select either of the following options:
      • One balloon for each reference: creates one balloon for each part reference.
      • One balloon for each instance: creates one balloon for each part instance.
    5. Click OK.
    The balloons are generated automatically in the active view.

    The balloons are positioned considering the following points:

    • Leader attachment point is closer to the view boundary.
    • Fewer intersections between balloon leader lines.
    • As much as possible, balloons do not intersect with each other (maintain certain minimum distance).
    • As much as possible, balloons do not hide the geometry.

  4. Optional: Click Reset to remove the generated balloons and recreate them.
    All the balloons previously created are removed except for the ones that do not have a BOM reference and new balloons are created considering the latest product structure.
  5. Optional: Click Update to update the generated balloons.

    Note: You can use this option only if the same BOM is used again as a reference for the balloons in this view and with the same creation options.

    It updates the existing balloons as follows:
    • The balloons that are missing are created.
    • The balloons that are obsolete are isolated from the corresponding BOM.
    • The content of the balloons is updated with respect to the corresponding BOM.
  6. Optional: Tight-click the balloons and select Properties > Text Properties to modify their font size.

    Note: You can drag the balloons to change their positions.

    One balloon for each reference

    One balloon for each instance

  7. Optional: Double-click a balloon to modify its number or text.

    Notes:
    • You can use alphanumeric letters.
    • If an item number in the BOM is modified, the corresponding balloon number is synchronized to maintain consistency, and vice versa. Only the modifications made to the item number in the BOM are supported.
    • The operations performed on BOM are independent of the balloon operations.
    • The synchronization happens only when the balloons are linked to a BOM.