Some of our parts get modeled as assemblies but purchased as a single item.  Example a butterfly valve, which may have a lever, gear operator, air operator, electric operator, and possibly a limit switch module as well.  This is purchased complete under one part number, so once it is created it never needs to show up on a BOM except as that one item.  In SolidEdge I found out that if I simply marked the assembly as a weldment it never expanded in a BOM, except the BOM for that assembly itself.  Worked great, I zipped through the library one time making all the valves like this a weldment and our BOMs were just the way they should be.

So how to do this in SolidWorks?  I would be okay if we could just save the assembly as a part. I'd keep keep a master assembly that I'd use to build all the variations and save each one as a part. Can that be done?  In fact could that possibly produce a part with just the outer surfaces and no internal features?  Because that would allow us to share product models with others without revealing the engineering secrets inside.  Often easy to buy one and copy it, but I'd like to at least sell the one copy!

Second question.  We are moving to AllOrders for purchasing and tracking materials.  AllOrders said they could provide a utility to import the BOM from a drawing file.  I sent them a drawing with a BOM and they said they would need all items in the drawing to make this work.  That is hundreds of parts and subassemblies.  This suggests to me that a BOM isn't actually stored in a drawing, that it is created each time you open it.  Any way to have the drawing save the BOM internally so it can be read?  I also can do this through an Excel file and have done that for years with SolidEdge.  However what they are offering sounds like a great idea.  Pick a drawing, click a button and you have the BOM. Click another button and you have POs to 30 different vendors, Done!

Thanks in advance for any help on this.