I am hoping to hear how others have tackled the issue I have been tasked to solve.  I have my own method that I like but I want to know if anyone has a better way.

The first screenshot I am attaching is of a cable, four wires housed in conduit, for which all of the components have part numbers in our ERP system.

- 62-004X numbers are wire we buy on spools and allocate by the foot.

- 62-0415 is 3/4" conduit we buy in 100' rolls and allocate in ERP per foot.

The creator of this assembly has named each part the part number that exists in ERP.  The issue with this is when we may want to show the conduit being routed thru our product at 'n' length.  It seems we would be forced to create a configuration of this conduit part that is the required length and shape, then another the next time it happens, and so on.

Previous experience (I used to work for Bucyrus in Milwaukee) has taught me a way that I prefer but, again, I need to know if there are better ways out there.

My method:  Screenshot number 2

- The parts that allocate via ERP are also parts in the cad assembly, but they are blank and contain only the information needed to fill in a bill of material on an assembly drawing.  These parts are patterned in order to fill in the required quantity on the bill of material, based on the unit of measure property.

- The parts SHOWN in the assembly are reference parts, and are named with a particular method: "REF_part number of the assembly in which the reference part resides"...this reference part will never reside in any other assembly because of its shape and length, and it will be set to not show in a bill of material nor add to any other calculated properties, like center of mass, etc.

- The files not named with "REF_..." are individual parts, unlike wire and conduit, so they do not require that treatment.

- If more than one configuration of a part is required in the assembly, I would make another configuration of the reference part.

This method allows for the part that represents the actual ERP part number to be represented in the assembly and bill of material without requiring a ton of configurations of that part or the reference part being used in other places and being messed with by others, down the road, in a way that would affect my assembly.

Is there a better way?  Or what would anyone suggest as an improvement to this method?

Thank you for your time and for sharing your knowledge / ideas.

Kurt