BOMcalc with OctoSearch offers inexpensive and easy to use inventory manager, bill of materials calculator and online parts lookup tool

BOMcalc is a Windows application for managing Bills of Materials (BOMs) and parts inventory for manufacturing and construction, especially for electronic assemblies. It serves the following primary purposes:

• managing parts inventory and helping to determine which components need to be ordered for upcoming builds
   
• managing a database of parts information - tracking such details as manufacturers, parts on order, lead times, pricing for multiple suppliers, etc
   
• managing BOMs - includes verifying a BOM against the parts library, identifying new parts, and calculating the total cost of your boards
   

*** Please note that BOMcalc was specifically designed for companies and individuals building electronic circuit boards and assemblies ***
 

BOMcalc currently uses Octopart's API, Element14 and Digikey to enable you to pull price quotes and vendor part numbers from catalog vendors to fill out your database. Having this information readily available through these interfaces saves you countless hours and to remain within a single application.

BOMcalc is built specifically for users who need a Bill of Materials (BOM) calculator tool integrated with an inventory database.  BOMcalc is ideal for companies who...

• have been using Excel spreadsheets to manage their inventory and BOMs but need a proper BOM tool that can handle hierarchical assemblies with cost and quantity rollups
   
• have an existing inventory management system but need a powerful BOM tool to work with their system
   
• just need a basic inventory management tool that can update prices automatically

• stockitems can have multiple suppliers per part with up to 10 prices per supplier
   
• supports a picture and a thumbnail for each part - can view thumbnails in the grids
   
• can have open any number of BOMs at once in a tabbed interface
   
• hierarchical and flat views - see your assemblies in a tree view with running totals and cost and quantity rollups, or in a flattened view showing each part's totals
   
• instantly see the total cost of your BOMs - at any level
   
• BOM files are XML files allowing you to easily exchange BOMs with other systems
   
• add/update parts and prices from OctoSearch
   
• automatically update part prices from Digikey and Element14
   
• import/export parts data via tab delimited files allowing you to use BOMcalc with your existing system
   
• inexpensive - only $50 per seat!

Inventory listing		BOM TreeView		BOM FlatView

OctoSearch integration

OctoSearch is a separate tool for searching the Octopart.com database*.  OctoSearch makes it easy to search the Octopart.com online parts database - and its integrated directly into BOMcalc, making it super easy to copy/paste parts and prices directly.  If you already have your own inventory system its easy to integrate OctoSearch because it just uses the Windows Clipboard for copy/paste operations.  The format is simple XML, so its easy to get the copied data off the Clipboard and import directly into your system.  We even have a C#.NET class you can use with all the work done for you.  OctoSearch features:

• search Octopart.com's massive database by mpn, sku, description, manufacturer, brand or supplier
   
• copy/paste price/parts data via the Windows Clipboard
   
• integrated with BOMcalc - copy/paste results directly into BOMcalc forms
   
• easy to integrate into your own .NET application - with just a few lines of code to show a dialog then use copy/paste to transfer data directly into your app
   
• group results by any field: manufacturer, mpn, supplier, sku
   
• filter results by any field
   
• filter results by price

* OctoSearch requires a valid Octopart.com API key to be able to use their service. You can obtain a FREE API key simply by filling in a form on the Octopart website (link below). Once you have received your key, you may paste it into the About dialog and begin searching the Octopart database.  The whole process takes less than 5 minutes.  After you setup your Octopart account you can generate a key. There are two fields to fill in: App name and URL. You can use OctoSearch for the app name. For the URL YOU MUST USE A UNIQUE DOMAIN NAME. This is vitally important because of the way the Octopart system works - it will mix up your billing with others if you use the same URL. So its best to use your company's domain name, eg. MyCompany.com. DO NOT use pubic email domain names, eg. gmail.com - and PLEASE do not use bomcalc.com.  Get an Octopart.com API license key now. 

How To Guides

Working with BOMs