There are two directions for walking the BOM graph:
Explosion (down): starting from an assembly, expand it into every component, sub-component, and raw material it consumes, all the way down to the leaves.
Where-used (up): starting from a component, find every assembly that consumes it, up to the finished goods that ultimately depend on it.
Explosion answers “what goes into this, and how much?”; where-used answers “what depends on this?” and “if I change this, what moves?”.You can do both on the BOMs page, or ask Dexter when you want rolled-up totals or the full chain of parents.
Switch to the Graph view. It opens with the BOM and its direct components.
Click a component that has components of its own, then click Explode. Everything beneath it is added to the diagram, up to ten levels deep.
Click Collapse on the same node to fold it back, or Go to BOM to open that component’s own BOM.
Each node shows its quantity per unit of its immediate parent, with the entity’s unit, exactly as authored on the parent BOM. A component used by several parents appears once under each of them. To get the total amount of a leaf needed for one unit of the top item, multiply the quantities along the path and add up the paths, or ask Dexter for the rolled-up totals.The Tree view shows the same structure as an expandable list, with the per-parent quantity on each line.
The BOM’s side panel has a Used in list: the direct parents of the open BOM, meaning the BOMs that list it as an immediate component. Click a parent to open it. A BOM that nothing consumes shows Not used anywhere.The list doesn’t go further up the chain. To see every finished good that depends on a component, open each parent in turn, or ask Dexter.
“What goes into the standard bracket, and how much of each?”
“Explode the widget assembly BOM.”
“Where is steel plate used?”
“If I change the steel plate BOM, which finished goods are affected?”
One entity can have several BOMs, one per variant or alternative recipe, and each explodes differently. If an entity has more than one BOM, say which one you mean, or ask Dexter to list them first.
An explosion lists every BOM below the one you named, once each, with its total quantity per one unit of the top item. Quantities are multiplied down each path and summed across paths, so a component used in two sub-assemblies appears once with the combined total. Each row also carries its depth, the shallowest level at which that component appears (1 is a direct component).For example, a widget assembly that uses 2 steel plates directly, plus one bracket that itself uses 3 steel plates, explodes to a single steel plate row of 5 per widget.Because shared components are merged, an explosion is the right answer to “how much do I need?”, not to “what is the exact shape of the tree?”. For the shape, use the Graph or Tree view.
Direct parents (the default): each BOM that lists the component as an immediate component, with the quantity it uses per unit of that parent.
The full chain: ask for every assembly or finished good that depends on the component. Each ancestor appears once, with the total amount of the component consumed per one unit of that ancestor, summed across every path, and the shallowest level at which it appears.
Per one unit. Totals are for one unit of the top item. For a production quantity, ask Dexter to scale them.
One BOM at a time. An explosion walks the specific BOM you name. It doesn’t pick a variant from an order; that matching happens on planning inputs.
No cycles. A material can’t be part of its own BOM, so every explosion ends at the leaves.
An explosion reflects BOMs as authored. It doesn’t account for a planning model’s BOMs, on-hand inventory, supply orders, or alternative recipes. For “how much do I actually need to produce to fulfill this demand?”, run a planning scenario.
Check where a component is used before editing it. The Used in list covers direct parents; ask Dexter for the full chain when the change could reach finished goods further up.
