I am looking for already a week a tool to compare BOMs, the BOMs are generated with KiBOM.
Can anybody provide a script (add-in or standalone Python script) or an Excel worksheet, macro which can compare the “csv” BOM generated by KiBOM?
Thanks in advance!
What do you want to compare, and with what ?
KiBOM is highly flexible, are you using Grouped or non-grouped BOMs? It will be much easier with non-grouped BOM.
I am working on a design which has already the third iteration, and just want to compare the previous BOM version with the actual one, and provide the change list to the manufacturing company what is different.
On linux you can simply use diff bom1.csv bom2.csv. There are also (multi platform) visual diff tools. Ask your favourite search engine for “visual diff” or the like. But it works only properly with .csv files.
diff is a very simple command line text compare utility. A much more luxurious version is meldmerge
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Similarly, on Windows, WinMerge …
I have tried this diff tool, but the output is not helpful or it is not what I am looking for. Also tried e.g. Beyond Compare, but it is also not really useful to check BOM differences.
Are you familiar how a KiBOM looks like?
I am looking for a tool, which can list the newly added components, deleted components, changed components.
Like this tool: BOM Comparison Spreadsheet | Download | EnginExcel
Sorry, missed one of your question, I am generating grouped BOM with KiBOM. Is it also possible to generate non-grouped BOM with it? I was looking for this option in KiBOM, but not found yet.
Sure it is. Look for KiBom’s ini file, find the section named [GROUP_FIELDS] and comment out all the parameters used for grouping (by putting “;” in the beginning of the line )
If you use a visual diff tool like meld you get pretty much the same output as in you linked excel sheet, maybe not as pretty.
The output from ccdiff is basically the same, but shows only the changes (red arrow the the left means line in first file, green arrow to the right in second file).
But if you already found a tool which fits your use case why not use it? It’s ok to pay for software if you don’t have the time to do it on your own,
When I tested the visual comparison tool, was not showing the differences so clearly like in your picture. Also, my experience is that such a tool shows the difference if there is no crossing in the differences.
I would pay for SW even if I use it only for private stuff, but the linked one is overpriced in my opinion.
I just raised that question here to see if somebody has already something as a plug-in for KiCAD, but it seems no one has, so I have no other choice but to write one.
For me, the quickest/robust solution is to use Libre_Office…
• Open the BOM (.csv) some practice to get the Columns you want…
• MenuBar| Edit>Track_Changes>Compare_Document
You get a file-opening panel, select the BOM (csv) you want to compare
Bingo!
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Nice, didn’t know about this feature, yet. Seems to be also a convenient solution to OPs question!
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