Bill said:
 "Really there should be an 'Assembly Configuration' tool that pulls the data all together from the different aspects of the assemblies and makes it easy to manage and drive BOMs and control revision status from... (imho)"

Couldn't agree more. Expecting to manage a BOM within a schematic is a mistake.
Using a schematic as the origin for a BOM isn't.

Most established companies have some form of PLM system that is used to manage product configurations and BOMs, exactly what I believe Bill is referring to.  These systems are used to control everything from PCB and Mechanical Assemblies to Product Literature to Shipping Materials, etc. 

I would expect the market for ECAD specific Configuration tool to be very limited.

A specification that defines standard output from ECAD tools to the various PLM offerings would be excellent. Would certainly reduce the amount of time spent developing data export / import translators.

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