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PCBAs and Assemblies

This page covers BOM management details for PCBAs and assemblies, and explains the item hierarchy in dokuly.

Item Hierarchy

Dokuly organizes product data in three levels, defined by what each item's BOM can contain:

  1. Assemblies — top level. BOM can contain parts, PCBAs, and other assemblies.
  2. PCBAs — mid level. BOM can contain parts and other PCBAs.
  3. Parts — lowest level. Standalone components with no BOM.

This hierarchy lets you model complex products: an assembly contains PCBAs and mechanical parts, each PCBA contains electronic components, and so on.

Creating an Assembly

  1. Navigate to Assemblies in the sidebar
  2. Click New assembly
  3. Fill in the project, display name, and other details
  4. Click Submit

The assembly dashboard is similar to PCBAs and parts — Overview, BOM, Issues, Inventory, Notes, Reference Documents, and Revisions.

BOM Management

Both PCBAs and assemblies use the same BOM interface. See From Parts to PCBAs for the full guide on adding items, inline editing, CSV import/export, and clearing.

The key difference is what each type can contain:

Parent Can contain
Assembly Parts, PCBAs, Assemblies
PCBA Parts, PCBAs

BOM Pricing

BOM pricing rolls up from the component level:

  • Each part's price comes from its supplier pricing data
  • A PCBA's price is the sum of its BOM item prices
  • An assembly's price is the sum of its BOM item prices (which may include PCBA prices that themselves roll up from parts)

You can also set a manual price on any PCBA or assembly to override the BOM-based calculation.

Purchase Orders from BOM

Generate a purchase order directly from any PCBA or assembly BOM:

  1. Open the Bill of Materials tab
  2. Click Create PO from BOM
  3. For each BOM item, select a supplier (or let dokuly pick the cheapest)
  4. Choose to include or exclude individual items
  5. Click Create PO

Only items with pricing data are included. See Purchasing for full details.

Revision Control

PCBAs and assemblies follow the same revision workflow as parts:

  • Draft — freely editable
  • Review — submitted for quality assurance
  • Released — locked; create a new revision to make changes

Each new revision gets the next letter (A, B, C...) while keeping the same part number.