BOM Generation Error "File in use"

[willysjeeps]

Hi all -

I'm working on a project and getting ready to order boards and parts.  I've created an Output job where I've defined my BOMs and gerbers.  When I go to generate BOMs, after a while, I'll get a popup box that says "Error Failed to export file C:\Users\[user]\AppData\Local\Temp\Pro7C3C.tmp (file may be in use)".  The 'Proxxxx.tmp' file changes every time I run the job.  I go to the directory and can't find the file it references.  My excel spreadsheet never gets generated.

What did I do  ?

I'm using Altium 17.1.9. 

Any thoughts?

[Towger]

Altium + Excel.  Maybe the Windows 10 update bug which is well documented in another thread.

[willysjeeps]

Towger -

I found a thread about DBLibs and KB4041676 - but I'm not using a DBLib.  I uninstalled KB4041676 for good measure.  I can open libraries.  I also see something about KB4041681, but I don't have that installed either (https://www.eevblog.com/forum/altium/psa-do-not-install-microsoft-creators-fall-update-if-you-use-altium/msg1332499/#msg1332499 and https://www.eevblog.com/forum/chat/windows-10-creators-update-1703/). 

I have found that if I do a single sheet BOM, it works no problem.  But if I do a multi-sheet BOM, no worky.  I can see the system is generating a bunch of intermediate files during a multi-page generation.  It just can't make it to the finish line.

Could you point to the the 'well documented' thread on this?

[willysjeeps]

I figured it out.  Long story made short, I overloaded some cells in MS Excel.  The maximum number of characters in a cell is ~32k and I was trying to stuff a few more than that into a single cell.

Background:
The issue stemmed from my college and I using two different libraries for resistors.  I was using a Panasonic lib and he was using a Rohm. When we combined the design and ran the BOM generation tools, the system would die (see above).  Well, it turns out that Altium combined the like 0603 resistors into single rows (which is what we wanted) (also note this is a really large board with a lot of analog comparators, opamps, NPNs).  However, Altium then comma listed a separate part number for each, for example 10k used like this: P10.0KHCT-ND, RHM10.0KHCT-ND, RHM10.0KHCT-ND, RHM10.0KHCT-ND, etc.  The cell overflowed, Excel choked, and some error is not well handled.

K.