adding hardware to schematic or layout

If you are looking to add these types of parts to your BOM, the Callouts functionality in the BOM Manager is where you would add them. If your question is more on how to add them to the layout, they should be created as mechanical symbols then placed as you would place a package symbol. Unfortunately, there is no direct link or relationship between what you add in the BOM Callouts and the mechanical symbols, yet.

Hope this helps.

Once again, excuse my ignorance.  How do I get to and use the "BOM Manager"?

The BOM manager can be accessed the Project Manager under Tools->Packager Utilities->Bill of Materials...

As a followup, if your intent was to drive the layout with these parts from the schematic, you could create the mechanical parts as actual components in Concept, however you will find that every part of this type must have at least 1 electrical pin and the Allegro symbols would have to be created as package symbols. The will require a reference designator of your choice.

To my knowledge, there is no way way to drive the instantiation of a mechanical symbol in Allegro from a Concept design.

Hope this helps.

I've found the callouts feature of the bom editor. Apparently I have to add the mechanical parts info directly to the ppt file in order to get it to appear in the editor. Can you direct me to some step by step instructions in how to add mech parts to a pcb design? Let's say for instance that I wanted to add an oz of solder paste so that it appears in the bom with the mfr name, mfr p/n, description, unit of measure and quantity listed? Is there a procedure in the help files that explain how to do this? Thanks in advance.

There is a fairly detailed write-up in Chapter 3 of the Allegro Design Entry HDL Utilities User Guide. Check the section titled "Managing Mechanical Parts".

Hope this helps.