OpenBOM What’s New – January 2025 Release

First OpenBOM release from 2025 was out last week and I’m excited to share more details about what is included there. We’re kicking off 2025 with a powerful set of updates designed to enhance your design project workflows, streamline CAD integrations, and improve change management capabilities. This release introduces improvements in Design Projects, including new capabilities for the Workspace Manager and enhanced user commands to make data organization and collaboration more efficient than ever.

We’ve also made enhancements to our CAD add-ins, with key updates for Onshape, Autodesk Fusion, and Autodesk Inventor, ensuring a smoother experience and deeper integration with OpenBOM’s Collaborative Workspace platform.

Additionally, we made improvements in the Change Order user experience and a few other nice enhancements to the OpenBOM user interface implementing features requested by customers and making improvements. 

Let’s dive into the details of what’s new in this release! 🚀

Change Order (ECO) User Experience Improvements

Change Request Part Numbers Appear in the Change Order Panel. This enhancement was requested by a number of customers and we want to thank all of them for giving us feedback. Change Request Part Numbers now appear in the ChangeOrder flyout panel.  A neat, and very powerful, improvement to informing you about the contents of the Change Order.

Watch the video with the improvements: 

Bonus Video creating that ECO Template in the video above: 

Design Projects & Workspace Manager

Synchronize Multiple Design Projects with one-click

One of the most requested features for Workspace Manager is finally here!  Multi-Sync Design Projects. I often have files open, or in work, from multiple projects. With one click, I can quickly update/synchronize them all.

Automatic creation of local folders when synchronizing a project for the first time

How many times has your manager said, “I just shared a new Design Project with you, sync it and get to work?”.    This release of OpenBOM Workspace Manager will automatically create & assign a local sync folder and start the download right away.  The folder will be created in your Downloads area and can easily be moved, then reassigned, to your working area.

More control over your team’s ability to synchronize files back to Design 

If your team is more comfortable working in a more tightly controlled environment (like old Checkin/Checkout PDMs), simply enable this option and ensure ONLY files that are Locked by the user may be synchronized back to Design.  Administrator level only.

Better progress messaging – show important messages only

We’ve added a few controls to improve the message feeds in OpenBOM Workspace Manager.  Specifically, you can elect to see only important messages.

SmartSync report has a better message display.  

We’ve added the ability to show only important messages in the sync report as well.  It makes finding, and understanding the state of your Smart Sync much easier.

All CADs Add-ins

We have a user experience improvement and moved the OpenBOM Upload Monitor to a deliberate click on the BOM confirmation dialog.  Previously it always opened after any BOM operation.  Easier to find and not always popping up unless you want it.

Autodesk Fusion 

In this release, we bring the ability to add a Configured Fusion BOM to a Drawing.  In the example below, I have an automotive floor jack with a Long or Short handle option.  I use OpenBOM to create unique Bills of Materials (BOMs) for each configuration, then insert the tabular BOMs onto each drawing in the proper configuration using the OpenBOM for Fusion Drawings Insert BOM command.

Video:

PTC Onshape – Support Structured View Dashboard 

In this release, OpenBOM brings our advanced graph navigation to the recently released Onshape Structured View dashboard.  The OpenBOM graph system gives you access to all your design and manufacturing information from the Onshape dashboard.  Quantity On Hand, Vendor, Cost, lead times, etc, can all be displayed quickly and easily in the easy-to-understand graph model of your product.

Autodesk Inventor

Have you reserved the Type Property in OpenBOM to have a special meaning? With this release, you may send the Autodesk Inventor Type property to OpenBOM’s CAD Type, thereby freeing Type to have some other use in OpenBOM.  

Here’s how. In the OpenBOM for Inventor settings, simply select Type from the property list on the left.  When you do, a new option will appear to send Type to CAD Type.

When you BOM your design, the value in Autodesk Inventor’s Type Property will be saved into the OpenBOM CAD Type property.

It’s that simple.

Watch the video on how it works. 

Other improvements and bug fixes

As always we provided a few fixes and improvements of user experience in OpenBOM. 

• The Item Info Panel now renders all Links as “clickable links” and not as text before. The special interface allows you to switch them between “click” mode and “editable” mode
• Improved error messages for OpenBOM calculation formulas. If you encounter an issue working with formulas, you will get a more informative message.
• REST API improvement for catalog data – to support views. 

We also squashed a number of bugs in this release. 

Conclusion

​​The January 2025 release of OpenBOM sets a strong tone for the year, delivering valuable improvements to design projects, CAD integrations, and change management workflows. With enhancements to the Workspace Manager, new capabilities for multi-sync and folder automation, and a refined Change Order user experience, OpenBOM continues to evolve into an even more efficient and user-friendly platform. The updates to CAD add-ins for Onshape, Autodesk Fusion, and Inventor further solidify OpenBOM’s position as a seamless, multi-CAD collaboration tool, ensuring better integration and control over product data. These new features are a direct result of customer feedback, reinforcing OpenBOM’s commitment to continuous improvement and responsiveness to real-world user needs.

Looking ahead, OpenBOM remains dedicated to pushing the boundaries of data management and collaboration technology, product data management, and real-time collaboration. As the platform continues to grow, expect even more innovations designed to streamline workflows, improve data organization, and enhance overall usability. We appreciate the continued support and feedback from our users—your insights help shape the future of OpenBOM. 

Stay tuned for more exciting updates in the coming months, and as always, let us know how we can make OpenBOM work even better for you! 🚀

Thank you for using OpenBOM! 

Best, Oleg Shilovitsky