In the field of engineering and design, where precision is paramount, ensuring that "all is as it appears to be" in your documentation is essential. With Bommer's latest integration with Autodesk Fusion 360, your bill of materials (BOM) will accurately reflect the visual aspects of your Fusion 360 designs. This new feature ensures that the appearances in your engineering projects are an exact match to your work, leaving no room for misinterpretation.

The Fall 2023 release of Bommer for Fusion 360 introduces a significant enhancement for Autodesk Fusion 360 users. Bommer now includes a built-in property to export Fusion 360 appearance names for parts and bodies in your designs. This property is calculated from the part material’s default appearances and all of the appearance overrides applied to that part or referenced document. As a result, it will match the visual and rendered appearance displayed within Fusion 360, and you never have to manually update that property in your BOM again. With this release, Bommer continues to automate away error-prone manual BOM updates and helps you make your documentation more trustworthy and true to design.

How do I get this feature up and running?

It’s simple! Begin by following our detailed guide on creating a custom property in Bommer for Fusion 360. For this property, you'll select 'Builtin' as the property type, and then locate 'Appearance' in the dropdown menu.

Do keep in mind that computing the appearance for each component in large Fusion 360 assemblies might require a bit of processing time. To optimize your workflow, Bommer provides the flexibility to customize visibility settings for these "long load time" properties. You can choose to conceal the appearance property in the table or within the Bommer Edit part properties screen, and include it in your file exports, should you require it.

I already export Fusion 360 material names. How is this different?

Great question! In a nutshell, appearance represent the color and finish of your parts without affecting physical engineering properties. For more info, check out our blog post Material versus Appearance: What’s the difference? for an in-depth discussion on the differences between physical material and appearance.

Getting the goods

Already a Bommer user? Update to the latest version and follow the steps above to start exporting Fusion 360 appearance in your bill of materials.

New to Bommer? Visit our installation guide for a complimentary, no-obligation 14-day trial to see how this BOM software can enhance your design process.

Once you've got the hang of it, explore our blog for more insights, or check out our YouTube channel for inspiration. You can also share your Fusion 360 designs with us, especially those featuring intricate appearance overrides (we may even feature you in our content). And if you find Bommer transformative for your work, please don't hesitate to recommend it to a friend or colleague who might also benefit from its capabilities.

Need help or have questions? Our team is ready to assist – just hit Contact and shoot us a note!

Happy designing, and have an awesome day!