The Bild PLM integration connects your product lifecycle management (PLM) data with Epsilon3 Builds, allowing your team to manage and track hardware builds using the latest released engineering data.

When assemblies and parts are released through Bild's Engineering Change Order (ECO) workflow, the integration automatically synchronizes their information into Epsilon3. This includes part numbers, revisions, assembly structures, and supported custom fields.

By keeping your engineering data synchronized, the integration eliminates the need for manual exports, spreadsheet imports, and repetitive data entry while helping ensure your Builds workspace reflects the latest released designs.

The Bild integration uses a customer-hosted middleware service to securely communicate between Bild PLM and Epsilon3. Epsilon3 provides a working Python implementation that can be installed and deployed by your organization's engineering team or with assistance from Epsilon3.

Before configuring the integration, you will need:

The middleware acts as the connection between Bild PLM and Epsilon3, retrieving released engineering data from Bild and sending the corresponding records to Epsilon3.

Epsilon3 provides a Python example implementation containing the scripts and configuration needed to establish this connection.

During setup, configure the middleware with your credentials and API endpoints.

The primary configuration values include:

The credentials are stored in the middleware's environment configuration rather than entered directly into the Epsilon3 user interface.

Once configured, the middleware can be tested to verify access to Bild and confirm that parts and assemblies can be transferred successfully.

The integration is designed to run automatically on a schedule without requiring users to initiate each synchronization.

A common deployment uses an Ubuntu server with a scheduled cron job that executes the Python synchronization script every hour.

Once the scheduled job is enabled, the middleware checks Bild for newly released engineering data and updates Epsilon3 accordingly.

The synchronization interval can be adjusted by the team managing the middleware deployment.

The integration uses Bild's ECO release workflow to determine which engineering data should be synchronized.

Rather than continuously importing every file in Bild, the default synchronization mode checks for newly released parts and assemblies.

When an assembly is released, the middleware retrieves its BOM structure, including the components within the assembly, and synchronizes the corresponding records into Epsilon3 Builds.

Individual parts released through Bild's ECO workflow can also be synchronized independently.

When the integration identifies a newly released assembly, it retrieves the assembly's BOM tree and processes its component hierarchy.

The middleware uses this information to create or update the corresponding parts and BOM component relationships in Epsilon3.

Part information includes supported fields such as part number, name, revision, tracking, units, and make/buy classification.

The integration uses an upsert process to avoid unnecessarily duplicating records:

This allows subsequent synchronization runs to update existing engineering data without requiring a complete manual reimport.

By default, the middleware tracks the most recent release timestamp processed from Bild.

During each scheduled run, it checks for files released since the previous synchronization.

Only files explicitly released through Bild's ECO workflow are included in this process. Changes to unreleased working files do not automatically trigger a synchronization in the default mode.

The middleware stores its synchronization state so future runs can identify newly released files.

A full resynchronization can also be initiated by the middleware administrator when needed.

In addition to standard part information, the Bild integration can automatically populate supported Epsilon3 Part custom fields using metadata stored in Bild.

Custom fields are matched by name, allowing your organization to synchronize additional engineering information without modifying the integration script for each new field.

When the integration runs, it identifies the matching field and populates its value on the corresponding Epsilon3 part.

Other examples of fields that can be synchronized include MFR Part Number and Supplier.

To enable a custom field mapping, create a Text custom field in Epsilon3 with the same name as the corresponding Bild property.

Ensure the custom field is attached to the Part form in Epsilon3. Creating a field at the workspace level alone is not sufficient; it must be included on the Part form for the integration to populate it.

Once the field has been added to the Part form, the integration will automatically identify the matching Bild property during subsequent synchronization runs.

The integration can optionally transfer part thumbnails from Bild into Epsilon3.

When thumbnail synchronization is enabled, the middleware retrieves the available image for each processed part and attaches it to the corresponding part record in Epsilon3.

This helps teams visually identify components while working with their engineering data in Builds.

Thumbnail synchronization is disabled by default and can be enabled by setting SYNC_THUMBNAILS=true in the middleware configuration.

If a thumbnail is unavailable or cannot be transferred, the integration logs the issue and continues processing the remaining parts. A thumbnail failure does not stop the overall synchronization.

The integration also supports a legacy watchlist mode for organizations that need to monitor specific assemblies rather than relying exclusively on the ECO release workflow.

In watchlist mode, an administrator configures a list of assemblies to monitor. The middleware checks their file versions and resynchronizes an assembly when a change is detected.

The default release-based synchronization mode is recommended for workflows where engineering changes are formally released through Bild's ECO process.

Once the integration is deployed, synchronization runs occur automatically according to the configured schedule.

The middleware generates logs that can be reviewed by your engineering team or Epsilon3 support to verify successful execution and investigate synchronization issues.

If expected information is not appearing in Epsilon3, verify that the relevant part or assembly has been released through Bild's ECO workflow and that the scheduled synchronization job is running successfully.

For custom field issues, confirm that the field is a supported Text field, is attached to the Epsilon3 Part form, and matches the Bild property name exactly.

The middleware also supports a dry-run option that allows administrators to review proposed changes without writing updates to Epsilon3.

Interested in connecting Bild PLM with Epsilon3 Builds?

Contact your Customer Success Manager or email support@epsilon3.io to learn more about the integration, review your organization's requirements, or get assistance with middleware deployment and configuration.

Epsilon3 can provide the example Python implementation and help your team determine the best deployment approach for your environment.