That Open Platform’s Release 3.2.0, presented in the “We Opened the Models. Now We Open Modeling” event, marked a shift from web-based BIM viewing toward web-based BIM authoring. The release introduced APIs for creating, editing, and deleting model geometry and data directly in the browser, positioning That Open Engine as a foundation for openBIM applications that are not limited to inspection and coordination.
The core additions were the Fragments Edit API, Fragments History API, and Fragments Geometry Engine API. Together they cover model changes, traceable history, undo and redo workflows, and parametric geometry operations such as booleans, extrusions, sweeps, and 3D curves. For developers, the significance is not just a new feature set, but a lower-level toolkit for building custom modeling applications on the web.
For open source AEC software, this points to a broader pattern: BIM tools are moving beyond desktop clones and file viewers into domain-specific applications that can be assembled around open formats and web-native engines. That Open Platform’s framing is deliberately about ownership of both data and technology, which makes the release relevant to teams who want to build their own authoring workflows instead of waiting for closed platforms to expose them.