Bommer for Fusion allows you to create custom balloons on your drawing that can contain any Bommer property for any row in your BOM. This includes Bommer’s item numbers, Fusion part number or description data, custom properties, computed fields, etc. The process for adding a Bommer balloon is different than Fusion balloons, and offers some additional flexibility. Read on to learn more.

Heads up: Bommer Balloons is preview functionality

We are excited to launch this feature for our users to explore and give early feedback. To learn more about how we release and support preview functionality, please read our preview features guide.

Enabling Bommer Balloons preview

To enable the Bommer Balloons preview, expand the Tables dropdown in the Bommer tab in Fusion's Drawing workspace, and click on Enable Bommer Balloons (preview)...

There is a confirmation dialog that explains the functionality and also some information about how we treat preview functionality. 

After clicking OK, the Balloons functionality described in this guide will be available to use.

Adding Balloons

There are two ways that Bommer allows you to add custom Balloons to your drawings: from a Edit bill of materials table command (i.e. while editing a table) and in a stand alone Add Balloons command. There are slight differences between the two methods but in both cases the procedure will the same: decide on the value (i.e. row and property) to display in a balloon, click a button to create the balloon, and then carefully click on the model edge on your drawing sheet to attach the balloon.

Please note: currently Bommer cannot guarantee that the component row you’ve selected in either command is the same component as the edge you click on. This is a limitation of integrating with Fusion Drawings. As a result, you can attach any row’s data to any line on your drawing but you must take care to select exactly edge you intend for the data you wish to call out in the balloon.

From the table editor

This method requires you to have a Bommer table on your drawing. To create balloons from the Edit bill of materials table command, select a table and run Edit bill of materials table from the Bommer drop down (see our Edit bill of materials table guide for more information). Once the Edit bill of materials command is open, hover over the cell that contains the data you wish to add to a balloon and click on the balloon icon:

After you click on the command, you can then use your mouse to click on a model edge on your drawing sheet. See the Placing a Balloon section below for more info.

Balloons created from the Edit bill of materials table command will use the table’s configuration (i.e. the Flatten toggle and Combine By setting) to compute the values to be displayed. This will ensure that balloons created this way will always match the values displayed in your tables.

Balloons created this way are also added to the undo group that contains other table edits, so you must press OK to save the new balloons and they will be undone if you use Fusion’s Undo command after pressing OK.

From the Add Balloons command

You can also add balloons that are not connected to any table by expanding the Bommer drop down and click on Add balloons.

This opens a command window that contains your assembly hierarchy and a configurable property column (that defaults to Item #).

This table also has an Add button on each row. To create a ballloon from this window, select which property you want by clicking on the wrench icon, and then click Add on the row you wish to balloon. You can then place the balloon according to the instruction below. You can add multiple balloons for the selected property by clicking Add again on the same or different row (and then placing the balloon on the sheet), or you can change your property and add balloons with different data.

Placing the balloon

To place a balloon, you will have to have clicked either the balloon icon in the Edit bill of materials table command, or the Add button in the Add balloons command. Once you do, you will need to select a model edge on your drawing sheet. Hover your cursor over a model edge where you want to place the arrow of the balloon. You should see a green icon snap to a position on the line:

Left click to place the arrow at that point, and then drag the balloon to where you want it to be placed:

Left click to place the balloon. Once you do so, the command window will hide its waiting indicator and you can add another balloon if you need to.

To delete a balloon, you can right-click on it and select Delete, or left-click to select it and press the Delete key on your keyboard.

Bommer specific features

Bommer lets you place any number of balloons for any row and any property you have configured within your BOM. In this example, we have added balloons for the item number, name and description for a Cap component in our assembly. You can mix and match what properties you use, or create computed values that display custom data in your balloons.