18 October 2025

The LOTAR community gathered in Seattle, WA, from 16–19 September 2025 for a successful hybrid workshop attended by around 40 on‑site participants and more than 20 remote contributors. The sessions highlighted strong progress across all working groups and continued momentum in advancing long‑term digital data preservation standards.

Significant achievements included the release of EN/NAS 9300‑210 and the completion of drafts for 9300‑230 and 9300‑205, both now moving through their respective ballot processes. The Mechanical CAD & PMI WG advanced work on Holes & Fastener Modernization, Intelligent Notes and Symbols, and Persistent IDs, supported through joint reviews with CAx Implementor and User communities. The MBSE WG completed the AIA/ASD Part 500 review, delivered a white paper to the Modelica conference, and published an article in INCOSE Insight on digital engineering standards, while also making strong progress on interoperability frameworks and architecture alignment efforts.

The Composites & Advanced Manufacturing team submitted LOTAR Part 300 for internal ballot, while the Electrical Wiring Harness WG resumed activities with a detailed AP242 Edition 4 tutorial and renewed alignment on Part 400. Across the CAx‑IF meetings, implementors and users reviewed testing results, advanced Recommended Practices for AP242 Edition 4, and set the scope for Round 57J, including key topics such as assembly‑level PMI, persistent identifiers, composite material support, and material properties.

The workshop once again demonstrated the value of LOTAR’s collaborative cross‑industry environment and its commitment to advancing open, sustainable standards for digital engineering data.

We look forward to continuing this work at the next LOTAR meeting, taking place 24–27 March 2026 in Charleston, South Carolina, USA.