Connections that transform

What makes a release more than just a list of new features? In this episode of the AntiPattern Podcast, Christian, CTO, and Michael, CEO of Elevating Patterns, take a closer look at EP Digital Thread Platform Release 2608 — the August 2026 release packed with capabilities designed to make working with complex industrial data more powerful, flexible, and collaborative. They walk through the highlights of the release, including full-text search directly in the command bar, a new GraphQL endpoint, and configurable versioning schemes that allow teams to tag commits of a dataset with meaningful version numbers. One feature in particular could be a game changer for mechanical engineering: Branch & Merge. Inspired by the way developers work with Git, it brings branching concepts into the world of engineering data and opens up completely new ways of collaborating on variants and changes. The AI experience is also taking a major step forward with an enhanced AI Chatbot featuring Ask, Planning, and Agent modes. And with server-side events, users can now see what others are doing in the system in real time — making collaboration much more transparent. Last but not least, Edit from Grid makes working with data faster and more intuitive directly where users see it. Beyond the release itself, Christian and Michael also share an update on the latest Variability Research PoC and what the team is learning along the way. Release 2608 is more than another release. It’s a glimpse at where the Digital Thread is heading.