Balloon 2D

This is the main page of the Balloon2D tutorial, giving an overview of how to create a ballooned PDF from your drawing, generate Excel reports, publish to Net-Inspect, and more. Ballooned PDFs can also be saved and reused as QIF files.

Beneath each heading, there is a link that directs you to a more comprehensive explanation of each step. If a particular step is not relevant to you, feel free to skip it.

By following this guide carefully, you will get in-depth knowledge on how to use Balloon2D, simplifying the tasks of ballooning a drawing and creating an FAI.

Setting up the Drawing Grid

The initial step is to set up the Grid. MBDVidia will identify this automatically, but you can also modify it manually if you choose. Configuring the grid ensures that the grid placement is accurately reflected for every attribute in the Bill of Characteristics (BoC) and the inspection report.

Additional information about the setting up the drawing grid can be found in our article📄Setting up the Drawing Grid

Setting Up the External Area

Next, you will discover how to configure the External Area. The External Area feature enables you to designate specific sections of the drawing so that OCR capture avoids interpreting certain parts, such as the grid markers. External area is automatically recognized, but you also have the option to modify it and manually create new External Areas.

Additional information about the setting up external area can be found in our article📄Setting up the External Area

Setting Up Drawing Views

Setting up Drawing Views are useful for:

Creating advanced ballooning schemas where groups of balloons will be applied on a per-drawing-view basis
Exporting drawing view screenshots to Excel reports

MBDVidia can detect them automatically. And if you want to edit them manually, you can do that also.

Additional information about the setting up drawing views can be found in our article📄Setting up Drawing Views

Auto-Balloon the Title Block

Automatically extract information from the title block and gather drawing metadata such as the part designation, current tolerancing standard, and much more. This will transform your title block into a format resembling an Excel table.

Additional information about auto-ballooning the title block can be found in our article📄Auto-Balloon the Title block

Ballooning Schema

MBDVidia offers several methods for structuring your balloon numbers. This includes different ballooning schemas, the ballooning of sub-requirements, and assigning prefixes for balloon numbers.

Additional information about Ballooning options can be found in our article📄 Ballooning Schema

Auto-Balloon the Drawing

Once your drawing is prepared, the next step in the MBDVidia 2D workflow is auto-ballooning.

This feature transforms your static drawing into a fully annotated, production-ready document. MBDVidia offers flexible ballooning options, allowing you to balloon a single page, all pages in the document, or a specific range of pages. Users can also target key elements such as the title block, family table, bill of materials, or tabular general notes.

Additional information about Auto-ballooning can be found in our article📄 Auto-Ballooning the Drawing

Edit and Approve Captured Annotations

Once you have captured all your drawing annotations, you will run through a workflow of manually approving each captured annotation. If an OCR mistake was made, you can correct the annotation in OCR and Edit panel.

Additional information about Editing and approving can be found in our article📄 Edit and Approve Captured Annotations

Add New Annotations to the BOC

In case you have some in-process annotations that you want to add to a drawing in a digital way? MBDVidia makes it easy to add and manage additional annotations.

Additional information about Editing and approving can be found in our article📄 Add New Annotations to the BOC

External Specifications

Sometimes you may have specifications outlined in an external document or in the purchase order. You can easily import these external specifications into MBDVidia, balloon them, and link them to the FAIR package!

Additional information about External specification can be found in our article📄 External Specification

Publish Ballooned PDF

After you have ballooned your drawing, you can save it as a PDF with all the balloons included and positioned exactly as you arranged them in the drawing.

Additional information about exporting ballooned PDF can be found in our article📄 Publish Ballooned PDF

Publish Excel Reports

Now that you have your ballooned drawing, you can easily generate an inspection report. You can select from standard template reports like ISIR or AS9102, or your company's personalized template. You can include measurement results directly in the report and even import new results back into MBDVidia.

Additional information about Exporting excel report can be found in our article📄 Publish Excel Reports

Publish to Net Inspect

If you are a user of Net-Inspect, you can easily publish your ballooned drawing and FAIR to Net-Inspect with just a click, and you also have the option to import data from Net-Inspect back into MBDVidia.

Additional information about Net Inspect options can be found in our article📄 Publish to Net-Inspect

Update by Revision

Now, picture a scenario where you have an updated version of your drawing. You need to generate a new FAIR, but you wish to keep the same balloons from the previous version to the updated one for the corresponding annotations. Fortunately, MBDVidia simplifies this process significantly with option Update by Revision.

Additional information about Net Inspect options can be found in our article📄 Update by Revision

Drawing Comparison

Additionally, if you have two PDF drawings that you would like to examine and pinpoint all the differences, there is an option, which will generate a report highlighting all the variations.

Additional information about drawing comparison can be found in our article📄 Drawing Comparison

Statistics, Charts, and SPC

Once you have gathered result sets in the BoC, you can perform sophisticated analysis on your data.

Additional information about charts can be found in our article📄 Statistics, Charts, and SPC

Bill of Materials

After initial recognition, the system additionally supports the identification of parts, materials, and processes directly from engineering drawings. Users can capture this data using auto-capture tools or manual entry, with full flexibility to review and edit recognized information. The BoM can then be exported seamlessly to AS9102 reports or integrated with Net-Inspect for compliance tracking.

Additional information about Bill of Materials can be found in our article📄 Bill of Materials

Measurement import

Bringing in measurement data from sources like CMM software or CSV files is an essential part of keeping your quality control workflow smooth and efficient. Whether the data comes from automated inspections or manual entries, knowing how to import it correctly helps ensure consistency, minimize errors, and make reporting much easier.

Additional information about Measurement import can be found in our article📄 Measurement import

Dual units

MBDVidia is capable of visualizing Dual Units. This allows units such as inches and millimeters to be displayed simultaneously, which is advantageous for companies operating with international customers and suppliers. The practice is particularly beneficial when manufacturing components intended for use across multiple countries that employ different measurement systems.

Additional information about dual units can be found in our article📄 Dual units in MBDVidia Balloon2D