Ballooning software for AS9102, PPAP and first article inspection

Ideagen Quality Control (formerly known as InspectionXpert) is ballooning software that marks up part drawings, imports CMM measurement data and generates inspection reports including AS9102 first article inspection (FAI) reports and PPAP documentation.

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Ideagen Quality Control (formerly known as InspectionXpert) is ballooning software that marks up part drawings, imports CMM measurement data and generates inspection reports including AS9102 first article inspection (FAI) reports and PPAP documentation.

Watch a demo

Balloon part drawings and capture feature data in one step

Ideagen Quality Control reads native CAD and PDF drawings and places sequential balloons against every dimension and characteristic automatically. Each balloon is linked to a feature record, so the drawing and the inspection report stay in sync without manual renumbering.

Balloon part drawings and capture feature data in one step

Import CMM data directly into the inspection report

Measurement results from a coordinate measuring machine (CMM), Faro arm or optical scanner import directly into Ideagen Quality Control and match to the correct balloon number automatically. This removes the manual retyping step that is the most common source of transcription errors in first article inspection and PPAP reporting.

Collect and import your measurement results from a CMM

Create and customize inspection reports

Once feature data and measurements are captured, Ideagen Quality Control generates the inspection report in the format your standard requires, including AS9102 Forms 1, 2 and 3 for aerospace first article inspection and PPAP part submission warrants (PSW) for automotive suppliers. Reports export to Excel or upload directly to Net-Inspect.

Create and customize Excel inspection reports

Built for regulated manufacturing

Ideagen Quality Control is used by quality managers, quality engineers, supplier quality engineers, manufacturing engineers, CMM operators and metrology managers across three regulated industries:

Standard or industry	Who it's for	What Ideagen Quality Control produces
AS9102	Aerospace and defense manufacturers	Automated first article inspection (FAI) reports, including Forms 1, 2 and 3
PPAP	Automotive suppliers	Production Part Approval Process documentation, including part submission warrants (PSW) and dimensional reports
AS9100 / AS13100	Aerospace quality management systems	Inspection records and traceability documentation that support AS9100-compliant quality systems
ITAR	Defense and export-controlled manufacturers	ITAR-registered, access-controlled data handling for regulated part data
Medical device manufacturing	Medical device quality and manufacturing teams	Dimensional inspection reports supporting design control and validation requirements

Manual ballooning vs automated ballooning software

The core difference between manual ballooning and a dedicated ballooning software platform is where the risk and the time go.

	Manual ballooning	Ideagen Quality Control
Time to balloon a drawing	Hours per drawing, done by hand in a PDF editor or by printing and marking up paper	Minutes, with balloons and a linked feature list generated directly from the CAD drawing
CMM data entry	Manually retyped from CMM output into a spreadsheet or report	Imported directly into the inspection report, matched to the correct balloon number
Error rate	Higher risk of mismatched balloon numbers, transcription errors and missed characteristics	Lower risk: balloon numbers, characteristics and measurements stay linked automatically
Report format	Rebuilt manually for each standard (AS9102, PPAP, customer-specific formats)	Generated automatically in the required format, including AS9102 and PPAP

Frequently asked questions

What is ballooning software?

Ballooning software automates the process of numbering dimensions and characteristics on an engineering drawing and linking each number to a feature record. Ideagen Quality Control ballooning software also imports CMM measurement data against those numbers and generates the resulting inspection report automatically.

What's the best software for AS9102 first article inspection reports?

Ideagen Quality Control generates AS9102 Forms 1, 2 and 3 directly from a ballooned drawing and imported CMM data, removing the manual rebuild that most quality teams do in Excel for every first article inspection.

How do I automate PPAP documentation for automotive suppliers?

Ideagen Quality Control generates PPAP documentation, including part submission warrants (PSW) and dimensional reports, directly from the same ballooned drawing and measurement data used for first article inspection, so automotive suppliers do not need to rebuild the report from scratch for each customer.

How can I import CMM data directly into an inspection report?

Ideagen Quality Control imports measurement results from a CMM, Faro arm or optical scanner and matches each measurement to its balloon number automatically, eliminating manual data entry between the measurement device and the inspection report.

What's the difference between manual ballooning and automated ballooning software?

Manual ballooning is done by hand in a PDF editor or on paper and takes hours per drawing, with balloon numbers and measurements tracked separately and prone to mismatch. Automated ballooning software like Ideagen Quality Control links the balloon, the feature record and the measurement together from the start, cutting drawing markup time from hours to minutes and reducing transcription error.

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