PMI, DPD, PDD Bubble Prints?

[[De...]]

Whether talking about Product Manufacturing Information(PMI), Digital Product Definition (DPD), or Product Definition Dataset (PDD); things have gotten more complicated regarding how to report data back to customers than simply having a 2D Drawing with associated sequence numbers.

I am curious how other organizations handle bubble prints for reporting purposes, with regard for software, storage etc.

Speaking for where I work, our current system is in a word, antiquated. We have someone who manually places bubbles on 2D Drawings by hand with a pen and a circle template, we then store the master copies in filing cabinets. It is time consuming, requires paper copies of prints and needs to be repeated any time that a print has a revision, additionally it requires physically making copies of the bubble prints.

More and more of our customers are asking for profile all over on models and asking for each surface on a model to be identified, we also have models coming in with PMI and no associated 2D Drawing.

Regardless if it is a model with PMI or a 3D Model with an associated 2D Drawing we are finding it more and more difficult to meet customers needs regarding bubble prints, I am looking for some input on how others are accomplishing this task.

[[La...]]

We are using Catia V5 at the moment, with a database of our cad models and 2d drawings. in the past the bubbles were done manually and since a couple of weeks we use a catia extension, which is able to bubble the 2d drawing automatically. Thats works quite fine .. if i recall correctly its a software option via catia and not external.

Sadly we do not use PMI, so i cant say anything about it.

[[Me...]]

I just use adobe acrobat for balloon drawings. It has a decent "stamp" function.

[[Ow...]]

For a PDF drawing, just like Ian suggested, I use Adobe Acrobat Pro, which is now Adobe Acrobat Reader DC.

I know Solidworks has an auto-balloon option but, you have to have really extensive BOM's set up and I'm told even then it's cumbersome when creating balloons for inspection features/dimensions.

I'm told you can create a macro to do this in Solidworks if you've got the time and if you're good with VBA.
Does Catia V5 do this with ease or do you have to create a macro using it too?

[[La...]]

In Catia its just a couple of mouseclicks. You select all or less characteristics and then hit the button. Its bublling from top to bottom, left to right.

But its a license option, so you have to pay for it, like PCM in Calypso.

[[Je...]]

For bubbling/ballooning we use a product called "Visual FAIR" IIRC. I don't use it personally but I've seen it operate. It allows you to scan a print into a digital copy then it recognizes dimensioning and symbols. It takes 15 minutes to completely balloon and report a full 100-150 dimension part. Some edits need to be made but the font recognition system works pretty well. Older hand drawn prints can be cumbersome but even the trained human eye has a hard time distinguishing between a "3" and a "5" on some of those. It's still ballooning a print outside CAD but it is a significantly improved method to hand ballooning.

[[Wi...]]

Diskus is a good software thats made just for bubbling drawings...

[[Gr...]]

Discus works well for us. Outputs the ballooned drawings in a .pdf format even multiple page drawings

[[Wi...]]

Yep discus is really good

[[Ke...]]

I use Foxit PDF, because they have a Typewriter function, so it,s quick & easy to balloon a PDF.
Sounds like the Catia is the best option (if you have a Catia model)....
Regarding the other "bubbler" software: Do they just bubble everything on the print? Most of the time, the parts that I program do not require 100% or even 75% of the characteristics.