Features

What the ballooning software reads, and what it does with it.

From the drawing you open to the signed FAI package, with no retyping in between.

01 · Detection

Even the busiest drawings.

The software locates and reads the dimensions, including diameters, angles, tolerances and datum marks set vertically or at an angle, then places a numbered balloon on each. You stay in control: a dimension is corrected, added or removed in one click.

Every orientation: Horizontal, vertical, angled along an arc. Nothing is missed because the text is rotated.
Dense drawings: Crowded dimensions, stacked, busy title blocks: every value keeps its own balloon.
PDFs and scans alike: Native text reading from a CAD PDF, character recognition on an image or a photograph.
Work areas: On a multi-view drawing, you bound the view to process and the ballooning stays inside it.

Ballooning step by step, and how it differs from ballooning by hand or from CAD: drawing ballooning software.

02 · Conversion

Fits become limits.

A ⌀5.25 f7 isn't inspected against “f7”. The software takes the fundamental deviation of the letter and the width of the grade, applies them to the nominal size read, and hands you two numbers.

f7 deviations for a nominal size between 3 and 6 mm: minus 0.022 and minus 0.010. Same mechanism for dimensions with no tolerance of their own, from the general class in the title block.

The calculation in full, with an example carried to a verdict

03 · Inspection

An inspection table that warns you.

Every balloon becomes a row. A reading out of tolerance turns red, the conformity rate computes live, and the tabs isolate the NOK dimensions or those still to be measured.

Four dimensions inspected out of six, 75 % conformity. No invented tolerances: a dimension with no reference on the drawing stays without a verdict, never passed on a guess.

04 · Export

The FAI package, ready to send.

The official AS9102 template, forms 1, 2 and 3, fills itself in from your balloons. Export the full package, the table alone or the ballooned drawing. The generated PDF stays editable: measured values, tick boxes, signature and date.

One numbering: The balloons on the drawing and the rows of form 3 carry the same numbers. No cross-reference table to keep.
Five formats: Excel, Word, PDF, CSV and image, according to what the customer asks for.
Customisable reports: Your company name and logo in the header, the pages and columns you choose, compositions saved as templates.

What each form holds, and what CoteCote carries into it: AS9102 FAI software.

05 · Gauges

Every instrument traced and dated.

The software keeps the inventory of your measuring equipment: name, reference and calibration date. Each dimension can be linked to the instrument that measured it.

Calibration alert: A gauge whose calibration has lapsed shows in red and flags every dimension that relies on it.
Traceability: The documentation requirement is met with no side spreadsheet to keep in parallel.

In detail

Everything CoteCote does, screen by screen.

In the order of an inspection day, from opening the drawing to sending the package.

01 · Open

A hundred-page PDF, six pages that concern you.

On import, every page is shown as a thumbnail: you tick the ones to inspect. Each page keeps its own set of balloons, and the numbering runs on from one page to the next.

Inputs: PDF, PNG, JPG, TIFF, BMP.
Vector or scan: A CAD export is read from the file data, a scan goes through image recognition.
Moved drawing: The project finds its source drawing again even if it has been renamed.

02 · Take control

One more dimension? Add it in a single move.

A click-and-drag area creates a balloon and reads its contents. A wide, tall area is understood as a note, not as a dimension. Right-click opens the common actions right under the cursor.

Work areas: Confine automatic ballooning to part of the drawing, or exclude a part of it.
Directed re-read: Draw the reading direction of a misread dimension rather than running it again blind.
Undo: Ctrl+Z on editing actions, as everywhere else.

03 · Understand

A tolerance frame, not a string of characters.

The GD&T frame is recognised even when drawn as pure linework, with no text at all to read. Perpendicularity, position, coaxiality: the characteristic, the value and the datums cited land straight in your table.

Form: Straightness, flatness, circularity, cylindricity.
Orientation and location: Perpendicularity, parallelism, angularity, position, coaxiality, symmetry.
Runout: Circular and total, with the datums cited.

04 · Resolve

H7 becomes 25.000 and 25.021.

ISO 286 fits are resolved to numeric limits for the nominal size read. Dimensions with no tolerance of their own take the general ISO 2768 class from the title block, detected on import.

Two views: Relative tolerance or absolute limit: editing one recalculates the other.
Never overwritten: What you checked by hand stays that way, even if you change the general class afterwards.
In bulk: Apply a tolerance to the selection, or to every row that has none.

05 · Inspect

Every page in a single table.

Status and deviation compute as you type. Filters by status, type and page stack, a label search adds to them, and sorting always keeps the grouping by page.

Direct entry: Comma or point accepted, as in a spreadsheet.
Locate: An icon on each row recentres the balloon, switching page if needed.
Second screen: The table detaches into its own window, then docks back.

06 · Trace

The overdue instrument flags itself.

Each dimension can carry the instrument that measured it. If its calibration has lapsed at the time of the reading, the row goes to alert: the problem shows during inspection, not at the package review.

Register: Name, reference and calibration date, shared across projects.
Carried over: The instrument follows the dimension all the way into the exports.

07 · Deliver

The AS9102 package, complete and ready to sign.

Forms 1, 2 and 3 are filled in from the project, one line per balloon on form 3, under the same numbers as on the drawing. The export produces the Excel workbook on the official AS9102 Rev C template, or a PDF whose measurement results stay editable.

Pages to order: Part sheet, ballooned drawing, inspection report, forms, certificates of conformity, signature page: tick them and put them in order.
Spreadsheet: CSV and Excel, with the columns of the inspection table.
One source: PDF and Excel share the same values, they can't drift apart.

08 · Learn

An encyclopaedia inside the software, offline.

The Codex covers the features and the standards in short articles, cross-referenced. One key is enough to find the right answer, without ever leaving your drawing.

Symbols: The strip under the table inserts a symbol in one click while you type.
Tutorial: Seven steps on first launch, replayable from the Tools menu.

Coverage

The families of symbols recognised.

The symbols of the ISO 1101, ISO 129, ISO 2692 and ASME Y14.5 standards, read on the drawing and filed under the right type in the inspection table.

Families of dimensioning symbols read on a drawing, with examples and what is done with each.
Family	Examples	Handling
Dimensions	65.98 · ⌀5.25 · R15 · 3×45° · SR40	Lengths, diameters, radii, angles, chamfers, spheres.
Numeric tolerances	10.00 ± 0.05 · +0.021 / 0 · −0.05 / −0.10	Symmetric, unilateral and bilateral, limits read as written.
ISO 286 fits	H7 · h7 · f7 · g6 · js9 · K6 · E9	Position and grade resolved to numeric limits for the nominal size read.
General tolerances	ISO 2768-mK · ISO 2768-fH	Applied to dimensions with no tolerance of their own, per the title block class.
GD&T, form	straightness · flatness · circularity · cylindricity	Tolerance frames with no datum.
GD&T, orientation and location	⊥ · ∥ · ∠ · position · coaxiality · symmetry	Frame, value, modifiers and the datums cited.
GD&T, runout	circular runout · total runout	With the datum or datums cited in the frame.
Surface finish	Ra 1.6 · Rz 6.3 · required process	Symbol, value, unit and lay direction.
Threads	M12×1.25 · M8 6H · G1/2	ISO metric and pipe designations, pitch and class.
Datum features	A · B · C · datum planes	Triangles linked back to the frames that cite them.

Local machine, on Windows

No cloud, no API. The software works on your files.

Accepted inputs

Vector PDF, image PDF, scan and photograph.

Speed

From 200 ms per page on vector PDF.

Accuracy

Up to 98 % on dimension reading.

Try it on your drawings See the plans