In the era of digital manufacturing, everyone is focusing on 3D model PMI inspection and repair. Are you familiar with it?

The precise "translator" in the 3D world is quietly solving the deep pain points of digital manufacturing.

In the wave of digitalization in modern manufacturing, model-based definition ( MBD ) technology has become a core driving force. This technology integrates 3D models to fully express product definition information, completely changing the traditional production mode dominated by 2D drawings. However, when 3D models carry rich product manufacturing information ( PMI ) flow through design, manufacturing, and inspection stages, up to 70% of enterprises have encountered PMI data loss or damage issues. Therefore, PMI editing and repair technology has emerged as a key link to bridge the "last mile" of digital manufacturing.

01  The dilemma of 3D models and 2D thinking

Traditional product development relies on 2D drawings to convey manufacturing information, while MBD technology uses integrated 3D models as the sole data source, fully carrying all information such as product geometric features, dimensional tolerances, and process requirements. PMI As the MBD "soul" of the model, it contains key manufacturing information such as dimensional tolerances, geometric tolerances, surface roughness, and datum annotations. It makes the 3D model the only basis for manufacturing, eliminating the need for auxiliary 2D drawings.

However, the reality is that the PMI created by the design department is only 35% directly usable in manufacturing, about 65% need to be re-edited or repaired. Data exchange between different systems often leads to PMI information loss or structural damage.

"Model and the PMI annotation information on the model cannot be directly used by process systems; if only used for viewing, its value is greatly reduced," said a digital manufacturing expert, revealing the industry's pain points.

02 Why PMI editing and repair are necessary

1 ) An inevitable demand for data circulation. When design models are passed to manufacturing, different departments use different software systems. The design side's CATIA model transferred to the machining side's NX environment often cannot fully inherit the PMI information.

2 ) A rigid demand on the manufacturing floor. In the satellite manufacturing field, engineers at the Shanghai Satellite Engineering Institute found that the PMI annotations on the design model cannot directly guide operations at the assembly site and need to be rearranged.

3 ) A key link in quality inspection. Zeiss 3D scanners compare scanned physical data with the original CAD model and require precise PMI information as the basis for quality control. If the original PMI data is damaged, it must be repaired before effective comparison can be made.

CAPVIDIA company's technical experts pointed out: "Trimming and restoring PMI is crucial for downstream semantic workflows, eliminating manual transcription or interpretation errors!"

03 Key application scenarios and pain points

1 ) In the aerospace field, aircraft assembly process design needs to handle tens of thousands of PMI annotations. Under traditional manual inspection, completeness checks for a complex part PMI take more than 40 hours, with an error rate as high as 25%。

2 ) In automotive manufacturing, mold wear detection relies on original design PMI data. When this data is damaged during conversion, it leads to increased correction cycles and 30% time costs.

3 ) The electronics industry faces even finer challenges. Chip packaging equipment's PMI tolerance requirements reach the micron level, making manual repair almost impossible.

Current main pain points focus on three aspects: first, low efficiency in manual creation and verification; Siemens PMI NX MBD team pointed out that traditional creation is a "time-consuming and labor-intensive manual process"; second, difficulty in standard compliance checks; third, difficulty in information interoperability between different systems. PMI 04 Technical breakthroughs by mainstream manufacturers PMI Facing industry pain points:

) Siemens

NX MBD

1 launched a revolutionary rule-based automatic creation function. This system allows users to define enterprise-specific business logic rules and automatically generate multiple feature annotations with one click, reducing traditional annotation time by more than PMI . PMI ) Dassault Systemes built a complete end-to-end solution. From 70% model definition, process planning to work instruction output, all stages are completed on a unified platform, eliminating information transmission barriers.

2 ) Huawei Cloud MBD 3DCC

3 innovatively realized automatic tolerance analysis based on . This system supports "automatic generation and solving of dimension chains based on PMI ", intelligently handling all types of geometric tolerances and thermal deformation coupling analysis. PMI ) Domestic academia is also actively making breakthroughs. The team from Jiangsu University of Science and Technology developed a system based on

4）国内学术界也在积极突破。江苏科技大学团队开发的基于 PMI Completeness check technology for domain knowledge graphs, automatically checking from three dimensions: redundancy, substitution, and contradiction. PMI Annotation, reducing inspection time. 80% Design error rate reduction. 90%。

05 CAPVIDIA's differentiated innovation.

Belgian technology company. CAPVIDIA Launched. MBDVidia. Software series, showing unique advantages in the field of editing and repair. PMI The core value of this solution lies in achieving a "true closed loop" — feeding measurement data back into a human-machine readable. PMI Model. CAD Its technical highlights are prominently reflected in three aspects:

First is the automated repair capability; the software provides powerful repair and healing algorithms, achieving automation with just two clicks. 100% Automated workflow compresses traditional manual repair time from several hours to minutes.

Second is cross-platform compatibility. Supports multiple. CAD System native files. MBDVidia. Besides the software, also developed. FORMATWORKS. 、 MBDConnect for NX. 、 MBDConnect for CREO. And other plugins, CAPVIDIA Achieving. PMI Lossless transfer among mainstream. CAD Systems.

Most importantly, semantic integrity is maintained. This solution can intelligently identify and repair more than. 20 Different. PMI Feature characteristics, including geometric features such as cylinders, cones, planes, and tolerance features such as roundness, concentricity, parallelism. "Using. PMI Creates downstream human and machine-readable. CAD And is fully compatible and reusable among multiple. CAD Software, achieving true. MBD 。” CAPVIDIA CEO Tomasz Luniewski. Emphasizes the value of this technological breakthrough.

06 Industry transformation and future outlook.

Enterprises adopting. MBD Technology are gaining significant benefits. Shanghai Satellite Engineering Institute has achieved over. 90% Standardized expression of interface information, and automated detection rate of geometric design conflicts reaching. 80% Above, overall development efficiency improved by more than. 60%。

A new generation of AI-driven. PMI Tools are emerging. Siemens. team pointed out that traditional Integrated. AI. Empowered logic rule editor, allowing users to build. PMI Generation rules like building blocks.

Cloud-native. PMI Collaborative platforms are becoming a new trend. Huawei Cloud. 3DCC Combines. AI+. Big data to provide intelligent optimization suggestions, helping engineers quickly complete product precision optimization.

Digital twin technology requires. PMI Seamless data flow between virtual and real worlds. CAPVIDIA Solutions feed measurement data back into. CAD Models, constructing a true digital closed loop.

As satellite components are precisely assembled in clean rooms, every part of the Mars rover achieves perfect coordination through repaired. PMI Data. The practice of Shanghai Satellite Engineering Institute shows that after adopting advanced. PMI Technology, design information reuse rate exceeds. 80% And geometric conflict detection automation rate reaches. 80% The competition of future factories has already begun at the invisible data level. Enterprises that first master. PMI Editing and repair technology are like obtaining a universal language for digital manufacturing — when 3D models maintain complete "semantics" across system boundaries, product development cycles will shorten. 40% And quality accident rates will decrease. 65%。