Mavlon vs DISCUS

DISCUS balloons. Mavlon reads the drawing first.

What if the Form 3 was already filled out before you opened DISCUS?

By Atishay Jain, founder of Mavlon · Updated July 2026

Full disclosure: Mavlon is our product. This comparison is written by the Mavlon team from public documentation, and it says plainly where DISCUS is the better choice. Spot an error? atishay@mavlon.co

A Tuesday you already know

You know how this goes

A new aerospace drawing lands in your inbox. Seven sheets. Two hundred features. You open DISCUS and start ballooning.

1:00 PM

You start ballooning. Sheet one feels fine. You are in a rhythm.

3:30 PM

By balloon 60, you have lost your place. You missed a flag note on sheet 3.

5:00 PM

The Form 3 has 47 untoleranced dimensions where you apply the ISO 2768 value by hand, one at a time.

6:45 PM

You are still on the first part. Your kids ate dinner without you again.

You are not slow.
The work is just being done in the wrong order.

The belief
Most quality engineers think they need a faster ballooning tool.
The truth
They need a tool that reads the drawing for them first. So by the time they open DISCUS, every dimension is already found, every GD&T frame is parsed, every flag note is on the right feature, and every untoleranced dimension already carries the right ISO 2768 value.
The answer
That is Mavlon. It reads the drawing like a senior engineer, in 2 to 3 minutes, and hands you a filled Form 3. DISCUS does what it was built for, which is manage the inspection. Most shops do not realize they should be using both.

What Mavlon does that DISCUS does not

An AI that reads drawings like a senior engineer

Reads the whole drawing in 2 to 3 minutes
You upload the PDF. A couple of minutes later, every dimension, every GD&T frame, every surface finish, every flag note, every untoleranced dimension is identified and listed. Like having a senior quality engineer read the drawing for you. Except this one never gets tired and never loses its place.
Form 3 filled out before you start
Mavlon gives you back a Form 3 with balloon numbers, tolerances, datum references, and inspection methods already filled in. You verify the 10 percent Mavlon flagged for review. You are done in 30 minutes, not 3 hours.
Nothing to learn. Nothing to install.
You do not need a 2-day training or a sales demo. You upload a drawing. You get a result. Your first drawing is free. You will know within 5 minutes whether it saves you time. The answer is almost always yes.

And everything that comes after the reading

Mavlon does the whole job, drawing to FAI

CMM import and customer FAI formats
Once your CMM runs the part, the measured results map straight back onto the Form 3. Mavlon exports the finished report in the formats your customer asks for, including Net-Inspect and PPAP. No retyping numbers from one screen to another.
Revision control and a full audit trail
Every change is tracked, every version saved, every approval logged. When the customer audit comes, the history is already there. You do not go digging through email and old spreadsheets.
Works at every site, from any browser
Mavlon is cloud based, so it runs at one shop or ten with nothing to install. And if you already own DISCUS and your team likes it, Mavlon fits right in next to it. Keep what works, drop the part that hurts.

The new workflow

The order your shop should be running

Here is the day that small AS9100 shops are quietly moving to:

A new aerospace drawing lands in your inbox. You drag the PDF into Mavlon.
A couple of minutes later, Mavlon hands you back a filled Form 3. Every dimension. Every GD&T frame. Every flag note. Every untoleranced dimension with the right ISO 2768 value already applied.
You spend 10 to 15 minutes verifying. You correct the 10 percent that Mavlon flagged as uncertain.
Your CMM runs the part and the results map back onto the Form 3. No retyping numbers from one screen to another.
Mavlon exports the finished FAI report in your customer's format. Already own DISCUS and prefer it? The Form 3 drops straight in there too.
You leave the office at 5:15 PM.

Side by side

Different tools. Different jobs.

Job to be done DISCUS Mavlon
Reading the drawing
Time per drawing2 to 4 hours2 to 3 minutes
Dimensions identifiedSmart Extract, around 90 percent, correction needed90 percent verified, the rest flagged for review
GD&T datum referencesDetects frames, datums sometimes incompleteComplete A and B and C with modifiers
Untoleranced dimensions with ISO 2768You apply it by handApplied automatically by size
Fit class expansion (G6, H7)Shows designation onlyExpanded to actual values (9.005 to 9.014 mm)
Flag notes mapped to featuresYou track them yourselfMapped automatically
Surface class designationsNot detectedCaptured from every sheet
Form 3 ready to importYou build itFilled out before you start
Learning curveHours of setupFirst drawing in 5 minutes
Managing the inspection
CMM data importYesYes, results map back to the Form 3
FAI report in customer format (Net-Inspect, PPAP)YesYes, standard AS9102 formats supported
Revision control and audit trailYesYes, every change tracked
Multi-site deploymentDesktop, installed per machineYes, cloud based, any site, any browser
3D CAD model readingYes, native CAD2D PDF first, 3D on the way

If your shop lives in 3D CAD models and you need software locked to your own machines, DISCUS has a real place. But most aerospace subcontractors receive 2D PDFs, and that is where the hours disappear. Mavlon reads those PDFs in minutes, fills the Form 3 before you start, and still handles CMM results, revisions, and your customer's FAI format, from any browser. The reading is the part no ballooning tool was built to do. That is the part Mavlon does.

Upload your hardest drawing. See for yourself.

A 7-sheet aerospace drawing. Two hundred features. A couple of minutes. Then decide if you still want to balloon by hand on Saturday.

Try with One Drawing

First drawing is free. No signup. No salesperson.

Where DISCUS genuinely wins

Buy DISCUS for what it is genuinely great at.

DISCUS has something Mavlon respects: deep Boeing supply-chain heritage. Its handling of Boeing drawing conventions and its Net-Inspect integration maturity come from years inside that ecosystem. For a shop whose life revolves around Boeing packages and whose team knows DISCUS cold, that institutional depth is real value. Mavlon's bet is different: that interpretation, reading the whole drawing the way an engineer does, saves more hours than convention-specific tooling. Both can be true for different shops.

Frequently asked questions

Does Mavlon replace DISCUS?
It can. Mavlon reads the drawing, fills the Form 3, takes your CMM results, tracks revisions, and exports your customer's FAI format, all from a browser. If you already own DISCUS and your team likes it, Mavlon's filled Form 3 drops straight in. Either way, the slow part, reading the drawing by hand, is gone.
Is DISCUS the same as InspectionXpert?
Yes. InspectionXpert was bought by Ideagen and renamed DISCUS IDA. The ballooning engine is the same technology.
What about 3D CAD drawings?
DISCUS reads 3D CAD models, which is a genuine strength if that is how you receive work. Mavlon reads 2D PDFs today, which is what most aerospace subcontractors actually get, and full 3D reading is on the way.
How accurate is Mavlon?
About 90 percent on dimensions and GD&T overall. Higher on specific categories such as flag notes and ISO 2768 application. Lower on hand-redlined revisions or very low-resolution scans. The remaining 10 percent is flagged for your review, so you know exactly where to look.

Comparing the whole field?

See every tool side by side: FAI software compared and ballooning software compared.