Mavlon vs InspectionXpert

InspectionXpert balloons. Mavlon reads the drawing first.

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

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 InspectionXpert 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 InspectionXpert 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 paste 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 InspectionXpert, 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. InspectionXpert does what it was built for, which is manage the inspection. The two are not the same tool. Most shops do not realize they should be using both.

What Mavlon does that InspectionXpert 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 spreadsheet with balloon numbers, tolerances, datum references, and inspection methods already filled in. You import it into InspectionXpert. 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 InspectionXpert 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 InspectionXpert 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 InspectionXpert Mavlon
Reading the drawing
Time per drawing2 to 4 hours2 to 3 minutes
Dimensions identified90 percent with Smart Extract, 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 paste 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 mentallyMapped automatically
Surface class designationsNot detectedCaptured from every sheet
Form 3 ready to importYou build itFilled out before you start
Learning curveDays to weeksFirst 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 deploymentYesYes, cloud based, any site, any browser
3D CAD model readingYes2D PDF first, 3D on the way

If you are using InspectionXpert alone, you are spending 2 to 4 hours per drawing on work that takes Mavlon 2 to 3 minutes. You are pasting ISO 2768 values by hand. You are tracking flag notes mentally and missing one or two per program. Your senior quality engineer is doing junior-engineer work, and they are tired. Your FAI submissions are still being returned for the same Form 3 errors. None of this is because InspectionXpert is bad. It is because no inspection tool reads drawings. They were not built to. That is the gap Mavlon fills.

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 InspectionXpert genuinely wins

Buy InspectionXpert for what it is genuinely great at.

InspectionXpert, now Ideagen Quality Control, is the industry incumbent for a reason: a massive install base, deep CAD and PDF integrations, a mature template ecosystem, and enterprise support under Ideagen. If your team is standardized on it, your templates live in it, and your workflow is CAD-native, staying is a defensible decision. Mavlon's case is narrower and specific: if the hours you resent are the reading and interpreting hours, that is the part we automate and the part detection-first tools leave with you.

Frequently asked questions

Does Mavlon replace InspectionXpert?
It can. Mavlon does the whole job, from reading the drawing to a finished FAI report in your customer's format, with CMM results, revision control, and a full audit trail built in. But you do not have to rip anything out. If you already own InspectionXpert 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.
Do I need to change my inspection workflow?
No. Your inspectors keep doing what they do. The only thing that changes is the first half hour of every program, where Mavlon reads the drawing and fills the Form 3 for you instead of you doing it by hand.
What about 3D CAD drawings?
Mavlon reads 2D PDFs today, which is what almost every aerospace supply chain drawing actually is. Full 3D CAD reading is on the way. If your shop works mostly from 2D PDFs, which most subcontractors do, Mavlon is ready for you right now.
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.
How much does it cost to try?
Your first drawing is free. No signup. No demo. No salesperson. You upload, you see the result, you decide. If it does not save you time, you walk away.

Comparing the whole field?

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