Equipment Manufacturing & Drawings

An AI knowledge base for equipment drawings and process knowledge

In a non-standard equipment shop, a drawing is never just a drawing. Behind one sheet sit the 3D model, the BOM table, size and geometric tolerances, heat treatment and weld symbols, and behind those the routing, process cards, work instructions and inspection plan. In practice they arrive as PDFs, DWGs, STEP files and phone photos of prints, spread across laptops, shared drives and chat threads. Revision control is a filename convention, and finding the right sheet takes longer than reading it.

RatioMax puts that material into one searchable knowledge base. OpenDataLoader parses complex-layout PDFs, PaddleOCR-VL reads scans and images, and hybrid retrieval with ReRank sends a question about a datum or a heat-treatment callout to the exact passage, with a clickable citation on every answer. The stack runs on your own servers or intranet, so drawings and process documents never leave the plant.

Where it breaks

  1. Scattered files, stale revisions on site

    The same part lives as a PDF on someone's desktop, a DWG on the shared drive, a STEP file in a chat thread and a scan in a drawer. Nobody can say which revision is current, so the shop cuts to an older one and the error surfaces weeks later.

  2. Scanned drawings you cannot search

    Legacy products survive only as scanned blueprints. Part numbers, material specs, heat-treatment notes and Ra callouts are pixels, not text, so search returns nothing. Experienced staff dig through folders from memory; new hires do not even know which sheet to open.

  3. Engineers re-answer the same questions

    Machinists ask about datums, QC asks how to judge a tolerance, suppliers ask what a weld symbol means, service asks which drawing a spare belongs to. The same underlying knowledge, requested one person at a time. When the two engineers who hold it are on leave, answers stop.

  4. Inspection criteria drift from drawings

    The drawing moves to revision C; the inspection sheet stays on B. First-article reports, incoming inspection and CMM programs cite different datums, and an NCR is raised before anyone notices the acceptance criteria were outdated. Rework arguments follow.

How RatioMax responds

  • One drawing library with traceable revisions

    PDF, DWG, STEP and scans are filed by part number, assembly and project in one library, with an optional dedicated object-storage bucket per knowledge base. Documents are chunked along title blocks, BOM tables and clauses; every edit keeps a snapshot with line-level diff and rollback, so search surfaces only the revision in force.

    Platform capability: Chunking and version control

  • Scans and mixed layouts, parsed

    Two engines split the work: OpenDataLoader for complex-layout PDFs with columns, tables and drawing frames, PaddleOCR-VL for images and scanned blueprints. Over ten formats are covered, including PDF, Word, Excel, images, EPUB and MHTML, so part numbers, materials, heat treatment and Ra callouts become searchable text.

    Platform capability: OCR and layout parsing

  • Answers with citations you can check

    Hybrid vector and keyword retrieval with a ReRank pass takes a question about a datum or a heat-treatment callout straight to the drawing passage or process-card clause, and every answer carries a clickable citation. When the source does not cover it, the system says so instead of guessing a dimension.

    Platform capability: RAG with citations

  • Process know-how captured as a wiki

    The agent turns drawings, process cards, SOPs and past 8D reports into structured, cross-linked Markdown wiki pages plus a knowledge graph, with snapshots, line-level diff, rollback and in-browser editing. Senior judgement becomes a page a new hire can read, not a habit passed along verbally.

    Platform capability: Auto wiki and knowledge graph

Deployment scenarios

  • Spare-part lookup in after-sales

    When a machine fails in the field, service first has to identify the component, the drawing and the revision. The knowledge base searches by symptom, part name and drawing number, returning the drawing excerpt and spare-parts entry straight into WeCom or WeChat.

  • Answering supplier questions on callouts

    A supplier asks whether a weld symbol is double-sided or what the heat-treatment note requires. They query a scoped knowledge base with the released drawing and process notes. Space isolation and four-level RBAC decide who sees which revision, and every access is logged.

  • First-article checks against the drawing

    Before a first article, the inspector pulls the drawing's dimensions, GD&T callouts and datums for that part number, then checks them against the CMM report item by item. Criteria come from one controlled revision, so an NCR can cite the clause and rework arguments end.

  • Scoping the impact of an ECN

    When an ECN lands, process cards, inspection sheets, supplier packages and spare-parts lists may all be affected. Search by drawing and part number to find every document that references the changed geometry, and get a sync list before the old revision quietly keeps circulating.

Terms and knowledge entities

Geometric dimensioning and tolerancing
A symbolic system for controlling form, orientation, location and runout of features, written in feature control frames with tolerance values and datums, used where size tolerances alone cannot express assembly intent.
Datum reference frame
Reference features that locate a measured feature, usually combined as datums A, B and C to mimic how the part sits in a fixture or CMM. Inspection builds its coordinate system from the same datums.
Surface roughness Ra
The arithmetic mean deviation of the assessed profile within a sampling length, in micrometres. It is a common surface-finish callout on drawings and depends on the machining method and measurement direction.
Bill of materials
The table above the title block on an assembly drawing, listing item numbers, part codes, names, quantities and materials. It drives purchasing, assembly and spare-parts planning, and is controlled with the drawing revision.
First article inspection
A full dimensional and visual check of the first part against the drawing and inspection plan, before volume runs. It proves process, tooling and program capability and is signed off by quality or the customer.
Process routing
The ordered sequence of operations from blank to finished part, naming equipment, tooling, parameters and inspection points at each step. Process cards and work instructions derive from it, and changes follow a controlled route.
Welding symbol
A drawing notation for weld location, type, size and groove preparation, built from a reference line, arrow and weld symbols, applied per standards such as GB/T 324 or ISO 2553.
Engineering change notice
A controlled notice issued when a drawing or specification changes, stating what changed, why, the effective batch and the affected items. Process, inspection and supplier documents must be updated with it.
Coordinate measuring machine
Equipment that probes points on a part surface along three axes and computes dimensions and geometric errors after aligning to datums. Whether a report passes depends heavily on the alignment and point strategy.

These definitions are also exposed structurally so search engines and AI engines can read and cite the domain concepts accurately.

Related deployment

Chongqing Boyue Machinery Manufacturing Co., Ltd.

Wear parts for mining crushers

Makes wear-resistant castings — jaw plates, concaves, mantles, roll shells and tooth plates — for crusher OEMs and mining customers.

Solution: An engineering-drawing knowledge base on RatioMax with multi-format parsing and smart chunking; Wiki mode auto-generates structured pages linking drawings, parts, materials and processes.

  • 20 Drawings & tech docs ingested
  • 107 Knowledge-graph nodes
  • Seconds Natural-language answers vs manual lookup
  • Standard Quality evidence & issue handling

Results shown are project targets

Industry questions

With so many drawing revisions, how do we make sure the shop and after-sales get the current one?
The industry answer is one controlled source of truth: publish drawings only in the controlled library, mark superseded revisions void, and share links rather than file copies. RatioMax files the PDF, DWG, STEP and scan of one part under a single entry, keeps a snapshot and line-level diff on every change, and returns only the revision in force. Four-level RBAC, space isolation and per-space audit logs decide who sees what.
How should I read the maximum material requirement symbol after a position tolerance?
Position tolerance controls how far a feature's axis may sit from its true position; the zone is usually a cylinder centred there, with a diameter equal to the stated tolerance. With the maximum material requirement applied, departure from maximum material size earns bonus tolerance, bounded by the least material boundary, and both fixture design and CMM evaluation must account for it. RatioMax keeps the drawing, the national standard and your inspection rules together, citing the clause each answer uses.
The drawing calls out Ra but the customer report gives Rz. How do the two relate, and which one do we inspect against?
Ra is the arithmetic mean deviation of the profile; Rz is the maximum height of the profile. They are different quantities, so there is no fixed conversion, only a rough estimate tied to the machining process. Accept the parameter the drawing calls for, and keep sampling length, evaluation length and measurement direction consistent with the cited standard. RatioMax keeps drawing callouts, inspection plans and gauge instructions in one knowledge base and cites the source for both.
Our old drawings are scanned PDFs with no text layer. Can we still search part numbers and materials?
Yes. PaddleOCR-VL handles scans and images, recognising drawing text, title blocks, BOM tables and callouts, and the recognised text goes into the search index rather than staying a preview. Over ten formats are supported, including PDF, Word, Excel, images, EPUB and MHTML, while complex-layout PDFs go through OpenDataLoader. Answers cite the source passage, so a doubtful character can be checked against the scan.
Our network has no internet access. Can this run there, and how do we size it?
Yes. A single node runs on Docker Compose, production runs on Kubernetes, and the four core services deploy and scale independently. Each knowledge base can bind its own private OSS or S3 bucket, and everything sits inside your intranet. Models can come from more than twenty vendors, including DeepSeek, Qwen, Zhipu and OpenAI, or run locally through Ollama. Sizing depends on document volume, concurrency and model choice, so it is scoped per site.
If an AI answers questions about dimensions and tolerances, will it invent a value that is not on the drawing?
That is why citations matter. Retrieval finds the drawing passage or process clause first, ReRank narrows it, and the model answers from that evidence with a clickable reference; when the evidence is missing it says so. Langfuse and W3C cross-service tracing keep an end-to-end replay of every answer, including the retrieved passages and prompt. Dimensions and tolerances still get a human check against the original drawing.
How do we release drawings to suppliers without leaking them or letting them work from an old revision?
Separate spaces per project or supplier, then apply four-level RBAC down to a single knowledge base, so a supplier sees only released revisions and every access lands in an audit log. OIDC handles single sign-on and two-tier API keys cover integrations. Files can live in a per-knowledge-base private OSS or S3 bucket, and data-source and MCP credentials are encrypted with AES-256-GCM. Suppliers ask in WeCom or a web widget and get cited answers.
Most process knowledge lives in a few senior engineers' heads. How do we turn it into something new hires can use?
Start by ingesting the scattered drawings, process cards, SOPs and 8D reports, then let the agent generate structured, cross-linked wiki pages and a knowledge graph. Pages support in-browser editing, snapshots, line-level diff and rollback, so a senior engineer reviews a sentence instead of writing a manual. Tag chunks by operation, machine and material with custom metadata filters, and a new hire can search by operation instead of opening drawings one by one.

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