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The landscape

Choosing FAIR software, honestly.

We make one of these tools, so read this page with that in mind. Rather than a stack of “us versus them” pages, here is the whole picture once: the five questions that actually decide the choice, where each established tool is genuinely strong — including the situations where you should pick them over us — and where ASdrawn fits. Every competitor claim is sourced to that vendor’s own materials or a named third party, and dated.

Before any product names

What actually decides the choice?

Does a customer mandate a submission portal?

If your prime requires FAIRs submitted through Net-Inspect, that part is settled — the remaining question is only what you author the package with. Preparation and submission are different steps.

How does the tool read the drawing?

Most established tools balloon with OCR — matching characters off the image. A newer approach reads the drawing with an AI vision model. The difference shows up exactly where inspection cares most: GD&T frames, datum references, and blanket tolerance notes. More below.

What are your deployment constraints?

Controlled or air-gapped networks need an installed, on-prem tool. If a browser tool is acceptable, review our data handling on the security page before uploading anything sensitive — and if your work is export-controlled, talk to us first.

How lumpy is your FAIR demand?

Per-seat annual licences and five-seat minimums make sense at steady volume. If FAIRs arrive with POs — three this month, none the next — credit-based pricing fits the shape of the work better.

Do you want a QMS or a FAIR tool?

Some products wrap FAI inside a full quality system — SPC, NCR, CAPA, gauge calibration. If you need all of that, buy all of that. If you need drawings turned into review-ready FAIR packages, a narrower tool does it with less to implement.

The established tools

Where is each tool genuinely strong?

Strengths first, because that is the useful part. Each entry ends with the honest case for picking that tool instead of ours.

InspectionXpert

Now Ideagen Quality Control — the incumbent OCR-based FAI tool, part of UK quality-software vendor Ideagen plc.

  • Explicit AS9102 Rev C templates — the only tool in this set whose materials we could confirm name Rev C by version.
  • A large, established install base, including Boeing, Pratt & Whitney and Kohler.
  • Long-tuned OCR extraction and the backing of a big quality-software parent (Ideagen plc).

Pick it when: You want a proven, widely deployed FAI tool from a large vendor, with explicit Rev C templates, and don't mind requesting a quote.

High QA

An established quality platform with desktop and browser apps, a 3D/MBD PMI module, and air-gapped deployment.

  • A separate 3D/MBD PMI module that reads model-based definition — ASdrawn has no 3D/MBD capability.
  • Air-gapped, on-prem deployment for controlled and classified networks.
  • CMM integration and in-process/lot inspection, plus a base cited at 1,600+ manufacturers.

Pick it when: Your workflow needs 3D/MBD model reading, CMM integration, or air-gapped on-prem deployment — real capabilities ASdrawn does not have.

Net-Inspect

A cloud FAI and quality platform embedded in the aerospace prime supply chain since 2001.

  • A prime-contractor network — Boeing, Honeywell and Raytheon among them — that many suppliers are contractually required to use.
  • Raytheon suppliers can receive free provisioned supplier accounts.
  • Full supplier-quality breadth: APQP/PPAP, key characteristics, and CAR/CAPA alongside FAI.

Pick it when: Your prime requires FAIR submission through Net-Inspect — that requirement settles it. ASdrawn is not a submission network; it can prepare the package upstream and export a Form 3 matched to Net-Inspect's documented import.

1factory

A bootstrapped, cloud-native quality platform with published pricing, a FedRAMP/validated tier, and the strongest review volume in this set.

  • The strongest review volume in this comparison — a Capterra rating around 4.9 across roughly 49 reviews.
  • A FedRAMP/validated tier and go-live-in-a-day onboarding.
  • A full QMS around the FAI — SPC, NCR and PPAP — where ASdrawn is FAIR-focused only.

Pick it when: You want a proven, heavily reviewed cloud QMS with FAI built in, and can meet the published five-seat minimum.

DISCUS

A desktop-first FAI and quality tool with aerospace/defence pedigree and a broad quality-document range.

  • Aerospace and defence pedigree, including selection under the Air Force's AFWERX program.
  • A broad quality-document range beyond FAI — PPAP, FDA 820, FMEA and TDP.
  • Desktop deployment with on-prem data control, plus one-time floating and node-locked licensing options.

Pick it when: You want an installed, on-prem-controllable tool covering quality documents beyond FAI — PPAP, FDA 820, FMEA — with traditional licensing.

Our corner of the map

So where does ASdrawn fit?

ASdrawn does one job: it reads a 2D drawing PDF with an AI vision model and produces an AS9102 Rev C FAIR package — Forms 1, 2 and 3, a ballooned print, and exports including a Form 3 matched to Net-Inspect’s documented import. It runs in the browser, the pricing is published, there is no seat minimum, and you sign up yourself — no demo call, no quote.

Just as plainly: ASdrawn is young, with no install base or public review record to point to yet. It does not read 3D/MBD models, does not import CMM results, does not deploy on-prem, and is not a quality management system. If the sections above pointed you at another tool, that pointer was sincere.

The technology question

OCR or AI reading — does it matter?

OCR treats the drawing as an image of text: it matches glyphs against font dictionaries, helped by image pre-processing filters — that is how the incumbents’ own documentation describes it, and tuned well it is fast and reliable on clean, machine-lettered dimension text. It strains exactly where inspection cares most: GD&T feature control frames that must be read as a structure rather than a string of characters, datum references and their material-condition modifiers, and blanket “unless otherwise specified” notes that govern features far from the note itself. Peer-reviewed work on GD&T extraction points the same way: the notation is the genuinely hard part.

A vision-language model reads a region of the drawing together with its context — a feature control frame as a feature control frame. That is the bet ASdrawn makes. It is not magic: models can still misread a crowded print, and some callouts are genuinely ambiguous on the drawing itself. Which is why the honest claim for any tool in this category — OCR or AI — is not perfect automation. It is a faster first draft that a qualified person still reviews and signs, with the tool flagging what it is unsure about instead of quietly guessing. That review step is the product, not an apology for it — see how it works.

Sources

Where these facts come from

Judge it on your own drawing.

Upload a drawing PDF and hold the AS9102 FAIR output — workbook, ballooned print and all — to your own standard.

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Facts verified 2026-07-09; every competitor claim here is sourced to the links above. Something outdated or wrong? Tell us and we’ll correct it. Written by ASdrawn; we compete with the tools on this page, so weigh it accordingly. AS9102 is a standard published by SAE International; third-party product names are trademarks of their respective owners, and ASdrawn is not affiliated with or endorsed by any of them.