Quality Inspections

Forge's inspection module supports the quality workflow used by aerospace, medical-device, and precision machining shops. You create a named inspection plan for a part (call it FAI, Final, Patrol, or anything your process uses), set how often it runs, and Forge pre-generates one report per part it needs to check, each stamped with the physical part number it belongs to. Pass/Fail checks (e.g., "engraving present") sit alongside dimensional measurements.

Opening the Quality Inspection Section

From any job detail page, scroll to the Quality Inspection section for the part you want to inspect. If the part has no plan yet, you'll see a Create Inspection button. If it already has one or more plans, they're listed grouped by plan, each showing how many of its reports are inspected (e.g. "1 / 5 inspected") and expandable to the individual reports underneath.

You don't need a drawing to create a plan, but you do need at least one PDF attached to the part before you can place markers on it: upload it from the Files section first if it's missing.

Creating an Inspection Plan

Click Create Inspection (or New inspection, if the part already has a plan) to open the plan modal:

Name: type anything. Three suggestion chips (FAI, In-process, Final) fill the field and pre-select a sensible cadence in one click. Other common names still work typed by hand: Patrol, Sampling, Last Article and Layout all pre-select the right cadence even though they no longer have a chip.
How often: Once (a single report, for one part) or Recurring (a report every N parts).
- Once: enter the Part number to inspect.
- Recurring: enter the part to start at (First inspection at part) and the interval (then every ___ parts).
Start from: only shown once the part already has other plans. Pick Blank drawing or Copy of {plan name} to seed the new plan's markers and characteristics from an existing plan instead of starting empty.
A live preview shows exactly which part numbers will get a report (e.g. #5, #10, #15…) and how many that is in total. If your start part is past the job's quantity, the preview goes empty and you can't save. A plan is capped at 100 reports; an interval that would exceed that is blocked with a message telling you to widen it.
Operation: optionally tie the plan to one of the part's operations. Each option carries the same coloured OP-N badge the routing bar draws, so you can match the plan to a step on the timeline by colour. Assigned to: optionally assign it to a team member.
Click Create inspection. Forge creates the plan and pre-generates one draft report per part number from the preview.

Saving hands you straight into the plan's template screen.

Placing Markers on the Template

The template screen is where you set up what the plan actually checks, using the same editor you'll later use to fill in measurements, just without an Actual column, since you're editing the plan, not a specific part.

Select the drawing PDF and target page. A preview renders the page you've chosen with ‹ / › controls, so you can page through a multi-sheet drawing package and see the sheet you're about to extract from before committing. The file picker is skipped automatically if the part has only one PDF.
Click Extract Dimensions. Forge's AI reads the drawing and places balloon markers with the dimensions, tolerances, and callouts it finds, already filled into the characteristics table. This is a real time-saver on a busy drawing: review its placements rather than starting from a blank table.
Click anywhere empty on the drawing to drop a new balloon and a matching table row by hand; drag an existing balloon to reposition it (the corresponding row highlights). Edit any nominal value or tolerance the AI got wrong.
Add rows the AI missed with + Add row:
- Dimensional: standard size-and-tolerance measurement.
- Geometric: GD&T callout (flatness, perpendicularity, position, etc.). Uses the upper tolerance as the max allowed deviation.
- Surface finish: Ra value or similar.
- General: notes or requirements that don't fit another category.
- Pass/Fail: yes/no check with no measurement (see below).

Saving the template, whether by extraction or by editing rows and markers by hand, applies it to every one of the plan's reports that's still pending (draft, with nothing typed in yet). A toast confirms how many were updated, and how many were left untouched because they already had actuals or were signed off.

The template screen carries a strip naming the plan, the operation it's tied to (with its coloured OP-N badge) and who it's assigned to: a sanity check that you opened the template you meant to before you start moving markers.

Return here any time from a plan's header in the Quality Inspection section: Edit template reopens the marker screen; Edit inspection details reopens the name/operation/assignee fields.

Filling In Actuals

Each report under a plan is labeled with the physical part number it's for (e.g. #3). Open one to inspect that part. A breadcrumb across the top of the editor lets you jump between sibling reports, grouped under the name of the plan each belongs to, so an FAI's part #1 and an In-process run's part #1 are told apart at a glance.

Enter the measured value in the Actual column for each characteristic. Forge auto-computes pass/fail from the nominal ± tolerance band. Rows with no actual yet show an em-dash.
If you ended up inspecting a different physical unit than the one the plan suggested, edit the Unit # field at the top of the editor to match.
Click Save to keep your progress, or Save & Mark as Complete once every characteristic is filled in. Completing is what signs the report off: it becomes read-only until you explicitly click Edit to reopen it.

Once a report is completed (or marked failed), Forge freezes a copy of the drawing and balloon positions onto that report. If you go back and adjust the plan's template afterward (move a balloon, fix a tolerance), that signed-off report keeps showing and exporting exactly what it did at sign-off; only reports still pending pick up template changes.

Pass/Fail Characteristics

Not every requirement is a measurement. "Is the engraving visible?" is a yes/no call. Forge handles these with Pass/Fail rows, on the template or on an individual report. There are two ways to get one:

Add a new row: + Add row → Pass/Fail, then fill in the characteristic label (e.g., "Surface free of scratches").
Convert an existing row: pick Pass/Fail in that row's Type dropdown. Useful when the drawing balloons a callout that turns out to be a yes/no check rather than something to measure.

Either way the Actual column becomes a Pass / Fail dropdown: no numeric input, no tolerance. Optionally add notes for context.

Converting a row clears its nominal, tolerances and unit, since none of them apply any more; the balloon number stays, so the row still points at the same callout on the drawing. Switching back gives the row a unit again, but the cleared numbers stay cleared: re-enter them.

Pass/Fail rows appear in the pass/fail summary just like dimensional rows and roll up into the overall verdict.

Exporting a Report

The download button in a report's editor header (measurement mode only; there's nothing to export from a template) produces a two-page PDF:

Page 1: the drawing with balloons drawn on top, at the drawing's own size.
Page 2+: the characteristics table in landscape, with pass/fail verdict, inspector, date, and an overall pass/fail summary at the bottom. Landscape leaves the Notes column wide enough to write a disposition in by hand.

Characteristics print exactly as they were entered: Ø.313 ⊥ .620 stays Ø.313 ⊥ .620 rather than being spelled out as DIA.313 PERP .620.

Use this as the compliance artifact for clients who require inspection records.

Cycle-Bar Markers and the QA Step

When a plan is tied to an operation, that operation's cycle bar (on the job's routing view) shows a small marker for each of the plan's reports, positioned at the physical part it falls on and coloured by status: grey for draft, amber for in progress, green for completed, red for failed. Hover a marker for the plan name, unit number, and status.

At the end of the routing row, a dedicated QA step summarizes the part's inspection status across every plan on it, not just one operation: Not started (no reports yet), In progress (some resolved), Passed (every report across every plan completed), or Failed (any report failed).

The Production Board Badge

A work-order card on the production board shows a badge for any plan tied to that specific operation, naming the plan and the next part still owed, e.g. "🔍 FAI · next: part #3". The badge turns red if the most recently reached report on that operation failed. Click it to open a popover listing the next few pending reports, each a direct link into that report's editor on the job page.

When the Job Quantity Changes

If you change the job-part's quantity after a plan already exists, Forge compares what the plan's cadence now implies against the reports that actually exist and shows an amber banner under the plan:

Quantity changed — N reports missing → Generate creates the newly-needed draft reports.
N empty reports are past the current quantity → Remove empty deletes draft reports with nothing typed in that are no longer needed.
Reports outside the new range that already hold measurements, or are completed or failed, are never touched or offered for removal; the banner tells you how many are being kept this way.

Generate and Remove are separate actions (one only ever creates, one only ever deletes), so you can't accidentally combine a harmless action with a destructive one in a single click.

Editing and Deleting Plans

Edit inspection details lets you change a plan's name, tied operation, or assignee at any time. Cadence, start part, and interval are fixed once a plan is created; use the reconcile banner above to adjust which reports exist instead.

Delete plan only appears while every one of the plan's reports is still draft. The moment any report is completed or failed, it's a compliance record and the plan becomes permanent: the delete option disappears (and the server refuses the request even if called directly). The confirmation dialog states how many reports will be permanently deleted, and warns separately if any of them already have typed measurements.

Permissions

Creating plans requires inspections.create.
Filling in actuals, editing a template, editing plan settings, marking complete, or reconciling after a quantity change requires inspections.update.
Deleting a report or a plan requires inspections.delete.
Viewing requires inspections.view.

The default QC Inspector role has all four. Admins have every permission. Supervisors get view-only access to inspections by default. Operators have no inspection access by default. Adjust role permissions from Settings → Team & Account if your workflow needs different access.

Quick Reference

| Action | Where | |---|---| | Create the first plan on a part | Quality Inspection section → "Create Inspection" | | Add another plan | Quality Inspection section → "New inspection" | | Place or extract markers | Plan header → "Edit template" | | Add a measurement row | Inside editor → "+ Add row" dropdown | | Add a pass/fail check | Inside editor → "+ Add row → Pass/Fail" | | Turn a measured row into a pass/fail check | That row's "Type" dropdown → "Pass/Fail" | | Fill in a physical part's measurements | Plan's report list → click a "#N" row | | Change a plan's name, operation, or assignee | Plan header → "Edit inspection details" | | Fix a mismatch after the job quantity changes | Reconcile banner under the plan → "Generate" / "Remove empty" | | Delete a plan (draft reports only) | Plan header → "Delete plan" | | Export PDF | Report editor header → download icon |