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Release · 7 min read

Checklist: checking a drawing before release.

Checking a drawing before release means verifying that everything on it agrees with the model, with the BOM and with itself. You go through the title block, then the revision, then the dimensioning, then the materials, and only after that the drawing as a whole. Thirty minutes of work per drawing prevents an error that costs a day in the workshop.

Published 21 September 2026

In short

  • Check in a fixed order, otherwise you skip something different every time
  • The title block is the most skipped and most copied place on the drawing
  • Everything that is on the drawing and also in the model should be linked
  • Let someone other than the drafter go through the drawing

01 On this page

1. Start with the title block

The title block is the first thing everyone reads and the last thing anyone looks at. It is often copied from a previous drawing, and then all sorts of things stay in it that are no longer true.

Go through the fields one by one and compare them with the file and with the model, not with your memory.

What you check

  • Drawing number, and whether it equals the file name
  • Title or description, and whether it covers the part
  • Revision, and whether it matches the revision table and the PDM system
  • Date and author
  • Scale, unit and projection method
  • Material and any finishing
  • Weight, if you state it

2. Revision and revision table

The revision should be the same in three places: in the field in the title block, on the last line of the revision table and in the file name or the PDM system. In practice these three regularly drift apart.

Also read what is in the revision table. A line like "various changes" tells nothing to the person who has to work out what changed half a year later.

Link the revision field to a property from the CAD or PDM system. As long as someone fills it in by hand, this keeps coming back.

3. Dimensioning

Do not check whether all dimensions are right, the model already does that. Check whether the drawing can be made: can the workshop work with it without calculating and without calling.

What to look out for

  • Is every dimension there once, and not twice on different views
  • Are there dimensions entered as text instead of as real dimensions
  • Are there main dimensions that no longer belong to the model
  • Are tolerances given where needed, and left out where allowed
  • Is there a datum or a clear zero point
  • Are weld symbols and surface treatments complete

4. BOM on the drawing

If there is a BOM on the drawing, you are dealing with three sources: the model, the BOM on the drawing and the BOM in Excel or the ERP system. Those three must say the same thing.

Check per item whether the quantity matches the model and whether the item number is actually on a balloon on the drawing.

Per line

  • Item number is on the drawing and on the list
  • Quantity matches the model
  • Part number and description match the PDM system
  • Material matches the model
  • No lines without a part number or with a formula error

5. Match with the model

Finally you put the drawing next to the model. This is the step that is skipped most often, because it is the most work: setting all the texts on the drawing against the data from the model.

It is mainly about the things that do not carry over automatically: material, quantities, notes and main dimensions entered as text.

This is exactly the work BOMproof takes over: model, drawings and BOM against each other, with every comment pointed out in 3D and on the drawing.

6. Read the drawing as someone who has never seen it

At the end, take off your drafter's glasses. Print the drawing or view it at full size and read it as if you had just received it from someone else.

What stands out? Where would you have to call? That is exactly what the workshop will do too, but with half a day's delay.

With BOMproof

This work automatically, at every release.

BOMproof puts your STEP model, your PDF drawings and your Excel BOM side by side and points out every deviation: with a pin in the 3D model and a balloon on the drawing. You tick off what is correct.

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Further reading

Method and corrections

This guide describes in our own words how we carry out a check ourselves. We refer to standards by number; the literal text of the standard is not reproduced here, because it is protected by copyright. Found a mistake? Email info@bomproof.nl: we correct it within a week and put the new date at the top.

02 Frequently asked questions

Checking a drawing.

01 How long does a good drawing check take?

For a part drawing you are often busy for a quarter of an hour, for an assembly drawing with a BOM longer. Most of the time goes into comparing texts with the model, and that is also the part you can automate.

02 Should someone else check the drawing?

Preferably yes. Whoever made the drawing reads what they meant, not what is there. If that is not possible, put the drawing aside for a day and then read it again.

03 What do you check when several drawings belong to one design?

Then a step is added: the drawings against each other. Different revisions, different materials or quantities that contradict each other are just as annoying as a difference with the model.

03 Knowledge base

More from practice.

Ready for your first automated check?

Book a 30-minute demo. Bring one of your own designs and see live how BOMproof checks it.

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