Smarter Corrections, Faster Answers, Stronger Foundations
Automated locator optimization, an AI assistant built right into your workflow, and a scalable path from entry-level tolerance analysis to full variation analysis: discover the major advancements in this new release, designed to simplify the daily work of dimensional engineers and quality managers and accelerate your corrective actions.
These new capabilities mark another step in our ongoing mission to reinforce 3DCS as an agnostic, universal solution — delivering more value for experts, making the platform easier to use and deploy, and connecting it more deeply to your quality ecosystem.
Four key pillars of innovation
Drive to Nominal: automated locator optimization – AAO
Manufacturing teams frequently deal with assemblies that drift away from target dimensions — tool wear, fixture drift, supplier variation, environmental changes, and process shift over time. Drive to Nominal automatically analyzes measured assembly conditions and determines which locators to adjust, the minimum number of changes required, and the exact amount each locator should move.
- It calculates the minimum number of locator changes required, stabilizing processes faster, lowering operating costs, and reducing production disruption — instead of over-adjusting fixtures on guesswork.
- Precise correction recommendations replace manual calculation, telling engineers exactly how much to move each locator so they can implement changes with confidence and improve first-time success rates
- Multi-Measure Optimization evaluates all assembly measurements together, so adjusting one dimension no longer creates new issues elsewhere — maintaining assembly balance and reducing rework.
What this means: faster root cause identification, reduced engineering effort, and more effective fixture tuning — engineers get a data-driven corrective action plan instead of guesswork.
Copilot: instant answers, without leaving 3DCS
An AI chat assistant is now built directly into 3DCS. Copilot transforms your technical documentation into an interactive engineering assistant: ask a question in natural language and get an answer sourced from approved DCS content, without searching help files, interrupting a colleague, or opening a support ticket.
- Copilot allows engineers to interact using everyday language, instead of needing exact terminology or menu location before finding information. Simply ask a question as if you were speaking to an expert.
- Faster onboarding and training reduce the weeks or months new hires often need to become fully productive, since senior engineers spend less time answering questions.
- Reduced time searching documentation lets experienced users spend more time modeling and stay focused on analysis instead of hunting for information.
- Copilot establishes the AI foundation for future intelligent engineering workflows within the Metrologic DCS ecosystem — model interaction, intelligent debugging, results interpretation, and workflow automation are all being explored. It is eliminating the time spent searching so they can focus on solving engineering problems.
What this means: faster onboarding, fewer support tickets, and higher productivity for new and experienced users alike — less time spent searching, more time spent engineering.
DVM: a scalable entry point into dimensional engineering
DVM is more than an entry-level tolerance analysis tool. It lets every design engineer perform meaningful variation analysis early in development, then upgrade existing DVM models directly into full 3DCS Variation Analyst without rebuilding — preserving tolerances, measurements, and engineering knowledge as products grow more complex.
DVM is the foundation of the entire 3DCS dimensional engineering platform. Customers aren’t just purchasing an entry-level tolerance analysis tool — they’re investing in a platform that grows with their organization, providing immediate value today while eliminating the time, cost, and risk of recreating models as analysis needs become more advanced.
What this means: start simple, grow naturally, and protect your engineering investment — creating one continuous digital thread from concept development through design validation to production quality.
Monte Carlo Analysis & Step Plane Move
DVM now includes Monte Carlo simulation as a core workflow, letting engineers evaluate statistically realistic manufacturing variation early in design instead of relying solely on worst-case or deterministic calculations. The enhanced Step Plane Move also lets engineers model realistic assembly locating behavior — datum relationships, floating components, and fixture behavior — for better correlation with manufacturing.
What this means: statistically realistic variation predictions, better datum and locator simulation, and assembly predictions that correlate more closely with what happens on the shop floor.
Want to know more?
These new capabilities are just a glimpse of everything included in this release. Discover it all in our Webinar to come!
You can download it right now from your personal extranet account.