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DFM Bar Workflow

Source files: integrated RapidDraft runtime and April 2026 workflow updates Last synthesized: April 2026

Overview

The DFM sidebar is now the active orchestrator for review preparation, not just the place where a finished review appears. The current user-facing workflow is built around staged review progress, non-blocking Part Facts behavior, visible scan-depth selection, selected-component scope checks, and exportable review output.

Viewer-load progress is now intentionally separate from review-preparation progress. The model can appear in preview mode first while selectable canonical geometry keeps warming in the background. That viewer preparation should not be folded into the DFM job percentage.

Runtime Flow

1. On Panel Open

  • load DFM config and current model-specific state
  • load the selected component context
  • show the current profile/process state
  • show Geometry scan depth directly under the Generate review action
  • keep DFM on the canonical STEP-only path; the old Input scope and advanced LLM model selectors are no longer part of the DFM UI
  • allow the user to prepare a review without first manually forcing broad geometry extraction
  • if the model is still warming selectable geometry, keep the viewer visible in preview mode and surface canonical readiness separately from review readiness

2. On First Part Facts Use

  • if compatible Part Facts already exist, show them
  • if not, the frontend can show persisted warmup or preparation status instead of presenting a dead empty state
  • explicit refresh remains available for reruns

The important product change is that first use no longer has to feel like "nothing happened."

3. On Generate Review Click

The sidebar starts a review-preparation job that:

  1. resolves the selected component and current profile
  2. determines the effective route and active rules
  3. derives required evidence families from active rules
  4. sends context_payload.geometry_scan_depth as light or deep
  5. reuses compatible cached Part Facts when available
  6. resolves the selected STEP component and validates scanner evidence against that selected envelope
  7. requests only the missing extraction capabilities
  8. evaluates the active rules
  9. returns one stable final review

Light scan is the default. Deep scan is explicit and currently still synchronous, but it now exposes which scanner is running and whether the work is cached, queued, running, overtime, completed, or failed.

4. While Review Is Preparing

The sidebar shows staged progress rather than one opaque blocking wait. Typical stages are:

  1. checking profile and active rules
  2. reusing cached evidence where possible
  3. preparing missing geometry evidence
  4. running DFM rules
  5. review ready

For heavy STEP files, the sidebar can also show scanner rows such as base geometry, topology light, exact face inventory, hole metrics, wall regions, internal radii, pocket features, boss features, molded signals, and CNC corner metrics. The important product behavior is not just the percentage; the user should see what is being scanned, why it is taking time, and whether the scanner is already past its expected budget.

5. Final Review State

Once the review is ready, the sidebar shows:

  • findings grouped by rule family (mirroring the rules-bar taxonomy). For each active family: flagged findings as existing cards, explicit OK rows for rules that ran and passed (e.g. DFMB-015 — Parallel ribs spaced 3.2x wall · above 2x minimum), and "No data" rows when an evaluator is starved of required facts.
  • a dedicated tooling-gate banner when the selected component looks like a mold or multi-part assembly — product rules are skipped and the banner explains why.
  • standards and supporting references
  • planning and route summary
  • cost or route context when applicable
  • export options for the current review state

The 3D viewer renders each finding with a numbered badge (01, 02, …) matching the sidebar card so clustered overlays stay distinguishable. The default view is single-finding focus — user opts in to the multi-location overview via the Show all button. An Isolate toggle in the review header fades un-flagged geometry for hotspot inspection, and multi-location findings expose a < Location N of M > stepper for walking through repeats one at a time.

6. Export PDF

The sidebar now includes PDF export beside the review action area.

The export uses:

  • frontend capture for the current hero and localized viewer screenshots
  • backend PDF assembly for the final document

This keeps the export aligned with what the user actually sees in the integrated workspace.

Why the Workflow Changed

The earlier workflow hid too much heavy work behind one button press:

  • broad Part Facts extraction could happen whether or not active rules needed it
  • users had weak visibility into whether the system was working or stuck
  • plastics parts could pay for CNC-heavy evidence they did not need
  • richer molded-feature extraction had no visible Light/Deep control in the active DFM sidebar
  • multipart STEP files could accidentally drift from selected-part intent if the scanner relied on weak ordinal component_N mapping

The newer sidebar workflow solves that by making review preparation explicit, staged, and scoped to the current rules and route.

Current Behavior Boundaries

The active DFM bar should now be understood as:

  • the default customer-facing review path
  • rule-driven in how it requests evidence
  • compatible with cached Part Facts rather than blindly dependent on them
  • scan-depth-aware, with Light scan as the fast default and Deep scan for richer exact evidence
  • selected-component scoped for multipart STEP review; escaped scanner evidence is rejected rather than shown as valid issue cards
  • non-blocking for first-use Part Facts behavior
  • able to export the current review as a compact PDF

It should not be described as the place where all benchmark and specialist geometry work always runs. Those heavier paths still exist, but they are not the normal pilot-facing workflow.

Sources

  • D:\02_Code\45_merged_macos_colabui_dfmanim\web\src\components\DfmSidebar.tsx
  • D:\02_Code\45_merged_macos_colabui_dfmanim\web\src\components\CanonicalSceneContents.tsx (numbered badge rendering + isolate-level opacity)
  • D:\02_Code\45_merged_macos_colabui_dfmanim\server\main.py
  • D:\02_Code\45_merged_macos_colabui_dfmanim\server\part_facts.py
  • D:\02_Code\45_merged_macos_colabui_dfmanim\server\dfm_review_v2.py (family_reviews[] + route_gate rollup)
  • D:\02_Code\45_merged_macos_colabui_dfmanim\docs\contracts\dfm-review-family-rollup.md
  • D:\02_Code\45_merged_macos_colabui_dfmanim\docs\contracts\dfm-review-localization.md
  • D:\02_Code\45_merged_macos_colabui_dfmanim\docs\contracts\dfm-scan-pipeline.md