Which part is this?
On the shop floor this question costs hours. If the article number is not in someone’s head, people leaf through folders, walk the aisle or call the colleague who has been there for twenty years. When that person is on leave, the machine waits.
DiGiTAL TWiN SEARCH answers it from a phone. You upload your STEP library, photograph the part on the bench and get article number, storage location and the 3D model.
How recognition works
The work happens at upload, not at search. Each STEP file is measured, turned into a triangle mesh and rendered from 48 directions: 42 evenly on the sphere, six along the axes.
Because a shop-floor photo does not look like a clean render, each viewpoint also gets 2 photo-like variants with slight tilt, glare and noise. A part is then described by 144 comparison images. Each becomes a shape vector; colour, lighting and oil on the surface do not enter it.
Your photo takes the same path: background off, white behind, vector built. Search is then a distance lookup in the database.
Two sizes, one photo
A photo says nothing about scale. The 40 mm and 60 mm versions of a bracket look identical in the viewfinder, and that is where expensive mix-ups start.
Place an ArUco marker with a 50 millimetre edge next to the part. Search recovers the real edge lengths and drops any candidate more than twelve percent off. Without a marker the search still works; it then ranks by shape alone.
Why it pays
The colleague who knows every part is the fastest way to an article number — while they are there. Without them the search starts in a folder, on a shelf or on the phone to purchasing.
Measured search latency. The comparison is a shop-floor estimate; the bars are not to scale. At 20 cases a month and a €60 hourly rate the subscription sits against about €300 of saved labour — before a avoided wrong order.
Nothing to prepare on the part
Search uses the CAD data that already lives in design. No sticker, no label, no extra work in the rack.
Anyone may search
Users are not counted. Whether three supervisors or the whole early shift pick up a phone, the price does not change.
Not an IT project
Browser on phone, tablet or desktop. No app store, no install on company devices, no IT ticket.
Your geometry stays here
Servers in Frankfurt am Main, data in the EU. STEP files never leave the system, and each organisation sees only its own catalogue.
The 2019 version glued a marker on every part
EXCIT3D built the first version for Berger Gruppe in Wuppertal. Every part carried a physical marker and was measured through the camera. It worked, but only for prepared parts: what nobody had labelled was invisible.
This version needs no preparation on the part. It needs the CAD data that already sits in design. The marker went from mandatory to optional.
What search cannot do
Parts that differ only in hole depth or an internal contour look the same from outside. Both land in the result list, and the decision stays with you.
Polished and highly reflective surfaces make background removal harder. Backlight and a busy bench cost recall — a bright workbench is half the recognition.
And what is not in the library as STEP will not be found. Search does not invent parts.
Pricing
One price for the whole plant
You pay for the size of your library, not for seats and not for searches. Both are unlimited in every plan, because a part search only helps if everyone uses it.
Werkstatt
149 € / month
or €1,490 per year — two months free
For a maintenance team with a focused set of parts.
- 1,000 parts
- 3 libraries
- Unlimited users and searches
- Email support, reply next business day
Betrieb
Recommended399 € / month
or €3,990 per year — two months free
For plants that want the full catalogue online.
- 10,000 parts
- Unlimited libraries
- Unlimited users and searches
- Phone and email support
- Guided first import
- A library per plant, line or supplier
Enterprise
on request
Scope and term as needed
For groups and anything that does not fit a grid.
- Unlimited parts
- Unlimited libraries
- Unlimited users and searches
- On-premises operation possible
- Acceptance test on your parts
- Response times by agreement
Try first, then decide
Send us up to 100 STEP files from your stock. We index them; you photograph the matching parts for 30 days. Free, no contract.
Setup priced on effort
The first import depends on your stock: file count, assembly depth and how complete article numbers are. We look at your data and quote before we start. All prices exclude VAT.
Specifications
- Viewpoints per part
- 48 — 42 Fibonacci, 6 axis-aligned
- Comparison images per part
- 144 — one render and 2 photo-like variants per viewpoint
- Rendering
- 518 × 518 px, WebP, white background
- Image model
- DINOv2-base, 768 dimensions
- Vector search
- PostgreSQL with pgvector, HNSW, cosine
- Scale filter
- ArUco 4 × 4, 50 mm edge, ±12 % tolerance
- Latency
- about 1.2 seconds per search
- Library size
- up to 10,000 parts per tenant, more on request
- Upload
- STEP, IGES, ZIP collections up to 200 MB, metadata via CSV
- Server location
- Frankfurt am Main, data held in the EU
- Devices
- Browser on phone, tablet and desktop, no app install
Common questions
- What is DiGiTAL TWiN SEARCH?
- DiGiTAL TWiN SEARCH is part identification from EXCIT3D. Companies upload their STEP library. Anyone who photographs an unknown part gets article number, storage location and the 3D model from their own catalogue.
- How does the software recognise a part in a photo?
- At upload each STEP file is measured, meshed and rendered from 48 directions. Each viewpoint is also stored as two photo-like variants, 144 comparison images per part. Each becomes a DINOv2 shape vector. The photo takes the same path: background off, white behind, vector built. Search is a cosine lookup in PostgreSQL with pgvector.
- Do I need markers on the parts?
- No. Markers are optional. Without a marker, search ranks by shape. An ArUco marker with a 50 mm edge next to the part yields real dimensions; candidates more than twelve percent off are dropped.
- Which file formats can I upload?
- STEP, IGES and ZIP collections up to 200 MB. Metadata such as article number and storage location come via CSV. Original geometry stays internal; no STEP files go to third parties.
- Where is the data stored?
- On servers in Frankfurt am Main. Data is held in the European Union. Each organisation sees only its own catalogue, including in search.
- What can search not tell apart?
- Differences invisible from outside — hole depth or an internal contour. Highly reflective surfaces, backlight and a busy bench lower recall. Parts that are not in the library as STEP are not found.
- What does DiGiTAL TWiN SEARCH cost?
- Werkstatt is €149 per month for 1,000 parts, Betrieb €399 per month for 10,000 parts. Users and searches are unlimited in every plan. Pay yearly and two months are free. Larger catalogues on request. All prices exclude VAT.
The trial uses your own parts
A demo on someone else’s parts tells you little. Send us your stock and you will see, on your own data, where recognition works — and where it does not.