Practical NDT Simulator — Hands-On UT, PAUT, RT, MT and More in an Immersive 3D World

Atlantis Practical NDT is an immersive, game-like 3D skills-practice simulation platform. Technicians hop into a virtual environment and practice real NDT inspection scenarios — Ultrasonic Testing (UT), Phased Array UT (PAUT), Radiographic Testing (RT), Magnetic Particle Testing (MT), Liquid Penetrant Testing (PT), Visual Testing (VT), Eddy Current Testing (ET) and Time-of-Flight Diffraction (TOFD) — on realistic virtual welds, pipe sections, pressure vessels and castings. Built for any skill level, from a first-time trainee building fundamentals to a working Level III drilling rare defect types, with instant scored feedback on every attempt. No specimens to source, no lab time to book, no safety exposure. Affordable, accessible, fully customizable.

Try a simplified UT A-scan

Simplified educational demo — not a validated engineering simulation. In the interactive version you slide a straight-beam probe across a plate that contains one planar reflector. Over sound metal the A-scan shows the backwall echo; over the reflector an earlier echo appears and the backwall drops. Gain, thickness and material (carbon steel, stainless steel, aluminium) can be changed.

Depth is read from the echo time: depth = velocity × time ÷ 2. For example, in carbon steel (longitudinal velocity 5,920 m/s) a 25 mm plate puts the backwall echo at 8.45 µs, and a reflector at 12 mm returns an echo at 4.05 µs.

The geometry is idealised: no beam spread, attenuation, near field, dead zone, couplant or calibration effects. It shows the principle, not what a real instrument on a real part will display. Skills are built on the full Practical NDT simulator and on calibrated equipment in training.

Demo the full simulator — standalone · Demo it inside the ERP · Free calculators: UT angle beam, TOFD

Why Hands-On Practice Is the Bottleneck

Real proficiency in NDT is built through repetition against a wide range of defect types — and that is exactly what's hardest to get in the real world. Specimens with known, documented flaws are expensive and scarce. Lab time competes with production schedules. Rare defect geometries might show up once a year on a real job, if at all. Meanwhile, skills that aren't used regularly perish — a technician who spent six months on thickness surveys can lose sharpness on weld interpretation fast. Practical NDT removes the scarcity: an unlimited, ever-growing library of realistic defect scenarios is available on demand, so a technician or an entire crew can drill exactly the method, defect type and difficulty level that matters most, as often as it takes to get it right.

Inside the Simulator: Environments & Methods

Practical NDT currently offers 5 workplace environments, 12 NDT methods and 33 guided lessons. Choose a workplace, pick a method and technique, and start an inspection. Method and technique availability depends on the environment and the application; new techniques and plant procedures are added regularly.

Workplace environments

NDT Lab (12 methods, 52 jobs): Bench specimens and reference blocks for learning each method from first principles.
Welding Workshop (12 methods, 52 jobs): Weld coupons and fabrication joints inspected the way a shop QC technician does.
Aircraft Hangar (12 methods, 54 jobs): Airframe and component inspection in a maintenance-hangar setting.
Oil & Gas Site (12 methods, 73 jobs): Weld, corrosion, tube and screening practice within a process-plant setting.
Storage Tank (UT shell thickness and MFL floor screening): Tank shell thickness surveys and floor screening on a full-size tank.

Surface methods

PT — Liquid penetrant: surface-breaking cracks and porosity on welds and machined parts.
MT — Magnetic particle: surface and near-surface cracks in ferromagnetic welds and castings.
VT — Visual examination: weld profile, corrosion, damage and access limitations.

Volumetric methods

UT — Contact ultrasonics: thickness readings and flaw detection in welds and plate.
PAUT — Phased array: sectorial weld scans and flaw sizing.
TOFD — Time of flight diffraction: weld flaw detection and through-wall sizing.
RT — Industrial radiography: volumetric inspection of welds and castings.

Electromagnetic methods

ET — Eddy current: surface cracks and conductivity checks on non-ferrous and aircraft parts.
MFL — Magnetic flux leakage: wall-loss screening of tank floors and pipe.

Screening and specialist methods

LRUT — Guided-wave screening: long-range screening of pipe runs from one location.
IRIS — Internal rotary ultrasonics: tube wall inspection in heat exchangers and boilers.
PMI — Positive material identification: alloy verification of pipe, fittings and welds.

Built for Every Skill Level

New trainee: guided scenarios build probe manipulation, scan-pattern discipline, and defect-recognition fundamentals before a trainee ever touches a real specimen. Working technician: between real assignments, scenario libraries targeting rare and hard-to-source defect types keep a working technician's eye sharp without waiting for the right job to come along. Level III / team lead: build and assign scenario sets for your own crew, benchmark technician performance objectively, and identify coverage gaps before an audit or a real job finds them.

Complements Formal ASNT Training — Never a Substitute

Practical NDT is a skills-practice and readiness tool. Certification under ASNT SNT-TC-1A or an employer's written practice still requires the supervised practical examination on real specimens that the standard mandates — nothing about that changes. What Practical NDT does is get a technician to that exam, and to real assignments, with far more repetition behind them than limited specimen access would otherwise allow. It sits alongside Atlantis's NDT training and certification programs — built for employer-based ASNT SNT-TC-1A certification — as a practice layer that reinforces what's taught in the classroom and on the shop floor, and keeps it sharp long after the course ends.

Where We Deliver Practical NDT

Rolling out first across North America, then Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and Singapore, and India, the Middle East, Africa and Southeast Asia. Browse Houston, Calgary, Aberdeen, Singapore, Dubai, Mumbai and more — or request a demo regardless of location, since the platform is browser-based and deploys anywhere.

Request a Demo

Atlantis NDT publishes no pricing — pricing varies by region, team size and scope. Tell us the methods and skill levels you want to cover, and we'll walk you through the simulator on those exact scenarios. Request your free demo with Atlantis NDT founder Anoop Rayavarapu (ASNT NDT Level III multi-method). Affordable, accessible, fully customizable — quote on request. See also NDT training and certification, consulting services, Atlantis ERP, Digital Twins.

What is an NDT simulator?

An NDT simulator is software that lets an inspector practise a nondestructive testing method on a virtual part instead of a physical specimen: placing and moving a probe, yoke or camera, reading the instrument display, finding indications, sizing them and deciding whether they are acceptable. A good one gives immediate, scored feedback, so every attempt teaches something. The Atlantis Practical NDT simulator is built for exactly that kind of practice, and Atlantis built it as the first-ever online practical NDT simulation portal for practice and hands-on experience: a browser-based, 3D, game-like set of workplaces where trainees and working technicians run real inspection jobs on welds, plate, pipe, tanks, tubes and aircraft components.

It helps to separate three things that all get called "NDT simulation". The first is engineering modelling software, which physicists and Level IIIs use to predict beam coverage or radiographic contrast when they qualify a procedure. That is a design tool, not a place to practise. The second is installed training software, usually tied to one method and often paired with a dummy probe or a dedicated workstation in a classroom. The third is what the Atlantis Practical NDT simulator is: an online practice environment covering many methods, opened in a browser or the app, with scenarios built around what a technician actually does on a job. If you searched for an "ultrasonic testing simulator", a "phased array simulator" or "virtual NDT training" because you want more repetitions before a practical exam or a new assignment, the third category is the one you are looking for.

The scenario library was designed by Anoop Rayavarapu, ASNT NDT Level III and founder of Atlantis NDT, who also leads Atlantis training. That matters because the value of a simulator is in its scenarios: which defects appear, where, in what geometry, and what a technician is expected to notice. If you want to see the scenarios for your own methods, book a Practical NDT demo and we will run them live with you.

Practise NDT without equipment, specimens or radiation

The short answer to "can I practise UT, PAUT or RT online without equipment?" is yes, for the skills that live in your hands, eyes and judgement: scan discipline, coverage, reading the display, recognising indication types and making a call. You cannot learn to set the gain knob on your own flaw detector from a browser, and nobody should claim you can. But a large share of practical-exam failures and field mistakes come from pattern recognition and procedure discipline, not from not knowing where the buttons are.

Physical practice has three hard limits. Flawed specimens with documented defects are costly, they are shared, and once a trainee has seen a specimen a few times they remember where the flaw is rather than finding it. Lab time competes with production work and with the instructor's calendar. And radiography practice in the real world means a licensed source, a controlled area and dose to manage, which is why most RT trainees get far less hands-on time interpreting images than they need. In the simulator, none of those limits apply. A trainee can run the same weld job ten times on a Saturday, a technician can drill rare defect types they may meet once a year, and an RT trainee can work through image interpretation with no source in sight.

Method-by-method practice in the Atlantis Practical NDT simulator

The simulator currently covers 12 methods grouped the way inspectors think about them: surface (PT, MT, VT), volumetric (UT contact, PAUT, TOFD, RT), electromagnetic (ET, MFL), and screening and specialist methods (LRUT, IRIS, PMI). Method and technique availability depends on the environment and the application, and new techniques and plant procedures are added regularly. Below is what each method is used for in the simulator and the real-world skill the practice builds toward. If you need to know exactly which set-up and calibration steps a particular lesson walks through, ask during the demo: we would rather show you than overstate it.

Ultrasonic testing (UT): weld scanning and thickness gauging

Contact UT in the simulator covers thickness readings and flaw detection in welds and plate. For weld work, the skill being built is the one every Level II practical tests: choosing the scan surface, covering the weld volume and heat-affected zone with a disciplined raster pattern, recognising when a signal is geometry rather than a flaw, and locating and sizing what is real. In the field that sits on top of a sensitivity set-up, typically a distance-amplitude correction (DAC) curve or time-corrected gain (TCG) built from reference reflectors; the simulator helps a trainee understand what those references are for and why amplitude relative to the reference drives the reporting decision. For thickness gauging, the practice is grid discipline and recognising readings that do not make sense, such as a sudden drop that could be a lamination or a doubled reading on heavily corroded material.

Phased array (PAUT): reading the S-scan

PAUT practice centres on sectorial weld scans and flaw sizing. Most new PAUT technicians can push an encoder along a weld; what they struggle with is reading the sectorial image: telling root geometry and cap signals from lack of fusion, following an indication through several angles, and sizing it consistently. Repeated S-scan reading against known answers is precisely the kind of practice that is hard to get on real equipment, because there are only so many flawed welds in any lab.

Time-of-flight diffraction (TOFD)

TOFD in the simulator is used for weld flaw detection and through-wall sizing. The skill is interpreting the grey-scale image: lateral wave, back-wall, upper and lower tip diffraction, and the phase changes that separate a planar flaw from a volumetric one. Varied scenarios prepare a trainee for real, noisy scans.

Radiographic testing (RT): interpretation and image quality

RT in the simulator covers volumetric inspection of welds and castings. The value for most people is interpretation: recognising porosity, slag, lack of penetration, cracks and casting defects, and doing it in a structured way. In real interpretation the first question is always whether the image is good enough to judge, which is what the image quality indicator (IQI) placement and sensitivity check is for, along with density and identification markers. An interpreter who skips that step can accept a weld on a film that should never have been read. Because the simulator needs no radiation source, RT trainees can spend their practice time on reading images rather than waiting for a licensed shot.

Magnetic particle (MT) and liquid penetrant (PT)

MT practice covers surface and near-surface cracks in ferromagnetic welds and castings; PT practice covers surface-breaking cracks and porosity on welds and machined parts. These look like the easy methods, and that is why they produce so many missed indications in the field. The procedural habits matter: field direction and the second shot at roughly ninety degrees for MT, surface preparation, dwell time and development time for PT, and the difference between a relevant indication and a false one. Repetition in the simulator builds those habits before a trainee is let loose on production welds.

Visual testing (VT)

VT practice covers weld profile, corrosion, damage and access limitations. Visual inspection is the method every other method relies on, and the one most often rushed. The practice target is a systematic look: undercut, overlap, excess reinforcement, arc strikes, spatter, misalignment and corrosion, noted and judged against the acceptance criteria rather than skimmed.

Eddy current (ET) and magnetic flux leakage (MFL)

ET covers surface cracks and conductivity checks on non-ferrous and aircraft parts, which ties it closely to the Aircraft Hangar environment. MFL covers wall-loss screening of tank floors and pipe, and on the Storage Tank environment it is used for floor screening on a full-size tank. Both methods reward a technician who understands what the signal is telling them and when a call needs follow-up with another method.

Guided-wave screening (LRUT), internal rotary UT (IRIS) and PMI

These specialist methods are where most technicians have the least hands-on time, which is why they are included. LRUT covers long-range screening of pipe runs from one location. IRIS covers tube wall inspection in heat exchangers and boilers. PMI covers alloy verification of pipe, fittings and welds. Each appears in the settings where it is actually used, such as process-plant piping and exchanger bundles on the Oil & Gas Site.

The five simulator environments

The Atlantis Practical NDT simulator offers 5 workplace environments and 33 guided lessons. Each environment is a different kind of job site, so a trainee practises a method in the context they will actually use it.

Environment	What you inspect	Methods and jobs	Best fit
NDT Lab	Bench specimens and reference blocks	12 methods, 52 jobs	Learning each method from first principles; new trainees and refreshers
Welding Workshop	Weld coupons and fabrication joints, inspected the way a shop QC technician does	12 methods, 52 jobs	Fabrication shops, pipe spools, structural steel, weld-heavy practical exam preparation
Aircraft Hangar	Airframe and component inspection in a maintenance-hangar setting	12 methods, 54 jobs	Aerospace and MRO technicians, ET and surface-method practice
Oil & Gas Site	Weld, corrosion, tube and screening practice within a process plant	12 methods, 73 jobs	Refinery, petrochemical, pipeline and turnaround work, including IRIS, LRUT and PMI
Storage Tank	Tank shell thickness surveys and floor screening on a full-size tank	UT shell thickness and MFL floor screening	Tank inspection crews and technicians supporting tank inspection programmes

The practical way to use the table is to match the environment to the work. A shipyard or fabrication technician lives in the Welding Workshop and leans on UT, PAUT and TOFD. An aerospace technician starts in the Aircraft Hangar with ET, PT and VT. A refinery technician heading into a turnaround spends time on the Oil & Gas Site with IRIS, PMI and corrosion work, then on the Storage Tank. Anyone new starts in the NDT Lab. If you are not sure which mix suits your team, ask us to map your methods to the environments.

Preparing for the NDT practical exam

A simulator is a good way to prepare for a practical exam and a poor way to try to avoid one. The Atlantis Practical NDT simulator is a practice and readiness tool. It does not certify anyone, it does not count as a certification examination, and it is not a substitute for the practical examination on real specimens that ASNT SNT-TC-1A and your employer's written practice require. What it does is put far more repetitions behind a candidate before that exam than limited specimen access would otherwise allow.

SNT-TC-1A employer practicals (USA and employer-based schemes)

Under ASNT's Recommended Practice SNT-TC-1A, certification is employer-based. The employer's written practice sets the training hours, experience hours and examinations, and the practical examination is given on real specimens, with the candidate demonstrating that they can operate the equipment, follow the procedure, and record and evaluate results. The examiner is looking at technique, coverage, documentation and the final call, not just whether the candidate found the flaw. Those are the habits the simulator drills. Atlantis training is built around this employer-based SNT-TC-1A model; see SNT-TC-1A training and certification and, for employers who need their written practice in order first, written practice development.

Central certification schemes elsewhere (context only)

Outside the employer-based model, many technicians sit central certification examinations. ISO 9712 schemes, such as PCN in the UK, run practical examinations on specimens containing documented discontinuities at examination centres. In Canada, certification to CAN/CGSB-48.9712 is issued by Natural Resources Canada and, since late 2024, also by CWB Group. Employers in Europe, Canada, Australia and the Middle East may require one of these schemes. Atlantis does not train toward, administer or issue any of them; we mention them because a candidate preparing for a specimen-based practical exam under any scheme faces the same core problem, which is not enough time on flawed parts.

What simulated practice changes, and what it does not

It changes how many indications a candidate has seen and called before exam day, how disciplined their scan coverage is, and how familiar they are with reading A-scans, S-scans, TOFD images and radiographs.
It does not change the required classroom hours, the required on-the-job experience hours, the vision examination, or the need to pass the practical on real specimens with real equipment under a qualified examiner.
It does not replace hands-on time with your own instruments. Calibrating your own flaw detector, handling couplant on a hot pipe and working at height are learned on the job.

Simulator vs physical flawed specimens

Physical flawed specimens are the gold standard for practical examinations and should stay that way. The question for most employers and training centres is not "simulator or specimens" but how to use each for what it does best.

Factor	Physical flawed specimens	Atlantis Practical NDT simulator
Role in certification	Required for the practical examination	Practice and readiness only; never an examination
Real equipment handling	Yes, with your own instrument and probes	No; builds technique, coverage and interpretation
Variety of defects	Limited by how many specimens you own	Many jobs across 5 environments and 12 methods
Answer memorisation	A known risk once a specimen has been seen	Varied scenarios reduce it
Rare and hard-to-source defects	Costly or impossible to stock	Practised on demand
Radiation	RT practice needs a licensed source and controlled area	None; interpretation practice without exposure
Access	One trainee per specimen, in the lab	Browser or app, wherever the trainee is
Feedback	Depends on an instructor being present	Instant scored feedback on every attempt

A sensible pattern is to let the simulator absorb the high-volume repetition, then spend scarce specimen and instructor time on what only physical practice can teach: instrument set-up, real couplant and surface conditions, and the final mock practical. Specimens stay fresh for the exam because candidates have not been drilling on them for weeks.

Who uses an NDT simulator

Trainees and career changers

New trainees use guided scenarios to build probe manipulation, scan-pattern discipline and defect-recognition fundamentals before they touch a real specimen. The 33 guided lessons give structure, and progress tracking shows what has been mastered and what has not.

Working technicians

Skills fade between assignments. A technician who has spent six months on thickness surveys may be rusty on weld interpretation; one moving from fabrication to a refinery may never have run IRIS on a real bundle. Scenario libraries targeting rare and hard-to-source defects keep a working technician sharp without waiting for the right job to come along.

Level IIIs, QA managers and employers

Level IIIs and team leads can build and assign scenario sets for their own crews, benchmark technician performance objectively, and find coverage gaps before an audit or a real job finds them. Common uses are pre-hire skills checks (does this candidate actually read an S-scan the way their CV says?), refreshers before a shutdown or new contract, and consistent benchmarking across crews in different locations. None of this replaces the employer's certification process; it gives the Level III better information while running it. For wider team training, see corporate NDT training.

Training centres and schools

Training centres can use the simulator as homework between classroom sessions, as a warm-up before lab sessions, and as a way to give every student more repetitions than the specimen inventory alone allows. It sits alongside classroom instruction and supervised lab work. Training centres interested in using it with their own students can request a training-centre walkthrough.

Browser-based NDT simulator vs installed simulator software

Installed NDT simulators are typically licensed per workstation, focused on one or two methods, and often paired with dedicated hardware such as a dummy probe or touchscreen mock-up. That approach has real strengths in a classroom where an instructor controls the session, and it is a legitimate category. Its limits are reach and breadth: practice happens where the workstation is, and adding methods usually means adding products.

The Atlantis Practical NDT simulator takes the other route. It runs in a browser or the app, with nothing to install on a training-room PC, and it covers 12 methods across 5 environments in one place. A trainee can practise at home, a technician can practise in a site cabin between shifts, and a Level III can assign the same scenario set to crews in different cities. The trade-off is that you are practising with mouse, keyboard or touch, not a physical dummy probe, which is why real-equipment time remains part of every sensible training plan.

Practical NDT around the world

Because the simulator is online, it works wherever your team is. Our regional pages describe the local industries, regulators and certification context, and which environments and methods match the work in each place. Atlantis prioritises North America, then Europe, then Australia and New Zealand, then the Middle East.

Not listed? The platform is browser-based and deploys anywhere. Ask for a demo for your region.

Frequently asked questions about NDT simulators

What is the best way to practise ultrasonic testing without equipment?

Use an ultrasonic testing simulator with weld and thickness scenarios, scored feedback and varied defects, then confirm the skills on real equipment and specimens. The Atlantis Practical NDT simulator covers contact UT, PAUT and TOFD for exactly this kind of practice.

Does the Atlantis Practical NDT simulator give me a certification?

No. It is a practice and readiness tool. Certification under ASNT SNT-TC-1A is granted by your employer under its written practice and requires a practical examination on real specimens, plus training and experience hours. The simulator helps you prepare for that exam; it does not replace it.

Can a simulator count toward my required experience hours?

Do not assume so. Experience hours are defined by your employer's written practice or your certification scheme, and they normally mean supervised work with real equipment. Ask your Level III before counting any simulated practice.

Which NDT methods can I practise?

Twelve: PT, MT and VT; contact UT, PAUT, TOFD and RT; ET and MFL; and LRUT, IRIS and PMI. Availability of each method and technique depends on the environment and the application.

Is there a phased array simulator in the platform?

Yes. PAUT scenarios cover sectorial weld scans and flaw sizing, which is where most new PAUT technicians need the most repetition.

Can I practise radiographic film interpretation without a radiation source?

Yes. RT scenarios cover volumetric inspection of welds and castings, so interpretation practice needs no source, no controlled area and no dose.

Do I need to install anything?

No dedicated workstation or installed software is needed. The simulator runs in a browser or the app.

Is it suitable for complete beginners?

Yes. New trainees start in the NDT Lab with guided lessons on fundamentals, and difficulty adapts as skills develop. Working technicians and Level IIIs use the same platform for refreshers and crew benchmarking.

Can an employer use it for pre-hire skills checks?

Yes, as one input. A Level III can assign scenario sets and compare candidates objectively. It should sit alongside, never replace, the employer's own qualification and certification process.

How is it different from engineering simulation software?

Engineering modelling tools predict how a technique will perform, for procedure qualification. The Atlantis Practical NDT simulator is for people to practise inspection jobs and get scored feedback.

Who designed the scenarios?

The scenario library was designed by Anoop Rayavarapu, ASNT NDT Level III and founder of Atlantis NDT, who also leads Atlantis training.

How much does it cost?

Atlantis does not publish pricing. The simulator is affordable, accessible and fully customizable, and quotes are on request, based on your team, methods and scope.

See the simulator on your own methods

Atlantis built the first-ever online practical NDT simulation portal for practice and hands-on experience, and the quickest way to judge it is to watch it run on the methods your team uses. Tell us your methods, skill levels and the work you do, whether that is fabrication welds, refinery piping, tanks or airframes, and we will walk you through the matching environments and scenarios. Request a Practical NDT demo, or if you are building a training plan around it, look at NDT training and certification and online NDT training. Affordable. Accessible. Fully customizable. Quote on request.

Practical NDT across North America

Browse the NDT simulator by state or province, or go straight to your city. Every page covers the local industries, regulators and the environments and methods that match the work there.

More North American cities

Find Practical NDT by state, province or country

Each page covers the local industries, the regulators and codes that apply there, the cities we support and how Atlantis NDT works with employers in that region.