Engineering firms decide which projects go in.

How designs get made and changed

Records that reveal engineering judgment teach AI labs far more than finished drawings on their own:

• CAD models plus the revisions behind each one
• Bills of materials and the calculations behind them
• Simulation results set against test results
• Design review notes explaining why changes were made
• Inspection data and schematics for products you own

Names are swapped for placeholders

The copy swaps every name, whether client, vendor or engineer, for a placeholder, along with any addresses and account numbers. Your original files remain in your vault without ever leaving your systems, and no one asks for passwords. A sample of what was prepared needs your yes before anything leaves.

Designs owned by clients can stay out

A design that is a client's property or falls under an NDA can be excluded one project at a time. You and your lawyers decide whether client projects fit within your contracts. Legal advice on this is not something we offer. Often the simplest place to begin is your internal methods and your own products.

Work under export controls stays out

Certain programs have restrictions on exporting their technical data. Any project like that can be left out of scope completely, and you are the one who flags it. When in doubt about a project, keep it out.

A good place to begin

Ask for the estimate, then use the first short call to walk through which projects are clearly yours and which are not. It helps to sort projects into your own products, client work, NDA work and export controlled work. Scope usually begins with the first group. Projects can be added or removed later, but preparation starts only once the list is agreed, and sharing waits for your approval of the sample. Nobody on your engineering team has to pause their work.