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:

• Your CAD models and how they were revised
• Bills of materials and calculation spreadsheets
• How simulation work compared with real tests
• Notes from design reviews showing why something changed
• Inspection data and schematics for products you own

Client-owned designs can stay out

Projects whose designs are client property or under NDA can each be excluded individually. It is up to you and counsel to judge whether client work suits the terms you signed. Legal advice on this is not something we offer. Your own internal methods and product lines are often the simpler place to start.

Anything export controlled is kept out

Technical data on some programs is subject to export controls. Such a project can be kept out of scope entirely, and you are the person who identifies it. When in doubt about a project, keep it out.

Names become placeholders

Inside the copy, client, vendor and engineer names are replaced with placeholders, along with addresses and account numbers. Nobody asks for passwords, and your originals stay put in the vault. Before anything is shared, you sign off on a sample of the finished version.

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. Try a simple list with four groups: in house products, client programs, NDA projects, export controlled projects. That first group is where scope tends to start. 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. Your engineers do not need to stop work at any point.