Engineering firms choose which projects count.

How designs are created and revised

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
• How simulation work compared with real tests
• Design review notes explaining why changes were made
• Inspection data and schematics for products you own

Client-owned designs can stay out

If a design belongs to a client or is covered by an NDA, it can be excluded project by project. It is up to you and counsel to judge whether client work suits the terms you signed. We do not advise on the legal side of it. Often the simplest place to begin is your internal methods and your own products.

Every name becomes a placeholder

Each client, vendor and engineer is renamed with a placeholder inside the copy, and so are account numbers and addresses. The original files never leave your systems or your vault, and passwords are never requested. You approve a sample of the prepared copy before anything goes out.

Export-controlled work stays out

Export rules cover the technical data of some programs. You flag any project like that, and it can be dropped from scope altogether. If a project leaves you unsure, exclude it.

Getting started

Get the estimate first, then spend the first short call separating projects that are plainly yours from the rest. It helps to sort projects into your own products, client work, NDA work and export controlled work. That first group is where scope tends to start. You can add or remove projects later, but nothing is prepared until you agree on the list, and nothing goes out until you approve the sample. Your engineers do not need to stop work at any point.