The reasons designs changed, not only the changes

Engineering firms usually start by asking about designs their clients own. We review them one project at a time, and whatever you are unsure of can stay out.

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What is usually valuable

The most useful engineering records show reasoning: a requirement, a first design, a test that failed, a review, and a revision that passed. That history lives in files most firms already keep:

Revisions, and the design reviews that led to them
Calculation spreadsheets and bills of materials
Test and simulation results checked against bench outcomes
Change requests, requirements and inspection data

The first concern: client-owned designs

A lot of engineering work is owned by clients or covered by NDA. Whether any of it can be included depends on your contracts, and that is a question for your own counsel. Scoping looks at client-owned material one project at a time, any of it can be left out, and client names in the copy become placeholders. Anything that is export-controlled can be marked and kept out altogether.

Your methods stay yours

What you license is a copy. Nothing in your vault or other systems is altered, and the files remain yours. If you see a project, product line or period as core, it can be left out.

Questions owners in this field ask

Is every system needed?: No. A well organized project archive or a set of design review records can be enough to start.
Who on our team needs to be involved?: Normally a principal, the person who runs your vault and file shares, and whoever handles client contracts.
What about our own engineers?: They are swapped for placeholders as well. The copy captures how the thinking went, not who did the thinking.

Making and checking the copy

It all begins under NDA. License Your Data, our licensing partner, makes the de-identified copy, and nobody asks for or shares a password. You may leave out whatever system, folder, client or project you like, and nothing goes out until you approve a sample. Your firm pays nothing.

A typical fit

A typical fit is a firm with 20 or more full-time staff and 3 or more years of project files in a vault, shared drives or Microsoft 365. Smaller firms may qualify too if their archive is long and well organized. The estimate is the same for every discipline.

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