Can you license CAD and engineering files to AI companies?
A CAD vault is a record of design decisions. A finished assembly shows what was built, and its feature history shows the order in which a designer solved the problem. Circuit boards, simulation runs and test results add the evidence that a design worked. The question that decides everything is whose design it is.
What a design vault contains
| Native assemblies with their feature history | The parts, the constraints and the sequence of operations, not only an exported shape. The sequence is what shows how the designer thought. |
| Circuit designs and board layouts | Schematics and layouts, with the revisions that fixed problems found in testing. |
| Drawings and bills of materials | The documents that turn a design into something a shop can build, with their change notes. |
| Simulation and analysis files | Models that predicted stress, heat or flow, kept with the result of the real test. |
| Test results for the design | Measured performance, which makes a design more than a picture. |
A design with its test is worth more than a design
Files that show only the final shape teach a model what things look like. Files that show the sequence of construction, the simulation and the measured result teach which choices work. The pairing of a design with its test is the part that is hard to find.
Several product generations in the same vault add more, because they show a design being improved.
Whose design is it
A company that designs its own products owns its designs. A firm that designs for customers, or builds to a customer’s drawings, usually does not, and the contract often forbids sharing anything derived from them.
Parts bought from suppliers carry the supplier’s rights. Standard components from public catalogs are not a company’s to license. Read the agreements before anything is prepared.
What a design vault leaves out
| Customer-owned designs | Left out unless the customer agrees in writing. |
| Supplier and catalog parts | Excluded, because the company does not own them. |
| Controlled or sensitive designs | Anything under export controls or defense contracts is left out. |
An example, invented for illustration
A company that builds its own industrial equipment keeps native CAD assemblies, circuit designs and test results in a product data system, across several product generations. A set includes the company’s own designs with their feature history and tests, leaves out parts bought from catalogs and any design built for a customer, and replaces designer names with stand-ins. Nothing is exported until the owner has reviewed a sample.
Questions owners ask about this
We have exported shapes but not the native files. Is that enough?
It is less useful. The feature history lives in the native file, and that is what shows the order of design decisions. Exports can still carry value, but less.
Our designs were made for customers. Is anything ours?
Possibly the process around them: your own review notes, test methods and internal standards. Whether you may share them depends on each customer agreement.
Does a license let anyone build our products?
The terms decide what the files may be used for, and they can forbid making the product. Ask your counsel to read them, and nothing is promised in advance.
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Keep reading
Related kinds of records
- Inspection reports and photos: A finding beside its photos and its fix, with faces, plates and addresses removed first.
Industries that keep these records
- Manufacturers: A job tied to its setup, its machine readings and its inspection result, with customer designs kept out.
- Engineering and architecture firms: The review comment and the reply behind a design change, with client drawings and seals kept out.