TRADATUM Get in touch
Piping engineering × AI · Gauteng, South Africa

AI proposes.
Engineers decide.

Tradatum turns static P&IDs and scattered spreadsheets into one linked workspace for piping engineering. AI calculates, checks and drafts. Every value carries its basis, and nothing is released without an engineer's name against it.

Explore the platform Meet VCAD →
TRADATUM DWG NO. TD-001 · REV B
Platform
Tradatum Two Way: piping
Branch
VCAD: design by voice
Method
Sound engineering practice
Basis
Tiered · cited · pinned
Approved
Engineer in the loop ✓
Status
Research & development
Sheet 01 · Platform

Tradatum Two Way

Piping engineering, in conversation with AI. "Two Way" because the engineer and AI each work the problem and check each other: AI proposes, and the engineer accepts, changes or rejects it with a reason.

Piping engineeringIn development

From static P&IDs and spreadsheets to one linked workspace

Joint integrity, calculated. Released by an engineer.

Most piping work still lives in drawings that don't know what's on them and spreadsheets that don't know about each other. Tradatum links them, so every line, joint and valve sits with its data, its calculations and its decisions. There's no more flipping between files to check one number.

Each value is worked out from the best basis available and records where it came from. Open questions travel with the design as holds until someone closes them.

  • One linked workspace: P&IDs, line lists and calculations connected
  • Joint integrity calculations (JIT) with sound-engineering-practice candidates
  • Piping route module
  • Engineering reports with a complete decision trail
  • End goal: piping design usable by people who don't use CAD
BASIS TIERS

Five levels of confidence

Every value is tagged: controlling document, conflict resolved by judgement, project rule, cited industry default, or "no standard: input required".

HOLDS

Questions that travel

Technical and input holds block release. Verification, procurement and supplier holds travel with the output, so nothing is quietly assumed.

POLICIES

Rules stored as data

Engineering rules live in versioned policy files with their own test cases and content fingerprints. Change a rule and every value that used it is flagged.

DECISIONS

A record you can audit

Every accept, change or reject records who, when, why and the engineer's own words. Old revisions are kept, never overwritten.

Sheet 02 · Approach

Built on sound engineering practice

AI in engineering is only useful if you can trust what it gives you. Tradatum never hides a guess and never blocks the work. It shows its working and hands the decision to a person.

01

Every value has a basis

Each number says where it came from, so a checker can follow it back to the document, rule or standard behind it.

02

Candidates with holds

The system proposes candidates and flags what is still open. Work keeps moving, and every assumption stays visible.

03

A named engineer releases

Only a recorded decision, with a name and a reason, releases or changes a value. AI speeds up the work. It never signs it off.

Sheet 03 · The Tradatum family

One way of working, more than one tool

The same engine of basis, holds and engineer sign-off now drives CAD as well. VCAD is the first branch of Tradatum.

VCAD artwork: a voice waveform flowing into an AI cube, with the tagline Design by Voice, Built by Intelligence
Branch · Mechanical CAD

VCAD

Design by voice. Built by intelligence.

Say what you need and VCAD builds the model in Autodesk Inventor, checking it against fabrication rules as it goes. Its first voice-built enclosure came off in October 2026.

Explore VCAD →
More branches in development
Sheet 04 · Research & development

What we're working on

Tradatum is an independent R&D effort in AI-assisted engineering. These are the questions we're working through, and where we're looking for engineers and fabricators to test ideas with.

SEP

Trustworthy AI values

How an AI proposal should carry its basis, confidence and open questions so an engineer can check it quickly.

VOX

Voice-driven CAD

From fixed phrases to free speech: describing a part out loud and getting a model that follows the rules.

FAB

Fabrication rules engines

Press-brake limits, stock sheet, hardware fit and finish, captured as general rules rather than catalogue entries.

PIP

Piping for non-CAD users

Letting people who don't use CAD set out and check piping, with the engineering still done properly.

QA

Documentation by default

Data sheets, inspection records and decision trails produced as a by-product of the design, not afterwards.

AI

AI in the drawing office

Practical patterns for bringing AI into design teams without losing control of the engineering.

Pilot partners welcome. If you run a drawing office, fabrication shop or EPC team and want to try these ideas on real work, we'd like to hear from you.

Get involved
Sheet 05 · Who's behind it

Built from the drawing board up

Tradatum grew out of years of real design work: knowing what a drawing has to carry for a workshop to build it right, and what it costs when an assumption goes unchecked. That's why every tool starts from sound engineering practice, not from the AI.

Founder
Troye Browne
Founder & lead developer
View on LinkedIn ↗
Sheet 06 · Contact

Let's talk

Interested in piloting Tradatum or VCAD, sharing a problem from your drawing office, or just comparing notes on AI in engineering? Send a short note and you'll get a reply from a person.

Email us
Based in
Gauteng, South Africa