TRADATUM Get in touch
Engineering × AI · Gauteng, South Africa

Engineering,
in conversation with AI.

Tradatum develops tools where engineers and AI work a problem out together, both ways. AI calculates, checks and drafts. The engineer questions, corrects and decides. Every value carries its basis, and nothing is released without an engineer's name against it.

Explore the branches The idea →
TRADATUM DWG NO. TD-001 · REV C
Core
Conversational engineering
Branch
Two Way: P&IDs, JIT, line lists
Branch
VCAD: design by voice
Method
Sound engineering practice
Approved
Engineer in the loop ✓
Status
Research & development
Sheet 01 · The idea

AI proposes. Engineers decide.

Tradatum is about finding engineering solutions in conversation with AI, not handing the engineering over to it. Every branch is built on the same engine of sound engineering practice, so you can trust what it gives you and check it quickly.

01

A two-way conversation

AI proposes and explains. The engineer asks, challenges and corrects. Each side checks the other, and the reasoning is kept.

02

Candidates with holds

AI offers candidates and flags what's still open. Work keeps moving, and every assumption stays visible until someone closes it.

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.

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 · The Tradatum family

One idea, more than one branch

Each branch takes conversational engineering into a different part of the work.

Branch · Piping engineeringIn development

Tradatum Two Way

From static P&IDs and spreadsheets to one linked workspace.

Most piping work still lives in drawings that don't know what's on them and spreadsheets that don't know about each other. Two Way 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.

  • One linked workspace: P&IDs, line lists and calculations connected
  • Joint integrity calculations (JIT) with sound-engineering-practice candidates
  • Piping route module
  • Line List Report System: line lists and engineering reports produced from the linked data, with the full decision trail
  • End goal: piping design usable by people who don't use CAD
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 your CAD package, 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 03 · 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 04 · 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 05 · 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