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

Engineering,
in conversation with AI.

Tradatum develops tools where you and AI work an engineering problem out together, both ways. The conversation produces clear proposals, each with its basis shown, and you make the decisions. Engineers and non-engineers alike can reach a sound engineering solution, and anything that needs professional verification is flagged, never hidden.

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
Decisions
Recorded · verification flagged ✓
Status
Research & development
Sheet 01 · The idea

Two-way conversation. Clear proposals. Confident decisions.

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

You ask, AI answers and explains, and you challenge or correct it. The conversation works both ways, 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

Verification when it matters

Every decision is recorded: who, when and why. Where a value needs professional verification before it's built, the output says so clearly.

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 must be closed before a value is final. 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, in their 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.

SEP

Trustworthy AI values

How an AI proposal should carry its basis, confidence and open questions so anyone 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.

Let Tradatum help you find a solution. Got an engineering or design problem you'd like to talk through? Tell us about it.

Talk to us
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

Have an engineering or design problem you'd like to talk through? Let Tradatum help you find a solution. Send a short note and you'll get a reply from a person.

Email us
Based in
Gauteng, South Africa