Inspiration
We are both engineers and have seen this problem first hand on real engineering teams. Designers pick parts in CAD without knowing what the company actually pays. Months later, purchasing finds the company already buys a nearly identical part for less. Most product cost is locked in at design, so we wanted to show engineers that cost at the moment a part is chosen.
What it does
FabIQ sits beside the CAD tool and links every BOM line to past product BOMs and SAP purchasing data, including spares and warranty cost. When an engineer adds a part, FabIQ finds a cheaper, proven part the company already buys. One click updates the CAD and exports a STEP file, and an exploded Preview shows every change before review. A human approves every change.
How we built it
A native macOS app in SwiftUI connects to Autodesk Fusion through a Python add-in that reads, edits, explodes and exports the real assembly. We tested it on the open-source OCP Open Rack V3 power supply, using a fictional company, Voltaris Power, with synthetic purchasing data. Four shared parts save $295,824 a year in the demo. We used Kearney Velocity to research competitors, size the market and score our concept (4.55 out of 5).
Challenges
Matching parts across systems, where the same part has different numbers in engineering, purchasing and supplier records. Making real CAD edits work and undo cleanly in the Fusion API.
What we learned
Cost is a design decision, not just a purchasing one. A cheaper part is not always cheaper once tariffs, freight, lead time and warranty are counted.
What’s next
Pilot with a real manufacturer, connect directly to SAP and PLM, and add SOLIDWORKS and CATIA.
