Challenge
The lab's clients live under design-control obligations, so every handoff demanded a reconstructed narrative: which geometry changed, when, by whom, and why. Assembling that from desktop CAD files and email threads burned days per project and still left gaps.
Solution
All project work moved into solidSF Vault projects: private by default, with revisions, locks, where-used, and a complete audit history accumulating as engineers work rather than as an after-the-fact documentation pass.
Review packages and released drawings are generated from the same documents, and client engineers review through controlled browser access instead of emailed exports.
“Clients used to get a zip file and a spreadsheet of what changed. Now they get vault access and the history is simply there, already ordered.”
Lab director
Results
Client handoffs shrank by days because the design history is a query, not a reconstruction. Uncontrolled copies stopped circulating entirely.
The lab now lists its revision-controlled workflow in proposals, and clients' quality teams audit the trail directly.