Industry · Steel & metal fabrication
Design Automation for
Steel & Metal Fabrication
Another profile reaches the engineer's desk. They read the bends, remember which punch handled something like it, check the die table, write up the tooling. 45 minutes of memory work, and the next profile is already waiting. The answer was in the geometry the whole time. We build systems that read it: tooling selected, shop drawings issued, machine data extracted, straight from the CAD.
Profile geometry → Fabrication rules → Tooling · shop drawings · cut lists
The challenge
The Manual Middle of Steel Fabrication
The model is finished. The machines are ready. Between them sits hours of hand work that follows rules nobody has written down.
Tooling Chosen From Memory
Press brake tools, punch dies, forming sequence: picked per profile, from experience, dozens of times a day. A wrong pick doesn't show up in review. It shows up as scrap.
A Drawing Per Profile, By Hand
Hundreds of sizes and connection details, each owed its own shop drawing. Copy the template, edit, check. Then the next one, and the next.
Machines Waiting on Typing
The cut lists and part descriptions your machines need already exist inside the drawings. Today a person copies them out, and production waits while they do.
Our solutions
How We Automate Steel Fabrication, CAD to Shop Floor
Automated Tool Mapping
A CAD plugin reads geometry, material, and machine capability, then returns the tooling. The pick takes seconds, not 45 minutes, and comes out the same no matter who runs it.
Learn more → PROFILE VARIANT → SHOP DRAWINGS · CUT LISTSFabrication Drawing Variants
Every profile variant generates its own shop drawings, fabrication details, and cutting lists by rule: weld symbols and annotations placed, your standards followed, nothing redrawn.
Learn more → CAD DRAWINGS → MACHINE-READY DATAFabrication Document Generation
Cutting lists, material take-offs, and machine-ready part descriptions come out of the CAD directly. Nobody retypes what the drawing already knows.
Learn more → ENGINEERING INPUTS → ACCURATE QUOTESQuoting & Estimation
Material weight, labor hours, and price calculated from engineering inputs the moment an enquiry arrives; the quote goes out while the job is still warm.
Learn more →Results
What Steel Fabricators See in Production
"FDES allowed us to meet our goals in time and on budget. They always put in the extra efforts to deliver a great result. Highly recommended." Marty Thomasson · President, Gearbox Solutions
Free · no obligation
Start Where the Payback Is Fastest
Tool mapping, drawing generation, quoting: each automates on a different timeline. The free audit maps your workflows and ranks them by how quickly each pays for itself.
How we automated steel profile tool mapping →- An automation engineer walks your tool selection and drawing workflows
- Profile families ranked by automation payback
- Hours lost and error costs put into numbers
- A pilot-first roadmap for your shop