iBid
For contract manufacturers and suppliers in need of highly qualified bids.
iBid creates an index of a CM or Supplier's CADseek shape signatures for the parts they have produced in the past.
iBid locally processes stl files on the contract manufacturer’s computer, making the parts they have made in the past searchable by potential customers. The fully automated CADseek shape search does not need CAD models, or images, or any other form of viewable to match the 40KB shape signatures.
iEstimate
For a supply chain manager or a designer in need of finding a contract manufacturer or supplier.
iEstimate locally processes an stl file(s) for the designs that need to be manufactured or outsourced. The geometry is analyzed, and a shape signature is extracted. The shape signature is 40KB in magnitude irrespective of the size or complexity of the CAD model and it cannot be inverted back to the CAD geometry it was generated from. As a result, the intellectual property of the user searching for a qualified manufacturer is protected. iEstimate ranks the contract manufacturing matches based on the CADseek shape search similarity score.