This is Inklaim, the drawing office for European patent firms. It prepares the sheets for filing from what the firm already has: the client’s 3D model, the technical drawing, the claims.
Today, figures are the most hand-crafted part of a matter: hours spent redrawing views that already exist, office rules, similar but not identical, and one wrong numeral is enough for an objection.
Draftspersons told us the five jobs they most want to lighten. Let’s see them in the app.
One: simplifying the figures. From the client’s 3D model, you choose the level of detail. With “Essential”, small holes, chamfers and fillets disappear, and so do threads. And screws and washers are removed on their own. Here is the same view: full on the left, essential on the right.
The same goes for the workshop drawing, as DXF or vector PDF. Dimensions, lettering, title block, centre lines and hatching disappear by themselves. Before confirming, you see in colour what will be removed, and how each view will look.
And what if the client’s drawing is full of identical objects, like these three hundred holes? Pick one, and “Select identical” finds every copy, even turned or mirrored. Check the selection, and delete them in one go. With AI, when it is on, just type it: “all the brackets along the rail”.
Two: sheets from the 3D model. Upload the STEP file and choose the views, axonometric and exploded views included. For the section, choose the plane on a preview: the section line A-A appears by itself. And several views on one sheet, at the same scale; the exploded view gets its own sheet.
Here is a sheet generated this way. Already laid out, with four views at the same scale. The parts carry the numerals already used in the text of the application. And the sheet stays editable, in AutoCAD too.
And what if the client only has the object? Two or three photos will do. Inklaim lifts the object off the background and suggests the lines: one click keeps the real ones. With AI, when it is on, it tells real edges from reflections itself and names the parts. One drawing per photo, with the same numerals. And for turned parts, the photos give a 3D model, with the match measured on every photo.
Three: consistency between the views. The Checks tab compares every figure in the matter, and the text. It finds the same numeral used for different parts, or the same part with different numerals. It flags figures that are cited but do not exist, or are out of order. It compares sizes across the views: here, one is ten per cent narrower. And from each warning, you go straight to what needs fixing.
Four: automatic numbering. Move one figure, and all the others are renumbered. Before saving, Inklaim shows every reference in the text that will change. And you choose which ones to update. If you cancel, everything stays as it was.
“Renumber all” reassigns the numerals in the order in which the parts appear, following the firm’s own scheme too, for example even numerals only. Figures, description and claims change together, and it can all be undone straight away.
Five: the texts in the drawings. All the wording in the figures is in a single table, with the translations alongside. Words are found and replaced across all the figures at once, and before confirming, you see every change, figure by figure. When AI is switched on, it translates them following the glossary and the claims.
And from the method claims, the flowchart is ready in a few seconds. With the steps already numbered, S100, S102, and so on. Without AI, straight from the text; then you edit it like any other drawing.
When the sheet is ready, you export it for filing. Choose the office, and sheet size, margins and labels follow its rules. China and Korea too, with the images for online filing. Then the language of the texts: there is only one drawing, and the numerals never change.
Matters, files and backups are stored in the European Union, and AI works in Europe. AI is optional, and whenever it is used, it is always disclosed. And no line is invented: each comes from the model, the drawing, the sketch or the photos.
We are proposing a four-week trial, with a group of three to six draftspersons and patent attorneys, on matters already filed and published, redone with Inklaim. Together, we measure the time saved and the quality of the sheets.
Let’s try it on real patents. If you are interested, let’s choose the three matters together and get started.
