Frequently asked questions

Blake is the Manufacturing Intelligence platform for CNC manufacturers. It starts with estimating and process planning for milling and turning. Model, drawing, requirements, quantities and revision come together in your workspace, around the part and next to your own machines, materials and rates, into a cost and a quote where every line shows its time, rate and quantity. Blake proposes; your team decides.#

Subduxion B.V. makes Blake. We are based on High Tech Campus Eindhoven and have been a resident of the AI Innovation Center since 2025. Our manufacturing world model sits underneath Blake; the research behind it is on subduxion.com. More on About Subduxion.#

Blake is for CNC manufacturers making precision parts in many variants, from one-offs to series. Milling from 3 to 5 axes, turning and mill-turn are costed on your own machines; wire EDM and sheet metal come next. Cost engineers, manufacturing engineers, sales and inside sales work in one workspace, even when that is one person wearing three hats. See high-mix precision machining or series and repeat production.#

Blake is in early access and is opening up in phases. You work with the machines, materials, hourly rates and parts of your own shop, with the Subduxion team alongside. In a demo we show the workspace and talk through what your work needs.#

Blake pairs model and drawing per part and lays out the drawing's requirements as proposals. You add the STEP model and PDF drawing to a request and work out the cost on your own machines and rates, line by line. See requests in Blake.#

The manufacturing world model is Subduxion's model underneath Blake. It records how a part, its requirements, material, processes, your machines and your team's decisions relate. That is why every proposal and every decision shows what it rests on.#

You and your team decide. What Blake reads from drawing and model, or proposes, stays a proposal until someone confirms or changes it. That decision stays visible to the whole team, with who and when, and for an estimate correction also why.#

In Blake everyone works from the same machines, rates and lines, each showing its time, rate and quantity. When someone changes a line, the estimate records who, when and why. The method no longer lives in one head and one spreadsheet. See estimating in Blake.#

Blake builds the cost per part from model, drawing and requirements, line by line, on your own machines and rates. Your ERP stays the home of orders, stock and invoices. The quote travels with you as a PDF, with CSV and JSON export.#

Blake calculates with your own machines, hourly rates and purchase prices and with the setups your team records; an instant quote portal works from fixed rules and averages. Every line shows time, rate and quantity, so you can explain the price to your customer.#

Not reliably: a large language model can name a plausible figure, with no machine, material or setup behind it. A cost comes from times, rates and quantities you can see. That is how every line in Blake is built, on your own machines and rates.#

No: CPQ works with a fixed price per option, while Blake estimates drawing work with a route, setups, a machine with an hourly rate and an estimated time per operation. A different setup therefore changes the price, and your team makes that choice.#

They make the choices that decide the price. Blake lays out requirements, times and rates, so your cost engineer and manufacturing engineer keep time for route, setups and price. They review, adjust and decide, and every confirmation or correction is kept, with who and when.#

STEP models and PDF drawings. You upload them in one go, and Blake pairs model and drawing per part by file name. If a pairing is uncertain, you get a question rather than a guess. More on the STEP model and the technical drawing.#

Yes, one request can hold several parts. Every part keeps its own files, quantity and revision, with its own requirements and cost. A frame, a shaft and a flange sit together in one request, each one checked on its own.#

Material, general tolerance, surface roughness, finishing and threads. Blake places them as proposals beside drawing and model, and you confirm or change them. Each of the five counts in the cost, and they are ready for you instead of retyped. See drawing reading.#

Then the values read stay proposals until someone confirms them, as with a sharp drawing. You compare them with the drawing alongside and correct what differs; who did that and when stays visible, with a note if you add one. More on OCR.#

The new revision sits next to the previous one, which is kept with its own files. Per part you see which drawing and which model belong to which revision. A quote version records which price belonged to which revision.#

Today you upload model and drawing into the request: STEP and PDF in one go, paired per part by file name. The next step is mail intake, so that a forwarded request lands in Blake directly. See requests in Blake.#

Per request you see which parts, files, revision and quantities it holds, and the drawing's requirements in plain words: material, tolerance, roughness and finishing. You also see what is still a proposal and what a colleague has already confirmed. See inside sales.#

Blake builds the cost from lines: material, machining, finishing, and setup and programming. Every line shows time, rate and quantity, and whether it applies per part or per batch, at your own hourly rates. Every calculated time is labelled as an estimate. See cost breakdown.#

Yes, Blake calculates with your own machine hour rate and your own purchase prices. You pick machines from the catalogue and add your rate; machining is priced at the rate of the machine that makes the part. Purchase prices carry source and date.#

The cycle time comes from the model's geometry, the material and your own machine. It is an estimate, and you see and adjust every term in the calculation.#

Blake gives no percentage: every calculated time is labelled as an estimate, with the inputs on every line, so you can set the result beside your own estimate. The next step is a cost calibrated against what was actually made.#

Yes, you change a time or a line with a reason attached. The line recalculates and every quantity in the break moves with it. The previous inputs are kept, with who, when and why. See confirm and correct.#

The quantity break shows the cost per part at every quantity. Setup and programming spread over the batch; material, machining time and finishing stay the same per part. At each quantity you see how much the one-off share still weighs in the price per part.#

No, cost and selling price stay separate in Blake. You set margin and selling price yourself, and the quote follows from the same estimate, with the cost beside it. Sales knows what sits under every price, and the cost breakdown stays in Blake.#

As their own line in the cost, priced from your own supplier list. If a price is missing, the line stays open until you fill it in and never counts as zero. Black anodising or hardening sits apart in the price. See outsourced operation.#

Blake places the new estimate for a repeat order beside the last one you priced. You see what has changed since the last price before you quote again and send the price. More on recurring work at series and repeat production.#

Blake prices the stock: the block, plate or bar, not the net weight of the finished part. What you machine away you also pay for at purchase. Your own purchase price per material sits beside it, with unit, source and date.#

No, the market references from the ECB, Eurostat and the World Bank show how the market moves, with source and period. Your own purchase price is the basis, with source and date; the references sit beside it and never replace it.#

Yes, you use your own material names, for metals and plastics. One catalogue holds both, with the form you buy in: block, plate or bar. Every material takes your own purchase price, with source and date. See materials in Blake.#

You pick them from the catalogue, with envelope, axes and spindle, or record them yourself. You add your own hourly rate per machine, and machining is priced at the rate of the machine that makes the part. That puts your machine park in Blake.#

Yes, Blake checks each machine against envelope and axes and names the limit that decides. It is a first check: you choose the machine and the setups, and your manufacturing engineer judges whether the part can be made to its tolerances. See machine fit.#

You record them per route: direction and number of setups, and you confirm them. Blake calculates with what you accept, and every change can be undone. The number of setups shows in the setup time and in the price. See setup.#

Because every decision stays with the part: the setups entered and accepted per route, the confirmed or corrected drawing value with who and when, and a calculation correction with its reason. A colleague who opens the part later finds those decisions. See knowledge retention.#

Blake estimates 3- to 5-axis milling, turning, mill-turn, drilling and tapping, each with its own lines for time, rate and quantity. Outsourced finishing, such as anodising or hardening, counts as its own line. See milling, turning and mill-turn.#

Yes, Blake estimates milling from 3- to 5-axis. You record your machines with envelope and axes, and the setups for each route. Blake uses the setups you accept, so fewer setups on five axes show as less setup time. See 5-axis milling.#

Yes, the turning and milling operations of one part go into one estimate. Material, machining time, setup and programming sit on separate lines, at the hourly rate of your own mill-turn machine. You record setups, such as main spindle and sub-spindle, per route. See mill-turn.#

Blake prepares every wire EDM request for your estimate: model and drawing per part, tolerance, roughness and material as proposals, and your machines with envelope and rate. The next step is the estimate: cutting time from contour, height, material and skim cuts. See wire EDM.#

Sheet parts sit in the request with model, drawing and quantity, taken in as sheet parts beside the machined parts. Blake estimates the machined parts, not yet the sheet parts themselves. The next step is the sheet estimate: cutting, bending and welding from the flat pattern, on your own machines. See sheet metal.#

Yes, Blake rolls an assembly up from its parts: machined parts with their estimate, bought parts and outsourced work, and your welding and assembly hours at your own rate. Every part counts once. See assemblies and modules.#

Today you put the parts of your bill of materials in one request, each with model and drawing. Bought parts are priced from your own library or stay open until you fill them in. The next step is importing a bill of materials directly.#

As a PDF, with CSV and JSON export. The PDF is the quote for the customer, with each part, its revision and the price per quantity; CSV and JSON are for your own systems. Every quote version is kept, with its own files.#

Today a quote leaves as a PDF, with CSV and JSON export for your ERP. Blake calculates with the machines, materials and rates in Blake itself, so the estimate needs no integration. We are building the connection to your ERP under the name Blake Connect; today you work with the export.#

No, your ERP stays as it is. Blake calculates with the machines, materials and rates you record in Blake itself. Your ERP stays the home of orders, stock and invoices; the quote travels with you as a PDF, with CSV and JSON export.#

The quote lines of the same version as the PDF: position, description, quantity, unit price, quantity breaks, lead time and totals. You read the cost breakdown in Blake, not in the file. The PDF is for the customer, the export for your own systems.#

Blake calculates before there is a CAM program: programming time is a one-off line in the cost. So you do not have to program first to give a price. The next step is the cycle time from the CAM program beside the estimated time.#

No. We do not use your drawings, 3D models or workshop data to train AI models, unless you give separate written consent. More on the Your drawings and AI page.#

You remain the owner of your drawings and data. Your drawings, 3D models, requests and workshop data stay yours, with all rights. We use them only to provide Blake to you.#

Yes. We agree confidentiality before you share drawings. We treat your drawings, including your own customers' drawings, as confidential; that is what the Terms of service say.#

In an environment that Subduxion manages itself, while Blake is in early access. That environment's storage is encrypted, and uploaded drawings and models are kept in private storage, not at a public address. The online service with fixed hosting locations will follow; the providers involved are on the Subprocessors page.#

Fixed rules read the drawing into a proposal; your team decides. The drawing reader is optional and stays off until an owner or admin turns it on. When on, only crops go to compute in the EU, with administration and logs in the US.#

You decide, with one role per user: owner, admin, member or read-only. You choose who gets access and with which role, and every record belongs to one organisation. See Security.#

No, Blake does not run on your own servers. During early access, Blake runs on an environment that Subduxion manages itself, with encrypted storage, and the online service will follow. How we protect your data is on the Security page.#

You can export your data, and we then delete your workspace data. The periods for this are in the Data processing agreement.#

You request early access or book a demo. You start with the milling and turning work your team prices every week, on your own machines and hourly rates, and set the result beside your own prices.#

We take one part through with you, from drawing to cost, and talk about what matters for your work. There is nothing to prepare or send. Book the demo on the demo page.#

Yes, in early access you work with the machines, materials, hourly rates and parts of your own shop, with the Subduxion team alongside. You set the cost beside your own estimate, line by line. The demo itself uses our own example part.#

You start with one company's workspace, with its own machines, rates and materials, for everyone who works on them. The next step is pricing per site, with each site's own machines and rates. See factory in Blake and the profile for groups and multi-site manufacturers.#

Through the contact page, or email info@subduxion.com with what you are working on and when you need it. The Subduxion team is based on High Tech Campus Eindhoven. To see Blake on a part, book a demo.#