Software for engineering offices, built around your method
Software for engineering and design offices: we turn the calculation sheets, drawing workflows and report templates your office relies on into web tools that follow your standards and produce the documentation for you.
Overview
Engineering offices already own expensive, capable software - CAD, structural analysis, BIM. The slow part is usually what sits between those programs: a calculation spreadsheet with macros written years ago, a floor plan redrawn by hand in a second program, tables and pictures pasted into a Word report, and a project list that lives in someone's inbox. That in-between work is where we build. We write calculation tools that follow the standards you work to, apps that read the drawings you already have, and report generators that put results, plans and views into your own templates.
We know this ground because we built Toplinko, our own web app for engineers: heat loss and gain, energy class A+ to G and nZEB checks to Croatian and EU standards, with a 2D CAD builder, AutoCAD integration and a 3D building model. It is not worth building custom when a commercial package already does the calculation well and your team is happy with it - we will not rewrite your structural analysis program. Custom pays off where your office has its own method, repeats the same steps on every project, or keeps retyping the same data between tools.
Where it hurts
- The heat load or sizing calculation lives in an Excel file with macros, and the colleague who wrote it has left.
- We draw the floor plan in AutoCAD, then trace it again in the calculation program, then again for the report.
- Every design change means pasting new tables and screenshots into the technical report by hand.
- We only find out how many hours a project really took when the last invoice goes out.
- Our office has a method other offices would pay for, but it only exists as our own spreadsheets.
What we build for engineering and design offices
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Calculation tools to your standards
Your spreadsheets and hand methods rebuilt as a web tool: inputs validated, formulas tied to the standard and edition you use, and every result reproducible later.
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Apps that read your drawings
Import of DXF floor plans with agreed layer conventions, so walls, rooms and openings become data for the calculation instead of being traced again.
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Automatic technical reports
Results, tables, floor plans and views generated straight into your PDF and Word templates, so a design change means one click, not an afternoon of pasting.
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Project and revision register
One place for projects, phases, drawing revisions, deadlines and hours per engineer, built around how your office actually issues work.
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Visual summaries for clients
A one-page summary or a browser 3D view that an investor understands without an engineering background - the same idea as Toplinko's investor summary.
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Your method as a product
When your tool is good enough for other offices, we help turn it into a subscription product with user accounts and shared workspaces.
How we work together
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Walk through one real project
We sit with an engineer and follow one finished project from drawing to signed report, collecting the standards, tables, templates and shortcuts your office uses.
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Calculation core first
We build and test the calculations before the screens, checking them against results from projects you have already signed, so you can trust the numbers.
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Pilot on live projects
One team uses the tool on new projects while the old method runs alongside, until the results match and the team prefers the new way.
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Your development department
After launch we stay on a monthly basis: we update the tool when a standard or regulation changes, add modules and keep it running - your development department without hiring one.
No project price list. A fixed price before we start.
Every project is different, so the price depends on what you need and how much of it. The first call is free of charge, and you always get a fixed price in writing before any work starts - no surprises.
- 01The first call is free and commits you to nothing
- 02You get a fixed price in writing before work starts
- 03You own the code and data once the work is paid for
- 04Hourly work and extra developers: €40-60 per hour
- 05After launch: software maintenance and development, monthly
Solutions for this industry
- 01 Internal tools that replace spreadsheets Small web apps that replace the shared spreadsheets behind quotes, stock, scheduling and approvals, with roles and history.
- 02 Client portal A secure place where clients upload documents, follow the status of their work, approve drafts and message your team.
Proof from our own products
Further reading
- 01 From industry expertise to software product: a founder's playbook for non-tech operators How non-technical industry experts turn domain knowledge into software products. From idea crystallisation to MVP, team, and first paying customers.
- 02 From Excel to a custom application: what about the data Moving from Excel to a custom application: what to check in your data before a quote, how much history to migrate and what to demand at handover.
Related industries
- 01 Software for construction companies Site apps, estimating, job costing and crew scheduling for contractors, built around how you bid and build.
- 02 Software for real estate and property management Owner and co-owner portals, repair tracking, enquiry records and reports for agencies, building managers and rental managers.
- 03 Software for consultancies and professional services firms Client portals, proposal and report generators, AI on your own documents and method tools for consultancies, agencies and advisory firms.
Services behind it
- 01 Custom software development Web apps, mobile apps, internal tools and platforms built around your processes - including takeovers of existing code.
- 02 Business process automation Orders, invoices, reports and approvals that move between your systems on their own, with people only where judgement is needed.
Questions
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01 Can you build a calculation tool that follows the standards we work to?
Yes. We implement the formulas, tables and checks from the standards you name, and test them against reference examples and your own past projects. Toplinko, our own app, calculates to HRN EN 12831, ISO 6946, ISO 13788 and ISO 13790, so we know how much care that takes. The engineer who signs the report stays responsible for the result; we are responsible for the software doing exactly what was agreed.
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02 Will it work with our AutoCAD drawings?
Most CAD programs save DXF, and a tool can read DXF floor plans directly, turning agreed layers into walls, rooms and openings. Toplinko works this way. Before building, we look at a few of your real drawings and agree a layer convention, because drawings that follow the same rules are what make automatic recognition reliable.
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03 Should we build our own tool or buy a commercial program?
If a commercial program covers your calculation and your team is happy with it, keep it. A custom tool makes sense for the work around it: your own method, steps you repeat on every project, reports in your format, or data you copy between programs. Often the right answer is a small tool that fills the gap rather than a replacement.
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04 How much does a custom tool for an engineering office cost?
The price depends on the scope - how many calculation modules, whether the tool reads drawings, how reports are generated and how many people use it. That is why we do not publish a price list. The first call is free, and the price is agreed in writing before work starts.
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05 What happens when a standard or regulation changes?
That is what the monthly partnership is for. We keep track of the standards and rules the tool is built on, update calculations and report templates when they change, and keep old projects reproducible with the rules they were calculated under. You report what changed in practice, and we make the change.
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06 Can we later sell the tool to other offices?
Yes - the code is yours once the work is paid for. If selling is a real plan, we design the tool from the start with separate company accounts, user roles and subscriptions, which is much cheaper than adding them later. Toplinko itself runs that way, with shared workspaces for whole offices.
Which step does your office repeat most?
Show us one project from drawing to report. The first call is free, and the price is agreed in writing before any work starts.
Completely free. No commitments.
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