The engine file and the drive
Your dedicated design modules are one sealed file that opens only inside Kabaido with two keys. A copy stays with you on an encrypted drive.
Updated 10 November 2026
On this page
- Why
- What an implementation builds is your company's engineering, so you should hold your own copy and your own key.
- How
- The file is built in the implementation; the drive is written and handed over at the end.
Base modules and dedicated modules
A base module is Kabaido's design module for a category of tool: the same for everyone. A dedicated module is that base trained on one customer's own data in an implementation.
Kabaido improves base modules for everyone. Nothing flows the other way: no customer's geometry, prices or knowledge reaches the base module or another customer.
The engine file
Each customer's dedicated design modules are one sealed file, <customer>.kbd. A second design module later adds a section to it, never a second file.
| The engine file holds | The app holds, live |
|---|---|
| What can be made: families, limits and rules | Customers, their terms and their special prices |
| How a tool is formed: your own 3D geometry | Quotes, orders, designs and documents |
| The rules around stock | Stock quantities, costs and movements |
| The structure of the price | Supplier prices and lead times |
| Your engineering knowledge | Users, roles and settings |
The file holds definitions. The app holds what changes day to day, which the engine reads and never copies.
Two keys
The file opens only inside Kabaido. Opening it needs two keys: Kabaido's and yours. Your key belongs to your organisation, not to a person. It is made at handover and written to your drive with a printed recovery sheet. Kabaido never stores it.
The drive
Every implementation leaves a hardware encrypted drive with you. Nobody needs it day to day.
| On the drive | What it is |
|---|---|
| Your key | Your organisation's key. The recovery sheet is printed and kept apart. |
| Your engine file | A sealed copy of <customer>.kbd, with its version and date. |
| Your source data | Everything you supplied, as you supplied it. |
| Records | The handover sheet and a summary of what was built. |
Keeping the drive
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Who holds it | One or two named owners at your company. |
| Where it lives | A safe or a locked cabinet. It is not plugged in day to day. |
| When it is used | Replacing a key, leaving Kabaido or the next implementation, which updates it. |
| If it is lost | Nothing stops: your engine runs in your workspace and your owners ask for a new key. |
Repeated wrong PINs erase the drive by design. The recovery sheet and the copy in your workspace are what make a loss harmless, so keep the sheet apart from the drive.
What you can take away
Your source data as you supplied it, your own records (quotes, orders, designs as documents, customers and stock) and the sealed engine file. The sealed file opens only inside Kabaido: the way your data was restructured and fitted is Kabaido's method and stays with Kabaido.
Related
- Kabaido Cloud and Private CloudKabaido runs on Kabaido Cloud by default; Private Cloud keeps your database, files and sign in in your own account, in your region.
- How an implementation runsAn implementation runs in five steps, from a walkthrough on a live workspace to a handover with your people and your Claude connected.
- Design EngineerDesign Engineer turns a custom enquiry into a configured, priced and drawn tool.