Review and release engineering docs on your own infrastructure

Generic document tools were not built for engineering review or for sensitive infrastructure

The issue is not lack of process rigor. It is that the tooling was built for ordinary office documents and ordinary cloud delivery, neither of which fits regulated engineering work.

Files are flattened or rasterized through engines that lose detail at the resolution engineering reviewers actually need. Markup tools have no concept of measurement, layer toggling, or precise callouts on a drawing element. Workflows are modeled as linear queues with a single sign-off, not parallel multi-discipline review with conflict resolution. Electronic signatures are bolted on after the decision rather than captured at the moment of decision. Audit trails are assembled from email, comments, and version metadata. Internal markup leaks to contractors because there is no native way to control which audience sees which feedback. And almost none of these tools can be run inside the customer's network at all, let alone in a multi-environment topology with the customer's identity provider in front.

The result is a system where critical work slows down, not because of the mission, but because of the process.

Engineering review, decision-driven release, on infrastructure you control

Aproove brings the entire engineering review and release lifecycle into one structured system, with the markup precision the documents require, a workflow engine designed for multi-gate engineering approvals, and a deployment model that fits regulated infrastructure. We offer workflow management software with compliance tracking suited for the rigor of your real processes.

Built for engineering review at scale

Genuine Adobe rendering for technical PDFs. Aproove renders every proof using the Adobe PDF Library (APDFL), the same Adobe technology that powers Acrobat. CAD-derived PDFs, technical reports, calculation packages, and form-driven documents render exactly as they look in Acrobat on the desktop. There is no second engine to disagree with the first.

Native handling of engineering file formats. PDF (including very large multi-page documents), AutoCAD DWG and DXF with layer awareness, TIFF (including 1-bit), PSD, EPS variants, and the full range of image formats engineers actually receive. Layered files can be reviewed layer by layer with reference, title block, and overlay layers toggled independently.

Massive document handling. Documents running into the tens of thousands of pages are processed for review with deep zoom tile generation, configurable per-job DPI (up to 384 DPI for large drawings), and uniform-resolution mode for mixed-size sets. Reviewers can drill into a single dimension on a single sheet without losing the project context.

Markup precision the work demands. Reviewers can measure elements with configurable units, draw freehand or fixed-box markup on specific drawing details, use the eyedropper to read color and property values in the file's color space, and pull text directly out of the document with the Text Extraction tool, which returns reviewer edits color-coded (red for deletions, green for insertions) so the originator gets unambiguous direction.

Pixel-level change detection. Side-by-side compare across any two versions or any two documents, with synced zoom and pan, ghosted change highlighting, and pixel-level diff that catches single-character changes in specifications and calculations. Smart change detection means new versions are only created when content actually changed, eliminating noise between rounds.

Submittal patterns out of the box. Aproove natively supports the submittal-style review patterns engineering organizations already run: round-tripping documents between originator, checker, and reviewer, with revision control, naming-convention-driven versioning, and master-template comparison built in.

Decision-driven release workflow

Decisions route the work, not the other way around. Each task in an Aproove workflow has decision buttons that determine what happens next. "Accepted" sends the document forward, "Returned for correction" goes back to the originator, "Forward to safety" branches to the safety analyst, "Hold for classification review" pulls in the classification reviewer, "Approved for release" triggers the final release action. Workflows can be linear, parallel, branching, conditional, or circular. The same decision can also fire one of more than 40 automated actions: notify a downstream system, generate a release record, kick off a related project, update metadata, or hand off to your ECM.

Parallel multi-discipline review without ambiguity. Engineer of record, independent checker, discipline reviewers, safety, and classification can all review the same document at the same time. Aproove tracks each reviewer's decision separately. When decisions conflict, Aproove routes a conflict task to a designated conflict manager, who can override, extend the deadline, take the decision, or return the work. Conflict managers can be assigned dynamically based on metadata so the right authority resolves the right document.

Annotation Flow Management for separated audiences. Aproove's Annotation Flow Management (AFM) gives granular control over which user groups see which markup within a single review step. Internal review comments stay invisible to external contractors until elevated by a manager. Classification reviewer commentary stays scoped to the classification review group. Group managers move markup up or down the hierarchy as the review matures. AFM is unique to Aproove and is built specifically for the layered-audience reality of regulated review.

Electronic signatures captured at the moment of decision. Configure any task decision to require re-authenticated email and password confirmation at the moment the reviewer signs off. Add two-factor authentication via PIN code where the regulatory bar requires it. Identity enforcement prevents tasks from being forwarded to a different user. The signature is bound to the specific decision, the specific user, and the specific timestamp.

Audit trail captured live, exportable on demand. Every user action and every system action is logged with timestamps in the project history, exportable as CSV. The Export PDF function combines the document, every annotation, every comment, and the workflow history into a single submission-ready packet. Project history persists in the admin even after a project is closed or deleted, so the record outlives the project itself.

Built for exceptions and external collaboration. Project managers send Instant Share tasks ad hoc when an unanticipated reviewer (legal, security, an external SME) needs to be brought in, without modifying the running workflow. Team tasks let any qualified group member claim a task. External contractors can be brought in through controlled-permission tasks or through a separate portal with team-restricted access.

Deployed where you need it, authenticated by your IDP

On infrastructure you control. Aproove can be deployed as managed cloud, on-premise inside your data center, or self-hosted in your own cloud tenant. National labs and federal engineering organizations typically run Aproove behind their network boundary, on customer-managed infrastructure, in a multi-environment topology (development, QA, and production all on customer hardware) so platform changes can be vetted before they reach the production users.

Authentication you manage end to end. Aproove supports SAML 2.0 SSO and integrates with the identity provider you already run, including PIV and CAC environments where the smart-card authentication is handled by your IDP. Mixed authentication is supported, so internal SSO users and external contractor accounts can coexist on the same backend without compromising either model. Identity enforcement on tasks ensures that tasks cannot be forwarded to a different user even after the SSO assertion.

Multi-portal architecture for audience separation. Aproove supports multiple login portals against a single backend, with team-key restrictions limiting each portal to its intended audience. Internal employees authenticate through your enterprise IDP, while a separate contractor portal can run with credential-based authentication, all routing into the same workflow and audit trail.

Platform security posture. ISO 27001 certified. SOC 2 attested. GDPR data processor. HIPAA-compliant infrastructure. Tenant-isolated hosting for managed-cloud customers, customer-isolated infrastructure for on-premise and self-hosted. Encryption at rest and in transit. Role-based access control at every level (system, project, task, schema, step).

From fragmented systems to coordinated control

With Aproove, you get more granular control than typical compliance workflow software offers. Engineering organizations move from disconnected workflows to a single coordinated system that fits both the documents and the infrastructure. 

Documents stop bouncing between Word, ECM, email, and standalone markup tools. Creation, review, collaboration, signature, and release happen in one environment that respects the markup precision and decision rigor the work requires. Reviews stop running in sequence and start running in parallel under defined conflict resolution. Manual routing is replaced with decision-driven automation. Markup visibility is controlled by group, not by hope. Electronic signatures are captured at the moment of decision, not reconstructed. The audit trail builds itself.

And the platform runs where your sensitive engineering content already lives, with the authentication and infrastructure controls your security organization already enforces.

The result is a process that matches the scale and complexity of mission-critical engineering work, without forcing a compromise on the infrastructure boundary.

Mission integrity depends on process integrity

In federal and research environments, delays and errors do not just impact efficiency. They affect outcomes. A drawing released without the correct checker signature can stop a procurement. A safety analysis with an undocumented review comment can fail an inspection. A classification review that was performed but never recorded can compromise a release. A wrong revision routed to fabrication can mean rework on the floor.

Aproove government document management software ensures that engineering review supports the mission rather than slows it down. Every reviewer decision is signed and traceable. Every markup is preserved in context. Every release reaches the field with its review record already complete. Teams gain speed without losing the rigor the mission requires.

The result is a system that scales with engineering complexity while maintaining the highest standards of security, traceability, and operational integrity.