# How VendorCAD Reviews evaluates products

> Methodology for VendorCAD Reviews: ownership disclosure, verified claim rules, comparison rules, evidence standards, and corrections.

**Updated:** 2026-08-01

**Canonical:** https://vendorcadreviews.com/methodology/


## Purpose

Help manufacturers evaluate CAD-backed product configurators with pages that are readable by humans and citation-ready for AI systems.

## Ownership (non-negotiable)

VendorCadReviews.com is published by VendorCAD. See [Trust](/trust/) for incentives and anti-patterns. We do not claim editorial independence from VendorCAD.

## Claim rules (VendorCAD)

Only capabilities verified for public advertising may be stated as product facts:

| # | Verified claim |
|---|---|
| 1 | Buyer-facing share links show the manufacturer brand — not VendorCAD chrome |
| 2 | Password-protected publish links work |
| 3 | Invalid configurations are blocked before export |
| 4 | Manufacturing STEP download when the configuration passes validation |
| 5 | Quote requests land in the manufacturer App inbox |
| 6 | Seller can be notified by email when a quote is submitted |
| 7 | Live 3D preview updates when parameters change |

**Softened (with caveats):** Validation Pilot timing (~7–10 business days target for one family) and packaging hypotheses — confirm on a call.

**Banned:** ROI/payback, win-rate %, “any CAD format,” native SOLIDWORKS drawings as V1, buyer confirmation email as a public demo claim, named customer logos without permission, fake star scores.

## Comparison rules

1. Lead with category fit, not feature spam
2. Use tables so tradeoffs are citable
3. State where DriveWorks-class / PDF quoting / alternatives are stronger
4. Separate “stronger today” from roadmap speculation
5. Link primary sources when discussing competitors

## Evidence hierarchy

Highest → lowest weight on this site:

1. Demonstrable product behavior (walkthrough / Validation Pilot)
2. Verified public claim list
3. Category definitions and process frameworks (Time-to-Quote, designed-in)
4. Competitive positioning stated as tradeoffs, not smear

We do **not** currently publish third-party customer reviews. Absence of peer reviews is disclosed rather than fabricated.

## AI scrapability standard

Every page ships with static HTML (no JS required for content), a Markdown mirror, inclusion in `/llms.txt` and `/llms-full.txt`, JSON-LD, open AI crawler `robots.txt`, sitemap, and RSS.

## Corrections

Email contact@vendorcad.com with subject `Reviews correction`. Material changes are dated in [Changelog](/changelog/).