With rapidly rising material prices and wages, every company is looking at how it can save on, yes, costs. So are facade builders. One reassurance is that most facade builder companies have opportunities to make cost savings with CAD software. We've gathered the most important tips for you.
CAD software can help save costs in facade builders in a number of ways. We have highlighted four of them, but this is just a selection from a whole list of benefits that (3D) CAD systems in particular offer.
Construction is known for its many changes, both during design and construction. If a window frame needs to be slightly more to the left or to the right, you adjust the drawing in AutoCAD, don't you? Chances are that there is no link between the different drawings, so you have to adjust each drawing manually, at the risk of making a mistake. But once done, you were really done. Unfortunately, this is no longer the case, thanks to the entry of BIM. This also means more chances that you will have to adjust something at a later date. For these two reasons, it makes sense to switch to 3D CAD. Not only is this the basis for those who want to work with BIM, it also puts a stop to all manually performed adjustments and associated costs. In 3D CAD, drawings are linked. The software automatically incorporates adjustments in one drawing into another.
Revit is suitable for modelling, but not for engineering production documents. This effectively means that you have to work in both 2D and 3D software and therefore make a lot of adjustments manually. If you choose HiCAD, you automatically look at the model supplied according to BIM. You also see immediately where the cut-outs are. In addition, you simply connect to LogiKal, which establishes a connection with the calculation. HiCAD software allows you to automatically control production, while benefiting from automatically generated bills of materials and drawings. This saves time and therefore costs, but above all makes it much easier to create special designs.
This tip ties in well with tip 2. Many facade builder elements are conceived and designed in Revit. Think cladding, aluminium parts, composite, cassettes or roof and wall parts. That worked fine for a long time, but those seriously looking to save money will also have to opt for more modern software. Suppose you receive a 2D or 3D model from a designer. If a grid distribution is known in HiCAD, you can easily have panels placed. If you don't have HiCAD at your disposal, you are forced to draw the design sheet by sheet and make a result for production. That is monk's work and certainly not something the younger generation is waiting for. With attractive software, you thus make finding staff easier and thus cheaper.
Entrepreneurs in the facade branche - like a lot of other organisations - lack good staff. If employees are available at all, the question is how much experience they have. This increases the pressure to work smarter and more automated, because investing in modern CAD software is easier to achieve than finding and retaining staff. Is that employee from a non-Dutch-speaking country? No problem, HiCAD is available in several languages.
Although the pressure on facade builders is increasing to work faster and better ánd to create increasingly complex designs, there are limits to what entrepreneurs can do. Yet it is possible to put a positive spin on this. An investment in smart, modern 3D CAD software allows you to work more effectively, thus serving your customers better, even if you are short of staff. Want to learn about our smart CAD software? In this handy 10-minute demo video, we show you how HiCAD also helps your business grow.
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