High time pressure in metalworking: work more efficiently with these CAD software features

Time pressure is very clearly a thing of the present day. Also - or perhaps especially - in the construction industry. With all the government's construction plans, the pressure of time will not diminish. CAD software can help with stress management. What are the main causes of time pressure and which functions can be used to reduce it?

Different kinds of time pressure

Customers want something delivered at a certain time and therefore put you, as a metal worker, under time pressure. Something that can further increase the time pressure is the way in which a client delivers a file. Is it necessary to redraw the file supplied or will you be sent a good 2D or 3D file? The latter affects how you can control your machines. Do you do that with 2D or 3D CAD files?

Does a customer provide the correct bending correction?

With metalworking, the devil is often in the details, something that makes the coordination between you and a client very important. What details are involved? Suppose that a customer has made a sheet metal drawing with a bending correction, then it is very doubtful whether the bending correction matches with what your machines can process. Aspects such as sheet thickness and material type are also important. There is a fairly good chance that your customer will provide a file that does not have the correct bending correction. In practice, this means that you will lose time entering the correct correction. It is a form of manual work that does not exactly contribute to reducing the already present time pressure.

The main elements that can cause delays when a customer submits a file are:

• An incomplete file or data with errors
• A file without proper bending corrections
• Converting a file to your own standards (extensions)
• Errors caused by manually transferring files

Nevertheless, there are good ways and means to reduce time pressure. In metalworking you work more efficiently with these CAD software functions from HiCAD:

• If a customer sends you a 2D result, you can easily convert it to a 3D result. Then you can place the settlements with the correct bending correction on top of it and create a 3D settlement. This is done automatically within HiCAD, after which you can continue working with your own standards.
  
  
• If a 3D step file is sent to you, this can easily be transferred to a sheet metal part and the result generated automatically. In addition, production drawings can be generated automatically.
  
  
• HiCAD helps you stand out. It offers draftsmen ease of use, but at least as important is the fact that you have many automated operations at your disposal. This makes you faster and reduces the time pressure.

Save time with CAD software

Good, comprehensive CAD programmes should help you as a draughtsman and metalworker to serve customers well. Even if these customers do not provide the files, or they provide them incorrectly or late. HiCAD is equipped with smart functions to help you with this. Moreover, you can be sure that you will be able to serve your clients well not only today, but also in ten years' time. Designs will probably be even more complex then, but even then you can guarantee the desired quality. One of the HiCAD users, for instance, benefits from the automatic generation of semi-finished drawings. This means that it is no longer necessary to go through the dimensions manually, which saves a lot of time.