HiCAD: the CAD system for roof and facade technology

There are a many CAD-systems on the market, but most of them focus mainly on the construction and a nice overall picture for the client. Reinier Huizing from ‘Metaalbouw TSV’ in Nieuw-Buinen, The Netherlands: “There is actually only one CAD system that stands out for roof and facade technology, and that is HiCAD. Thanks to the different modules, we are able to design and control our production process in one solution. You can’t do that with any other CAD-system.”

‘Metaalbouw TSV’ specialises in the design, manufacture and assembly of roof and facade cladding in aluminium, steel and composite. "We take care of everything in-house from the start to end, whether or not via subsidiaries such as Sheet metal supplier ‘Drentse Poort’ to carry out additional typesetting, punching and milling work," explains Huizing. “It is our philosophy to relieve our clients of all their worries. Three years ago, we started concentrating on 3D drawing and trough others we ended up at ISD, supplier of HiCAD. We have tried many CAD systems, but HiCAD is the only solutions that really caters for the needs in roof and wall technology."

Roof and wall module

TSV has started using the roof and wall module of HiCAD. Huizing: “We used to draw everything in 2D and all the sheet material for a building was calculated manually. This was then transferred to an Excel sheet and send to our sheet supplier ‘SAB Profiel’. They then copied all of the information manually into their own systems. In short, it was a rather laborious process with a considerable risk of errors. Together with ISD, we wrote a script that enables us to generate a CSV file in HiCAD directly from the 3D design with one push of a button. This contains all the details: lengths, package layout, everything. The file is uploaded into our record supplier’s system without any manual input. That improves efficiency and considerably and reduces the risk of errors.

Modules

Huizing acknowledges that TSV, mostly in the first year, had to deal with starting issues. “We all where used to drawing in 2D. It is a matter of stepping out of your comfort zone and put old habits aside for a while. Once you get used to it, of course it is wonderful. HiCAD takes a lot of calculation work off our hands. HiCAD takes a lot of calculation work off our hands. We have time to drink coffee again," he laughs. "On our recommendation, ISD also supplemented the library with product features from the larger supplier in the roof and wall cladding sector. We also use other standard modules in HiCAD, such as the module for Alucobond and the Sheet Metal features. All modules for the facade are interwoven and communicate perfectly with each other."

Thanks to the different modules, we can both design and design and
control the production process in a single solution.

According to Huizing, the cooperation with ISD is extremely pleasant. "Especially in the beginning we had a lot of contact with them. It was great that we could always rely on a fixed point of contact, Arjen Klein in our case. He made sure that things that we missed were eventually included in the software. This is a great advantage of HiCAD in comparison to other CAD software, which is often rather rigid. ISD is really open to feedback. In the meantime, we have delivered many beautiful projects in HiCAD, such as the Triade innovation centre in Groningen, but ‘De Woldring’ location and the ‘Black Box’ are also real eye-catchers that were engineered in HiCAD." Download the pdf-version here