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HiCAD – From steel beams to complex constructions
With HiCAD you can realise simple or complex steel engineering projects rapidly and easily by means of state-of-the-art CAD functions and technologies – no matter whether complex steel engineering structures, customized glazing constructions, plant buildings or bridge constructions are required. Industry-specific functions, practice-oriented technologies and a high degree of automation shorten the lead times and increase the quality of your products. Some examples are the expert system for beams and profiles, intelligent joints and connections, the automatic creation of production-relevant documents, the staircase and railing generators or the drawing management.
And thanks to its modular structure, even all-round users such as metalworking shops or companies dealing with craftwork, metal and precision engineering, can realise all of their projects with only one, central system. Whether staircases, metal grids, balconies, customized porches, forged parts or other metal parts are required – HiCAD can perform all these tasks effortlessly.
The need to meet tight deadlines and promptly react to customer wishes has made a safe and easy management of parts, models and drawings increasingly difficult. Here, the Document and Drawing Management in Civil Engineering (Management + BIM) is of great help: When you save your model, all parts and assemblies will be transferred to the professional data and process management of our PDM system HELiOS with its central project data base. In this way, a company-wide access to constantly updated model data, drawings and bills of materials is ensured. The detection of parts without drawings, automatic updating of drawings, indexing mechanisms and configurable, graphic release workflows provide you with additional safety for the handling of your projects – whether in small companies or large, globally operating enterprises.
Required for Document and Drawing Management in Civil Engineering (Management + BIM) is HELiOS Engineer in conjunction with
- HiCAD Steel Engineering package or HiCAD Steel Engineering module,
- HiCAD Metal Engineering module,
- HiCAD Sheet Metal professional module,
- HiCAD Sheet Metal Suite or Suite Premium,
- HiCAD Steel Engieering Suite or Suite Premium,
- HiCAD Metal Engineering Suite or Suite Premium,
- HiCAD Mechanical Engineering Suite Premium or
- HiCAD Education edition or HiCAD Trainee Suite.
Read more about the process chain in civil engineering / BIM
The highlights
- Special Steel Engineering and Sheet Metal functions
- Integrated professional sheet metal processing system
- Stairs configurator
- Railing configurator
- Expert system for beams and profiles
- Perfect visualisation
- Parametric and non-parametric designing
- Automatic creation of production documents
- Cross-sectoral approach
- Drawing Management
- Easy and intuitive operation
HiCAD – the CAD solution for steel engineering

No matter whether complex steel engineering structures or customized glazing constructions are required – with HiCAD you will always be on the safe side.
- Steel engineering support structures can be created in a very short time, aided by an integrated expert system providing thousands of standard parts, beams and profiles.
- Intelligent joints and connections can be modified at any time and, in contrast to most other functions of this type, even automatically adjusted to changed fitting situations.
- You can add stairs and railings using the corresponding tools, or insert glass and wall elements or other 3-D objects into your steel engineering beam frameworks. You use powerful automatisms for the creation of production, assembling and order documents.
- Workshop drawings and detail drawings can be created at the push of a button – individually configured if desired.
- Forward your data to the purchasing and production department. Standard formats such as DXF, DWG or STEP, direct interfaces to market-relevant systems, the SDNF and IFC interface as well as current NC export formats enable an error-free, smooth data exchange with CAD, structural calculation and production systems.
HiCAD – CAD suites and extension modules for steel engineering

For your steel engineering tasks you can choose between two configuration levels of HiCAD:
- HiCAD Steel Engineering suite
(3-D, Sheet Metal basic, Steel Engineering, Stairs + Railings) - HiCAD Steel Engineering suite premium
(2-D, 3-D, Sheet Metal basic, Steel Engineering, Stairs + Railings)
Combined with HELiOS Engineer the suites can be turned into powerful solutions for a professional data and process management in civil engineering. Use the functions of the Management + BIM module for Steel Engineering drawing management to directly store parts and drawings in the data and process management environment of our PDM system HELiOS with its central project database upon saving of your model drawing. In this way it is ensured that you will have always access to the most recent design data, drawings and bills of materials in your company. The possibility to recognize parts without drawing and to automatically update drawings, as well as index mechanisms and configurable, graphical release workflows provide you with additional safety during the realisation of your projects.
If you are frequently dealing with cross-sectoral projects, you should also take a look at our solutions for glass, metal and facade engineering, mechanical engineering, plant engineering and sheet metal processing. Thanks to its modular structure, HiCAD can be customised and expanded to perfectly match your individual requirements, for instance, by our HELiOS PDM/PLM modules and our HiCAD extension modules. If you require further information, please feel free to contact us.
HiCAD – CAD suites for Steel Engineering |
Package |
Suite |
Suite |
Basic functions |
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2-D drawing functions |
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3-D modelling |
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3-D fasteners |
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Steel Engineering |
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Stairs & Railings |
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Sheet Metal basic |
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Report Manager professional |
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Simulations |
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Plot Manager |
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Drawing derivation, i.e. |
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Document and Drawing Management for Civil Engineering (BIM) * |
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*only in conjunction with HELiOS Engineer
Version: HiCAD 2018
HiCAD Steel Engineering – An example from practice

Prebeck GmbH - Industry: Steel Engineering
The German company Prebeck Stahlbau GmbH specialises in the realisation of complex, individual requirements of its customers. Its range of services covers virtually all areas of steel engineering: Structural steelwork, metalwork, textile and membrane design, plant engineering. During all projects, which can range from the functional to the spectacular, the focus is on the development of a tailor-made and sustainable solution. During the start-up phase, the unique 2-D/3-D associativity also proved very helpful, as it enabled a lossless re-use and further processing of existing 2-D drawings, and even allowed a combined utilisation of 2-D and 3-D elements in one model. These extraordinarily flexible design techniques can also be applied to subsequent changes. Thanks to a free choice between parametric and non-parametric modelling, subsequent corrections to the model can be realised rapidly and easily.
Florian Prebeck, CEO of Prebeck GmbH: “HiCAD enables an effortless handling of beams and connections, which is even further facilitated by an extensive, easily expandable beam and standard parts library”