Artificial intelligence is no longer an insider secret in computer-aided 2D and 3D design. The goal of many software companies is to shorten development times, reduce material costs, and generate 3D models from text and images in the blink of an eye.
For many years now, the ISD Group has established itself as an industry leader in design tasks for civil engineering (steel and metal engineering, sheet metal processing and facade construction), as well as in plant engineering and special machine construction even without the use of artificial intelligence.
In doing so, the ISD Group sets the standard among its competitors with various automated HiCAD functions. These include, among others:
Through in-house software development and direct collaboration with design engineers, the ISD Group moves closely in tune with the market. Against this backdrop, the ISD Group analyzes where the use of AI can specifically further optimize its existing advanced system solutions. With the goal of maximizing customer value, the company makes its decisions deliberately in accordance with the following guideline:
“In what areas does the use of artificial intelligence actually offer added value for HiCAD customers?”
Advances in recent years have made the potential of AI to reduce the workload of design engineers increasingly tangible.
Today the ISD Group is already leveraging AI – and has big plans for it.
The Next Generation of Digital Engineering in HiCAD
Artificial intelligence plays a key role in the ISD Group’s software development process optimization:
“We want to use AI to drive the development of our established technologies, thereby enabling a growing output of high-quality functional improvements in HiCAD,” explains Dr. Ilijas Selimovic, Head of Product Management at ISD Software und Systeme GmbH. “At the same time, we are already working on AI-based HiCAD features with the goal of automating and scaling repetitive workflows – from attribute maintenance to rule-based neutral format generation – more efficiently.”
Looking ahead, the new AI-based chatbot “HiChat” is intended to lay a structured foundation for AI-supported engineering in HiCAD. The chatbot’s range of tasks is expected to extend from independent modeling of connections and assemblies to independent drawing detailing – depending on future advances in the development of artificial intelligence.
In future versions, an MCP (Model Context Protocol) interface will also enable external AI agents to control HiCAD. The ISD Group’s fundamental approach here is to view CAD not as a closed system, but as a “server” that AI agents can control. This is intended to generate cross-platform synergies that, for example, integrate CAD with ERP and the company’s work instructions.
The ISD Group is not merely accompanying the shift toward intelligent engineering – it is shaping it. Further steps will follow.
