HiCAD 2008 - New in Steel Engineering

• Enhanced fitting options for beams and profiles
  Beams and profiles can now be rotated in web direction towards a specified point during fitting. 
• Workshop/Detail drawing
  The functionality for creation and changing of workshop drawings has been enhanced and improved significantly.
• Fitting of multi-part beams
  Even multi-part series beams can now be fitted in HiCAD. Examples for this are Double L-beams, welded profiles or box profiles.
• Enhanced staircase functionality
  From Version 2008 onwards, all fitted staircases will receive a staircase ID and the staircase data will be saved together with the drawing. This enables the user to apply subsequent changes to staircases with the Change staircase function. The dialogue windows are then pre-allocated with the data of the identified staircase.
• Enhanced glass fitting options
  The user has now the option to specify the default settings for Glass insertion. Furthermore, you can define new glass panes, e.g. your own combinations of glass cross-sections and save them to the Glasscheiben ISD (Glass panes ISD) catalogue.
• Attributes
  When inserting semi-finished products (Steel Engineering Beams, Plates, Gratings), values from the catalogue item will be assigned to some part attributes of the HiCAD part. (e.g. the "BZ" column will be assigned to the "Ref.No." part attribute). This process can be configured since Version 2008.
  
  In the catalogue tables you have the option to link a table column to a part attribute. When fitting a part from this table in HiCAD, the value of the linked column will then be assigned to the part. A user can, for instance, enter the article number and/or the supplier in a column, and the value will be assigned to a part attribute when fitting a part and can subsequently be used for part annotations or bills of materials. In the catalogue table (see Catalogue Editor) linked columns are identified by a link symbol in the column header. From version 1401.2 onwards, the "BZ" columns of tables for standard parts and semi-finished product are linked to the part attribute "$BB"; "CUSTOM1" columns are linked to the part attribute "CUSTOM1", and "CUSTOM2" columns are linked to the part attribute "CUSTOM2".
• Unicode
  Owing to the increasing internationalisation of the ISD Group, we have ensured Unicode-capability for our entire product range. This makes our software compatible with non-literal languages, such as Japanese, Chinese or Korean, and provides standards, catalogues and a user interface in East-Asian language. International catalogues are now available for beams, plates and gratings.
• FLUTZ Factory beam cross-sections
  Aluminium beam cross-sections according to DIN EN AW 6060 (FLUTZ) are now available in HiCAD. The new catalogue can be managed and processed via the Catalogue Editor.
  
• Part Type Catalogue
  Use the Part Type Catalogue functionality in the Design Aids menu to fit pre-defined assemblies such as foundations, roof elements, walls, insulations etc.

• Part dimensioning
  The 3-D dimensioning functionality - including the part dimensioning for Steel Engineering parts - has had a complete redesign. The result is a new data model for dimensioning, with consistent utilisation of TrueType text fonts for 3-D dimensions. It is also worth mentioning that the parameters for 3-D dimensions, HCM dimensions , parametric dimensions and Steel Engineering dimensions can now be defined independent from each other. For the editing of dimension figures, a new Annotation Editor is available to the user, enabling a quick and convenient allocation of tolerances, symbols auxiliary texts etc. to the dimension figure.
  When opening drawings from older HiCAD versions, the old dimensions can directly be converted.
• Bolting axes
  The colour for axes of boltings can now be chosen individually.
• Design Aids (now "Construction Aids")
  The 2 Plates and stiffener function is now realised via Design Variants and is no longer available in the Design Aids menu. Instead, select the significantly enhanced Girder connection beam to web wit 2 plates and stiffener (211) function in the Steel Engineering, Connections+Variants toolbar.
• Design Variants
  Various special Steel Engineering variants are available to the user via the Steel Engineering Connections+Variants toolbar. If the "Steel Engineering" licence is active, the Connections+Variants toolbar is automatically displayed together with the Steel Engineering toolbar. You activate the toolbar manually by selecting Modules > Steel Engineering Connections+Variants.
• Colour and Material
  You can now link the surface colour and edge colour of series beams, sketched beams and prototype beams to the material catalogue colours.