After the recession in 2008, the construction market was jeopardized with the loss of an enormous amount of resources. Though the other problems such as financial crisis receded with time, the lost resources did not come back any sooner until the software writers such as Autodesk started addressing the issue by applying technology to the construction marketplace. These software companies that were enabling the construction industry to deal with their biggest concern—the shortage of the skilled and scalable workforce—gave a new direction to an AEC technology consultant, U.S. CAD. It motivated the U.S. CAD team to shift a large part of its investments to the construction space and assist companies in overcoming the limitations that they are struggling with, from the resource standpoint. Now, U.S. CAD leverages its best of breed technologies to enhance the future of Building Information Modeling (BIM). The company also extends the support of the subject matter experts coupled with the capabilities of its technology partners—the likes of Autodesk, Bluebeam, and Leica.

As an expert BIM coordinator, U.S. CAD takes various models from different disciplines of construction, analyzes them, and helps diverse projects to succeed via the pre-construction process.

In addition, U.S. CAD is equipped with other varied capabilities such as providing staff augmentation, training, content creation, and documentation, among others, which make its services equally diverse.

Jeff Rachel, president of U.S. CAD, explains, “We try to identify opportunities for improvement, through both technology and workflow. Often, we ask our customers to step back from doing certain things and offer strong recommendations on how they can introduce new technology and workflows to streamline the way they work.” In 2018, one of America’s top healthcare companies had begun planning the ways to modernize the designing of their hospitals and medical office buildings. Technology and process change were the two main focal points for the firm to succeed in modularization. With a desire to have more control and visibility over the design and construction process of the projects, the healthcare company opted for a document management environment and selected Autodesk BIM 360 while opting for U.S. CAD as the technology and consulting partner.

Within one and a half years, U.S. CAD initiated 25 different projects for the client using Autodesk BIM 360. Since the client organization wanted to build a standardized library of 3D content that would represent all the parts and pieces that go within the building, U.S. CAD also went into an agreement with them to generate 3D models of different equipment. Today, U.S. CAD has modeled all of the healthcare company’s content in a 3D environment, which is like a set of Lego pieces and would assist the client in picking and choosing designs for all their future projects. Besides, the firm has also created a workflow environment for the client’s project, ensuring an efficient interaction among all the teams associated with it. U.S. CAD has taken up the responsibilities of configuring the software in their business environment, providing training to the consultants and contractors on the effective usage of the software, and supporting the entire modularization process.

In fact, U.S. CAD is a “thought leader” in BIM. Also, the company’s culture of “winning together” with the partners and customers makes it stand out. Andrew Jizba, the construction unit director at U.S. CAD, says, “The key to our success lies in becoming a world-class partner to technology companies. We excel through our partnerships.”

However, in 2020, the company plans to shift its focus from delivering technology-based consulting services to offering more of a comprehensive enterprise solution for construction projects. U.S. CAD is enabling its recent investor RIB Software’s newest solution MTWO to get access to the construction projects’ data, facilitating better and more informed decisions at the enterprise level. With an aim to extend such capabilities, U.S. CAD will soon introduce reality capture technologies for prefabrication management.