NichadaThani Group of Companies, a major development group in Thailand, uses special Interlocking Bricks (IB) for the construction of its residential houses. The interlocking block walls are constructed by using a dry-joint method and the overall construction of a typical house is carried out in twelve processes. Previously, the design was carried out using a combination of ordinary CAD and manual calculations. The main work involved the determination of block layout, calculation of quantities and preparation of construction drawings. In October 2010, NichadaThani invited AIT Consulting to develop comprehensive software to automatically design the homes, incorporating various design and construction processes. The work on the development of the software is underway and is expected to be completed in one year. The software is called NichadaCAD and contains four modules:
- NCCAD
- NC Structures
- NCBricks
- Object and Shape Builder
Further development of the software will include more 3D supports for animation, texture and 3D editing, more auto drawing and auto design support for structural members and bricks, easier editing tools in property grids and in toolbars, as well as a cleaner and better interface for the user
