Customer Success Stories > Mechanical Contracters, Inc

CADPIPE HVAC Has a Loyal Fan in Mechanical Contractors, Inc.

Mechanical Contractors, Inc., in Charlotte, North Carolina, has been using CADPIPE’s HVAC and Commercial Pipe software for over ten years. Bob Gudger, CET Systems Engineer for Mechanical Contractors, Inc., says CADPIPE has helped them consistently “finish projects on budget and ahead of schedule.” In the ten years that Mr. Gudger has been using CADPIPE software, he has not been disappointed with the product.

A major plus is CADPIPE's seamless integration with AutoCAD, its simplicity, and ease of use. “An AutoCAD user should be able to be productive in one day of training…the learning curve is very short,” says Mr. Gudger. In fact, CADPIPE is so user-friendly and easy to learn, that “in ten years, I have had only a handful of questions. I still have one of the older systems running with no problems.”

When there is confusion, however, Mr. Gudger knows he can depend on CADPIPE’s exceptional technical support. “[The technical support staff] has always been very responsive to any questions I have had. My questions have been answered in anywhere from instantly to one or two days. [They] have gone out of their way to provide the type of customer support that is hard to find,” he says.

He adds that, “we easily modified the HVAC database to match the shop standards that we have been using for 50 years.” This has saved Mechanical Contractors, Inc., countless preparation and retraining hours.

One CADPIPE feature that Mr. Gudger considers invaluable is Collision Checking. He says, “it allows designers to see conflicts as the duct is being drawn, instead of having to visualize the conflicts in their minds”—an invaluable time-saver for anyone who works under deadlines.

He adds that “the 3D duct can show an engineer where and why his design needs to be modified...we can request change orders in time so the [work] schedule is not affected. The use of 3D structural members and duct allows us to see [potential] problems.”

CADPIPE HVAC allows for “drop cheek” fittings, a desirable feature for Mr. Gudger. “‘Drop cheek’ means that the elevation of the duct changes in the fitting. This allows for one-drop cheek elbow to take the place of one standard elbow & one transition or offset. Not only are the sheetmetal & fabrication costs reduced, but the labor cost is reduced by not having multiple fittings to install.”

Mr. Gudger is a delighted CADPIPE customer: “[CADPIPE] has always exceeded our expectations by offering detailed information and reports that we can use to compare with the shop and estimating data.”