Why New Home Inc. Chose Higharc

New Home Inc., a North Carolina-based builder producing over 150+ homes annually, needed a smarter way to run its operations. As demand for personalization grew and product complexity increased, their CAD and redline workflows became a limiting factor. 

“We were doing redlines on every start, X-ing out pages, referencing other sheets. It was easier to mess up than get it right.” — Dallas Poulk, Division President 

The issues weren’t limited to internal inefficiencies:

• Trades were frustrated by hard-to-read, error-prone plan sets.
• Option complexity was increasing as customers demanded personalization.
• The CAD team was stretched thin, redrawing every option permutation by hand.‍
• Plan maintenance was a bottleneck, slowing down new product rollout.

If New Home Inc. could digitize its plan library using Higharc, they believed they could:

• Speed up plan creation and reduce cycle times
• Cut down on errors and RFIs in the field
• Empower the team to rapidly test and deploy new plan configurations
• Improve collaboration across construction, design, and sales

1. Centralized, Lot-Specific Plan Generation

Higharc became the single source of truth for plans, eliminating the need to duplicate work in CAD or PDF.

“There’s no more making house plan edits in CAD. Everything is in Higharc now. If a wall needs to move, we change it once.” — Dallas Poulk, Division President 

Instead of maintaining dozens of option variants across multiple files, New Home Inc. now configures everything in Higharc. This enabled them to begin creating lot-specific plans:

“Our first lot-specific plan came out, and I was like, where's the rest? It was 12 pages. Totally clean. No Xs, no cross-referencing.” — Dallas Poulk, Division President 

2. Efficient Option Management

Higharc’s flexibility allowed them to easily build and visualize new options, crucial for a builder that thrives on personalization.

“We created a four-car garage option in 10 minutes with a 3D rendering. That used to be a day of CAD work.” –  Dallas Poulk, Division President 

3. Accessible Tools for Non-Drafters

Drew DiMeo, who joined New Home Inc. straight out of college with no CAD or Revit experience, quickly became the internal lead for Higharc implementation.

“It felt more like a video game than drafting software. I sat there for six hours and figured out most of it on my own.” — Drew DiMeo, Plan Development Specialist

His background in management information systems gave him the comfort to navigate software, and Higharc’s intuitive interface allowed him to:

• Create and edit plan options
• Generate construction documents
• Coordinate lot-specific plans with engineering

“You can teach it to anybody. You don’t need CAD certification. Just jump in and you’ll get it.” — Drew DiMeo, Plan Development Specialist

4. Real-Time Collaboration

The Higharc model enables instant plan updates in design meetings.

“We have Higharc up on the main screen during plan reviews. Somebody says flip this door swing? Boom, it’s done. So, we don’t have to CAD it later.” — Drew DiMeo, Plan Development Specialist

This immediacy transformed meetings from decision logs into design sessions, saving hours of back-and-forth and enabling faster plan maintenance.

5. Agility for Land and Product Development

Higharc enables New Home Inc. to act quickly on land opportunities, something it couldn’t do before. If a potential site requires a product it doesn’t yet offer, the team doesn’t have to walk away.

“Now I can go into Higharc, rough out three new plans in a month, and say yes to land deals we would’ve had to pass on.” — Dallas Poulk, Division President

Instead of relying on months-long cycles to create new floor plans and elevations, Dallas and his team can now prototype concepts rapidly, visualize them in 3D, and assess feasibility internally. This not only improves speed to market but also gives New Home Inc. a competitive edge in responding to municipal, developer, or investor needs.

“We can say yes more often now. That changes how we approach growth.” — Dallas Poulk, Division President

Redlines Eliminated: 

Shift to lot-specific plans dramatically improved clarity and reduced plan length from 30+ to 12 pages.

Time Savings Across Roles: 

Contractors no longer waste time deciphering complex plans. Engineers get cleaner files, and the CAD team is freed from repetitive plan maintenance.

Accelerated Option Development: 

Previously, adding or editing an option meant weeks of back-and-forth with CAD, including multiple file updates for every plan, elevation, and garage hand. That overhead is gone.

“You had to wait five weeks to get an option back in CAD. Now it’s 30 minutes to prototype in Higharc.” — Dallas Poulk, Division President

Cultural Shift: 

Higharc helped drive a broader cultural shift, away from patchwork processes and toward integrated, digital-first operations.

“It’s essentially like hiring another person. The return on investment comes from not having to hire more people to do things twice.” — Dallas Poulk, Division President