Success Story: TopSolid by Structa

Success Story: TopSolid by Structa

20 Mar 2023 | Wood

Structa is a 6500 square-foot workshop situated in the heart of the Drôme region, specializing in custom-made furnishings. Since 1981, the company has dedicated its expertise to designing and manufacturing furniture tailored to its customers’ needs. In 2006, they integrated TopSolid’Wood software into its design process to optimize it.

In this interview, we talk with Christian Salomon, CEO of Structa, whom TOPSOLID proudly supports in his projects.

Structa core values: collaboration, transparency, and proximity

Structa is a layout company with around forty staff members, specialized in creating bespoke furniture and fittings for offices, residences, and hotels. The company’s philosophy centers around creative teamwork to best meet customer requirements. Projects are developed collaboratively with the customer from start to finish. Their latest innovation is the design of the Blabla-Cube, a self-contained acoustic pod, designed to create an ideal environment for quiet work.

 

Structa can boast of having strong values such as networked organization, transparency at all levels, and a commitment to local projects, all underpinned by over four decades of experience. Christian Salomon explains: “We are dedicated to use locally sourced materials. This principle extends to our software choices as well. TOPSOLID is an excellent example: it’s a French software company, based in the Rhône-Alpes region, aligning perfectly with our preference for collaborating with local businesses”.

Structa and CAD/CAM

From design to installation, Structa has consistently upheld its commitment to delivering quality work, leveraging the latest technological innovations in the industry. Since the purchase of its first license in 2006, members of the project and product design departments have been working with TopSolid’Wood software to optimize furniture design and assembly. Fifteen years later, the company, still under the guidance of Christophe Cutillas, a TopSolid’Wood business engineer, has not changed its mind. Christian Salomon cheerfully remarks: “We started with them, and we’re still with them today”.

TopSolid, an added value for Structa’s business

The TopSolid’Wood solution delivers substantial benefits to various Structa departments, from design to production.

Real-time updates for the design office

The members of the design office responsible for designing, cutting, and programming the machines, use TopSolid to manage the export of their projects. The associative solution guarantees that any modification to a project item automatically updates the associated data. “The advantage of TopSolid’Wood is that when you modify something on the original 3D model, our software’s associativity enables real-time alterations and updates in the project.” explains Thomas Levignac, Structa’s design manager. This will undoubtedly enhance the company’s productivity.

Time-saving and increased autonomy in production

The benefits of TopSolid are also visible on the production side. “By using TopSolid in the Production department, we are much more autonomous, we achieve significant time savings when searching for information since the software contains almost all the necessary data” testifies Pierre Vessely, the company’s assembly coordinator. TopSolid facilitates a strong connection between the design and production departments. For example, the software enables fitters to understand in detail the design of a product so that they can assemble it faster and independently.

A major advantage for recruitment

TopSolid also has a role to play in recruitment. “At Structa, we have a lot of apprentices and work-study students” explains Christophe Salomon. “TOPSOLID provides us with temporary licenses for them and more and more newcomers already know TopSolid. It is a huge time saver.”

The range of CAD, CAM, ERP and PDM TopSolid solutions

International development possibilities

Structa has been booming for several years and plans to expand internationally. This is what its CEO hopes: “We will probably set up industrial units abroad to get closer to our foreign customers.”

Structa will logically form a partnership with TOPSOLID to deploy these new industrial units. We look forward to contributing to this exciting project!

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How do you manage a large interior design project using a CAD/CAM software?

How do you manage a large interior design project using a CAD/CAM software?

3 Jul 2019 | CAD, CAD/CAM, Wood

Carrying out all the work involved in site layout is a part of the daily life of interior designers. As a decoration and finishing specialist, he is called upon to manage projects of all sizes and to work from interior design concepts and execution drawings. CAD/CAM software is a valuable ally for large and complex projects. Let’s find out why together.

What do we mean by a large-scale project?

 

An interior design project is said to be “large-scale” when it is complex, when the surfaces involved are large and when several sectors of activity are involved. In general, designing surfaces larger than 50 m² is considered to be a large-scale job.

Examples of large-scale interior design projects

Designing a complete Hotel is considered to be a large-scale project. A hotel is not only made up of rooms, but also of a lobby, a restaurant, a bar and corridors, which must be harmoniously arranged to form an aesthetic whole. The nautical industry is also strongly affected by large-scale interior design and mainly the luxury yacht market. There are even super-yachts over 150 meters long with several thousand square meters of living space including spas, swimming pools, libraries and a large amount of nesting furniture. The arrangement of such a complicated project is usually entrusted to companies specializing in luxury naval carpentry.

The need for collaborative work

Large-scale interior design projects, such as those mentioned above, require the use of different but complementary professions. Specialized people with valuable expertise will thus be brought together to work in a coordinated manner. But when it comes to collaborative work, you need the right tools. Like BIM (Building Information Modeling), which consists of having employees working on a digital model, a large-scale interior design project can rely on modern work tools such as CAD/CAM software.

 

TopSolid CAD/CAM Product Range

How can CAD/CAM be involved in a large-scale interior design project?

 

A CAD/CAM software allows you to design parts in 3D model (CAD), but also includes the manufacturing part (CAM). It is therefore essential for companies that manufacture furniture using numerical control machines based on drawings. However, some software, such as TopSolid, offers other features which are particularly suitable for interior design projects.

 

TopSolid’Wood software and work by areas

 

One of the significant features of TopSolid’Wood is that it allows the user to work in several workspaces or areas. The concept is as follows: from a master file, the user will be able to create several workspaces in which the interior design of each area will be created. Once the design of each area is completed, the user can then generate a final assembly from the files.

 

Advantages of the “master” file

 

Working with a master file is convenient. But its main advantage is probably the flexibility it provides by facilitating file update processes. In addition, the TopSolid’Wood master file provides an overview using a construction tree that provides access to all workspaces. This allows you to make changes in order to define spaces even more quickly. In addition, TopSolid’Wood allows you to create a master file from the CAD files from other software.

 

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