Integrated CAD/CAM At Its Best 

2006 has been a very good year for Missler Software. With a growth of 9.5% on the French market and 14% on the international market the company is in better form than ever before. The main champions of this growth were TopSolid'Cam, TopSolid'Wood and TopSolid'WoodCam. The rest of the TopSolid and GOelan product lines grew steadily throughout 2006.

TopSolid'Cam has had significant success in large accounts such as KBA (see article below), Aircelle (part of the Safran group in France), Liebherr France (one of the world's leading manufacturers of construction machinery) … Important TopSolid'Wood references from 2006 include such companies as Dumeste (France's largest manufacturer of sofas).

Software development is a key issue for Missler Software. One third of the company's staff develop the entire TopSolid and GOelan product lines in France. In order to make 2007 another successful year the company will continue to invest heavily in its product research and development.

The Koenig and Bauer Group (KBA) chose TopSolid'Cam as its CAM software in May 2006 after a lengthy and demanding selection process. Missler Software's TopSolid'Cam solution will be implemented in all KBA sites and complete use of the system is planned over the coming 3 years. The Koening and Bauer Group is one of the largest press manufacturers worldwide and has the broadest press range in the industry. 

The contract signed between Missler Software and KBA is for a total of 56 TopSolid'Cam licences which will be implemented in 3 German sites (Würzburg, Frankenthal, Radebeul) and one Austrian site (Mödling). In addition, Missler Software and resellers will provide training, maintenance and advice together with approximately 100 post-processors for the group's impressive range of machines.

In order to satisfy the group's needs Missler Software coordinates the KBA project with 3 of its experienced resellers NCDATA (Switzerland), Moldtech GmbH (Germany) and Comdata (Austria). The qualitative and local support from Missler Software's resellers was, in fact, a key factor in the company's choice of TopSolid'Cam.

According to Dominique Laffret, Vice-President of Strategic Relationships at Missler Software: « Our strong expertise in the programming of multi-function machines used in the 4 KBA sites helped us convince KBA that TopSolid'Cam was the best solution for the Group. Our German-speaking resellers as well as our internal CAM development team are at KBA's disposition to ensure the best support and service possible. This includes carrying out certain adaptations and specific add-ons requested by KBA to integrate the group's work processes and to ensure a successful transfer of 3D CAD data and the transfer of geometrical data. »

Dr. Andreas Göttker, Machining/Foundry Manager and key decider in the choice of TopSolid'Cam adds « TopSolid'Cam's multi-function capabilities are very important for KBA. The integrated milling and turning functions in 2-5 axis, the software's intuitive nature and the software's advanced simulation functions convinced our internal operators. Another important point, related more to Missler Software than to its software, was the company's flexibility. Missler Software accepted a commercial contract in which the company engages itself to defined actions and shares in the risk undertaken. Managing this project with Missler Software has been much easier than in our past experience with other editors.»

Missler Software will present its integrated CAD/CAM solution for the wood industry, TopSolid'Wood, at Ligna in Hannover , 14-18 May, Hall 17 Stand H21.

TopSolid'Wood is an integrated design, manufacturing and management (CAD/CAM/PDM) software specialized for wood processing. TopSolid'Wood comprises comprehensive standard components and processes specific to the wood industry. With TopSolid'Wood design and manufacturing departments use the same data, thus avoiding potential errors. TopSolid'Wood offers powerful modelling functions, optimised assembly management and facilitated communication with customers and manufacturing.

TopSolid'Wood 2007 boasts significant improvements to increase productivity in wood design and manufacturing. Here are the major enhancements of the 2007 version:

• The 2007 laminate function was totally rebuilt. This improved function now allows the operator to choose associativity between the base and the laminate. In other words the operator can drill the base and the laminate at the same time and thereby save valuable time.
• Tenon mortise: A new ergonomy enables the operator to choose the direction of the tenon and facilitates the dimensioning of tenons.
• Propagation definition: TopSolid'Wood 2007 offers the possibility to save and reuse propagation models. The function, thereby, enables operators to define propagation characteristics which can be applied to such functions as eccentric joints, dowel joints, biscuit joints and screw joints.

Click here to see the rest of the press release.

Missler Software Brazil has just hosted a TopSolid 2007 user day meeting in Sao Paolo. With more than 100 customers present from all over the country the latest version of TopSolid was presented to the company's largest South American market.

TopSolid has been present on the Brazilian market for 7 years now. In the last quarter of 2006 Missler Software created a new Brazilian plant. According to Eric Gerval, Channel Manager for the Americas "we needed to be closer to our Brazilian customers so we decided to set up a plant in Sao Paolo. We have a very innovative solution to offer this market and the potential for us here is huge."

A new Brazilian language web site has just been put on line at http://www.topsolid.com.br/

The company Gattefin employs 85 people and occupies a working surface of 10000m² (made up of 7 buildings) and manufactures technically complex parts from 10mm to 10m with the average being 1.5m. The company works in the following domains: aeronautical (its principal market), agri-food industry, material handling, standard and special machines, capital goods, petrol and tyres.

Thanks to the simplicity of TopSolid the operator was operational in a short time, particularly for the automatic generation of holes for the aeronautical domain. Very quickly the comlpany's programming times were reduced by 50%. According to Dominique Gattefin, company CEO "As a company we always wanted to be at the cutting edge of technology. TopSolid has offered us a very positive price/performance ratio and a top class service with it. Missler Software greatly assisted us in programming our first parts when we initially started with TopSolid. Thereby, I have always felt that we did not just purchase a price but a return on investment."

Click here for the rest of the report.

You are a TopSolid operator and you would like some tips on what your software is capable of doing. Each newsletter will include a highlight of the month accompanied by an avi of a TopSolid module.
This month let's take a look at TopSolid'Progress and bends.

Video commentary

Partial bends

The creation of partial bends on the strip sometimes generates problems. To make the folding, it is possible to create two bend faces on the model of the sheet metal part by imprinting a profile. Both faces to bend are then represented on the strip.

Minimum requirements to read videos

2 formats are possible: AVI and WMV

• To read the AVI file the Techsmith codec has to be installed first, click here to download it.
• To read the WMV file the lastest version of Windows Media Player available here is required

All Missler Software and reseller trade fairs will be published here each month and can also be found on http://www.topsolid.com/news/shows/showslist.asp