Client Story

Thorn Engineering values Agacad as a partner in its timber framing work

This Estonia-based design firm specializing in timber buildings finds great value not just in Agacad’s powerful Revit® framing add-ons and exporters, but also in its ongoing support as a BIM technology partner.

Challenges

Timber is just as potent a building material as concrete and steel but with a smaller carbon footprint. Proving that to clients day-to-day, with design and technical solutions that meet even their most challenging demands, is how Thorn Engineering defines its mission. Thus, cutting-edge wood framing is key.

 

“We start with the client’s vision and end with final drawings. Hand-over of CNC data files to the group’s factories is where the next phase begins,” Ott Raigla, CEO of the company, says. “We wanted proven and powerful BIM software with an emphasis on process automation.”

 

For easy collaboration on models, among disciplines and with clients, Thorn’s team strongly prefers working in Autodesk® Revit®, ideally on Autodesk’s BIM 360™ platform connecting project teams and data in real-time.

Thorn Engineering OÜ

Thorn Engineering provides technical support and timber-frame building design services for architects, prefabricators and construction firms. Based in northern Estonia, it is part of the Harmet Group of production, construction, design and sales companies active mainly in the Nordic region.

Raigla specifies that the firm “was looking not for just another software distributor, but for a partner in designing timber solutions who could provide support and development tailored to our specific needs, who could evolve as fast as Thorn Engineering.”
Impact

Thorn felt the benefits of using Agacad’s framing software immediately in terms of efficiency and more effective collaboration among project participants.

 

“It’s now quick and easy to get a good overview of projects, giving project managers and designers alike a detailed understanding even early in the design process. That permits fast feedback, and since our clients and subcontractors use Revit, we can build on their input with ease,” Raigla says. “Switching to a program that supports BIM 360 also eliminated the need to import our architectural model into other programs.”

What is most valuable about the solution? “Process automation –which saves a lot of time and prevents errors– and flexibility in tackling complex designs,” Raigla says without hesitation.

He also praises Agacad's “personal approach” to training and support, its fast responses to queries and helpfulness in finding ways to do specific things, and its active encouragement of suggestions for adding functionality.
Saves
a lot
of time
Every hunter needs a
good bow
Raigla sees an advantage in being an early adopter of Agacad's BIM solutions. “The most significant competitive advantage we have is our skilled and knowledgeable design team, but every hunter needs a good bow. That's where Agacad comes into play.”
Products used
Thorn Engineering chose Agacad’s well-established Wood Framing package of BIM solutions for Revit along with exporters for Weinmann CAD/CAM Production Lines and for Hundegger CNC machines. “We were introduced to Agacad by one of our core employees who had used the program previously,” company CEO Ott Raigla says. That recommendation, the fact the tools were Revit-based, and the developer’s reputation for working with clients to incorporate new functionality in its software all suggested Agacad was the partner Thorn was seeking.
True BIM software for faster, better design of timber frames and trusses
Go from Autodesk® Revit® with Agacad framing tools to CNC and CAD/CAM with ease

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