Nexa and Factory2

The third and fourth links in the chain

After design, two more pieces of software stand on the production side. The machine program issued from the design model reaches the section through them.

Factory2 — machine control

Factory2 is the control software running on the roll-forming machine. The manufacturer’s operating manual describes it for the F-series machines: operating the machine, running production and changing profile type all happen through it.

From the designer’s point of view this layer is interesting because this is where it turns out whether the issued program really can be produced on that machine: the tool set, the profile range and the maximum length meet the design here.

Nexa — organising production

Nexa is the project and production management interface. According to the manufacturer’s documentation it handles:

• customer and project records — who ordered what, for which project,
• project templates — for repeating building types, so that everything does not have to be re-entered,
• production jobs,
• digital quality control forms — measurement results recorded against the project rather than on paper,
• user management.

Steelwise can upload directly to Nexa, so there is no manual file shuffling between the design model and the production job.

Why this matters to the designer

Traceability

If a structural member is questioned later, the question is which program, which coil and when. This chain provides the answer. In a dispute over verification that is worth more than any general declaration.

Recording quality control

The digital form matters because in-process measurement is only evidence if it is kept. A form filled in on paper and then lost is not.

Project templates

For repeating building types — modular units, houses built in series — this is the point where the design work really is done once and then multiplied.

The point

Production management is not administration but the place where the evidence lives. What is recorded here — program, job, measurement — is what proves years later that the structure was built as designed.

Sources

FRAMECAD Knowledge Hub: Nexa and Factory2 sections, The F-Series Operating Manual, and the software overview page, retrieved in September 2026.