In this study an efficient meta-heuristic is proposed for layout optimization of truss structures by combining cellular automata (CA) and firefly algorithm (FA). In the proposed meta-heuristic, called here as cellular automata firefly algorithm (CAFA), a new equation is presented for position updating of fireflies based on the concept of CA. Two benchmark examples of truss structures are presented to illustrate the efficiency of the proposed algorithm. Numerical results reveal that the proposed algorithm is a powerful optimization technique with improved convergence rate in comparison with other existing algorithms.