Featured Project: Indiana Woodworker Uses Software to Greatly Reduce Project Times

Daniel Antes, a custom flooring company based in Nashville, Indiana, recently completed two projects using the company’s EnRoute software it purchased from Salt Lake City-based SAi (SA International), a provider of software solutions for large-format digital printing and CAD/CAM machining. Antes says the software investment has made a huge difference in his business.

Antes, whose shop bears his name, says that since he started using SAi’s design-to-workflow software a decade ago, his shop’s profit margins have increased by 50 percent. Two recent custom jobs illustrate just how much he has been able to cut down on production time.

The first was a large wooden compass medallion the company made. Measuring about 6′ in diameter, the project’s production time was cut by a whopping 96 percent thanks to the software, he says.

“Previously, it would take us up to five days to chisel this piece by hand. This method dramatically delayed our production cycle and had a domino-effect on other jobs in the pipeline,” says Antes. “EnRoute enables us to draw, toolpath and cut the full piece in just four hours. This not only massively improves our throughput but ultimately ensures we get the orders out of the door on time, or in most cases well ahead of time.”

His company uses the software to drive its laser cutter and FlexiCAM Stealth XL CNC router, Antes says. This allows for production in a range of applications, including signage, parquet and flooring inlays, and even bedside cribs.

Another recent project involved Antes recreating the work of California artist Eileen Bradley, who operates Sacred Circle Art, a studio specializing in mandalas.

In order to create a replica of a piece called “Unbroken,” Antes had to input 1,240 intricate pieces into Enroute, which he says is the most-ever parts he has produced per square meter for a project.

That project, he says, was completed in only a few days.

“The hope is to continue expanding our business offering and establish ourselves as the company that ‘thinks outside the box’,” says Antes. “With the versatility and ease of EnRoute, no job is too complicated.

“The software has reshaped our business and elevated us to new heights. It offers us a vast gamut of possibilities that goes beyond the scope that we ever thought achievable-the only limit is our imagination.”