6.15.2016
SA International (SAi), the leading provider of software solutions for the professional sign making, wide-format digital printing and CAD/CAM for CNC machining industries, has announced a new version of its industry-leading EnRoute software. The latest edition, EnRoute 6, is SAi’s most advanced, feature-rich package to date and combines a suite of over 40 new productivity and design tools engineered to enhance CNC routing capabilities and increase business profits for users.
The flagship EnRoute CAD/CAM software provides creative 2D and 3D design and output solutions to CNC woodworking, signmaking and millworking companies, as well as those within the nested-based manufacturing and fabrication industries. As with previous editions, EnRoute 6 is available in Basic, Plus, Pro and Fab Advanced versions to suit the specific requirements of users.
Key design and production-enhancing features of EnRoute 6* include:
• Component Maker – this new productivity tool makes it easy to create notched parts that slide together to produce shelves and other objects. By selecting a relief surface, users can create parts that follow the surface of the relief.
• On Demand Movies – newly-integrated online movies provide informative on-demand explanations of EnRoute’s various design and production features by simply right-clicking the related icon. This facilitates understanding of EnRoute’s potential for new users and ensures that companies maximize the software’s potential quickly and easily.
• Model Stacker – this offers the ability to slice a mesh in any direction, automatically creating 2D slices for quick nesting and cutting. Cut slices can be stacked to assemble the model, enabling easier experimentation with different layer thicknesses. EnRoute manages the numbering of slices for simple organization and assembly, while also creating a 3D model for easier visualization of the finished piece.
• Accelerated redrawing of contours and toolpaths – the instant redraw of all toolpaths, contours and text, combined with a number of zooming improvements while working in specific tools, can greatly speed up day-to-day production by up to 50%.
• Tangential and Intersection Snaps – a new tangential snap empowers users to create tangent lines between two circles, while the introduction of an intersection snap helps identify overlapping line segments, aiding the clean-up of imported contours with extra lines.
• Improved Support for Single-Stroke Fonts – in addition to SAi’s built-in fonts, EnRoute 6 includes support for a more industry standard technique that allows users to utilize single-stroke fonts from other sources such as One Line Fonts. These provide a broad selection of single-stroke fonts that can be used for many different part marking and quick text applications in EnRoute.
• Simulation and Rendering – enhancements to EnRoute’s simulation capabilities include speed and realism, plus the capacity to add textures to rendered surfaces and the ability to realistically depict the effect of toolpaths that cut entirely through the material. This enables customers to view final production results prior to routing and to also create rendered views to show customers.
• Symmetric Parametric Textures – the parametric textures in EnRoute can now be created symmetrically, ensuring the creation of textured panels that match up left to right and top to bottom. This makes parametric textures even more advantageous and gives users additional flexibility when using textures.
“Be it for CNC routers, lasers, plasma or waterjet cutters, EnRoute is long established as the go-to CAD software solution for everyday cutting, nested-based production and creative design applications,” says EJ Nodurft, EnRoute Product Director, SAi.
“Loaded with a whole range of easy-to-use 2D and 3D design and toolpath options that facilitate and speed up the design process, EnRoute 6 is our most powerful to date and packs a hard punch in directly addressing the genuine needs of users,” he adds.
Additional Improvements
As well as a host of innovative features integrated within the entry-level version of EnRoute 6 – including 3D Simulation and Dynamic Nesting – new elements have also been added to other levels within the EnRoute 6 family.
EnRoute 6 Plus now includes Rapid Texture and the powerful Auto-Toolpath Lite for quickly processing parts, while EnRoute 6 Pro delivers full Auto-Toolpath capabilities for other design applications, as well as fabrication production tools for plasma, laser and waterjet machines.
Availability
New Version 6 software packages of SAi EnRoute Basic, Plus, Pro and Fab Advanced, as well as upgrades for existing customers, are available now through authorized EnRoute resellers.
