CABINET VISION Future-Proofs Jane Cheel Furniture

Less than a year after starting to use CABINET VISION daily, a furniture manufacturer says the software quickly became an integral and vital part of their design process by saving a considerable amount of time and effort, and will play a big role in their future growth plans.

Before commissioning CABINET VISION, all Jane Cheel Furniture’s drawings were done with 2D CAD. “Every single line had to be drawn manually, which was extremely time-consuming,” says CAD draughtsman Robert Nagy, who was hired by the company in April 2018 because of his extensive knowledge of the software.

“Jane Cheel recognized CABINET VISION’s potential for growing the company through speeding up the process, meaning we have faster turnaround times and can take on more work.”

Robert Nagy, CAD Draughtsman

“Jane Cheel recognized CABINET VISION’s potential for growing the company through speeding up the process, meaning we have faster turnaround times and can take on more work. And we now include fully photo-rendered images with all plans, drawings and elevations that go to customers.”

He says customers are pleasantly surprized when they see the rendered images showing what the furniture in their rooms will look like, with real colors, and even scenes through windows. “It’s so realistic that it’s turning into a good sales tool for us.”

Working mainly with timbers such as Oak and Walnut, along with veneered MDF boards and plywood, the five-year-old company currently cuts all its components with beam saws and manual drilling. But he says they are likely to invest in CNC machinery in the future, using CABINET VISION’s powerful Screen-To-Machine module to generate NC code to program it.

While full kitchen kitouts are their core business, they also manufacture some bathroom and living room furniture, along with dressing rooms, wardrobes and tables. “We now use CABINET VISION for designing everything, including table components,” he says.

As well as design, CABINET VISION also produces essential cutlists for the shopfloor. “This is another big time-saver for us, as most full kitchen fitouts comprize between 30 and 40 separate pieces of furniture.  And taking everything into account – sides, tops, bases, backs, shelves, and doors – the number of individual panels to be cut on the beam saw can run into the hundreds for each job.”

Robert Nagy explains how creating cutlists fits into his daily routine with CABINET VISION. “When I start working with the software on a new project, my first task is to ascertain what material we’re going to use, and ensure it’s in our CABINET VISION material library. Then I check the cabinet sizes and texture required, before going into the modelling area and designing the individual pieces of furniture and the full room.  It’s so beneficial simply being able to drag and drop similar sized cabinets into the job from the library, and parametrically edit them to the right size.

“I generate cutlists via the Report Center. They’ve been set up to suit our specific needs, so it’s now just a case of clicking a button and printing them. Previously, we had to prepare cutlists manually, by calculating the size and quantity of each of those individual parts.”

It also helps them estimate the amount of material they need to order for the job. “Overall, CABINET VISION has made an impact on how we work at the moment in terms of speeding up our processes, meaning we’ve been able to take on new clients. And we’re already looking at how it can help in the future...not only with generating NC code when we invest in CNC machine tools, but I’m considering putting our prices into CABINET VISION to create estimates and quotations with it.”

Robert Nagy is one of three employees working directly with CABINET VISION Ultimate, but as well as using it for design, he is also responsible for maintaining the cabinet and material libraries.  

Concluding he says the gulf between 2D systems and CABINET VISION can be likened to a notebook. “2D CAD is one page in the notebook. CABINET VISION is the whole notebook.”

About the Company

Name: Jane Cheel Furniture

Business: Furniture Manufacturer

Web: www.janecheelfurniture.com

Benefits Achieved

• Saved considerable amount of time and effort
• Fully photo-rendered images to accompany all plans have been a good sales tool
• Able to produce essential cutlists for the shopfloor by clicking a button and printing them
• Ability to estimate amount of material needed for the job

Comments

“We now include fully photo-rendered images with all plans, drawings and elevations that go to customers.”

Robert Nagy, CAD Draughtsman