CyberFlex Software announces the release of their FLEXESHOWER ® Design Software for the frameless shower industry.
As seen in Glass Magazine - July 2007
After more than four years in development and testing with customers around the world, FLEXESHOWER is set to revolutionize the frameless shower industry. The comprehensive program will forever change the manner in which glaziers, hardware manufacturers, glass fabricators and temperers not only design shower enclosures, but also place orders via e-commerce, cut glass directly on CNC machinery and of course complete shower installations. "Success at our initial beta sites provided the feedback and confidence that after an extensive development cycle we were now ready to release our solution to the market" stated Rick Wheeler-Founder, President and Chief Technology Officer.
Even from the very initial design stages, FLEXESHOWER was intended first and foremost to be very easy to use and to understand. The development team has also incorporated a guiding principle that to be successful the program would need to be an open platform with which all levels of the glazing industry could participate and find value. Of course, this is not only through the amount of time and money they will save in shower design process, but importantly by how many costly errors will be eliminated from the industry's traditionally manual and labor intensive processes.
Once the FLEXESHOWER program has been downloaded and installed to the user's PC, it is very simple to get started. The user can choose from the hundreds of built-in shower templates or alternatively they can configure a custom shower from scratch. Once the "rough opening" measurements have been entered into the system, this is when the real fun begins. The user may choose from any of the hardware and glass preferences which are pre-loaded into the program and regardless whether the user has chosen glass hinges, pivot hinges, channel, clips, 3/8" or 1/2" glass, the custom design engine of FLEXESHOWER will automatically calculate all clearances, deductions and tolerances for virtually any shower configuration, from a simple door and return panel to a sophisticated octagonal shower, all in a matter of seconds!
Once the measurements are entered, a fully scaled and accurate 3D model of the shower is created and displayed on screen that can be rotated, animated and enlarged. The user can then inspect and view the design, choose different hardware profiles or change glass type, along with displaying on the fly changes to the glass sizes, hinge sides, outages and notches. The 3D model can be shown to a customer via monitor screen, as a hardcopy printout or emailed as a PDF along with a corresponding quotation that includes the costs for the hardware, glass, notch detail and edgework for immediate approval and sign off.
Simultaneously, the FLEXESHOWER engine generates the completed glass fabrication details in an accurate and scaled 2D drawing, with all notches, cut-outs, miters and outages. Each 2D panel drawing is 100% AutoCAD compatible via DXF or can be alternatively produced as a hardcopy printout or emailed via PDF.
"While there are several competitive shower design programs available today, most notably the Showers on Line offering from CR Laurence along with Prism from Alumax, we believe our open hardware approach and tailored solution will be well received in the market" stated Wheeler. "Ultimately, CyberFlex is a software company and as such we can be quicker and more responsive to the development opportunities that our customers bring to us. Amongst the many unique FLEXESHOWER features include the fact that the program application and database all reside on the customer's server or PC. Further, the program can be fully customized to utilize customer specific hardware, part codes, glass specifications, defaults and costings. Also included is a powerful e-commerce platform to communicate designs, quotes and orders throughout the supply chain. In addition, the fact that we can save the 2D diagram as a DXF file for integration with CNC equipment is huge for glass fabricators."
One customer who saw the potential and partnered with CyberFlex in the early stage development was CHMI North America (Custom Hardware Manufacturing Inc.) CHMI is a premium quality bath and shower hardware manufacturer with over 15 year's experience designing showers and innovative hardware products for the glazing industry. "After installing an early version of FLEXESHOWER at our headquarters and using the program to design unlimited types of showers for our customers incorporating our proprietary hardware, we found the program extremely easy to use and a real time saver compared to our traditional method of design and quote" stated Tony Lambros-President.
Another early partner for FLEXESHOWER is Albat+Wirsam North America based in Seattle, WA. A+W is a leading software provider to the Glass Industry with locations around the world and has contracted with CyberFlex to provide FLEXESHOWER integrated into its ALFAK business process solution. "This groundbreaking technology will offer seamless integration from Flexeshower templates and designs directly to CNC machinery for instant glass fabrication of shower panels." stated Fred Montgomery, Executive Vice President of Albat+Wirsam North America, Inc. "Our strategic partnership with CyberFlex will immediately benefit the hundreds of A+W customers who have been searching for an end to end solution to their business process, shower configuration and glass fabrication requirements for their organization. After evaluating all of the shower design software programs available, we chose Flexeshower as the premier solution to integrate and deploy to A+W customers. Flexeshower really does stand head and shoulders above the competition and is a revolution for the shower industry." added Montgomery.
According to Wheeler, "FLEXESHOWER is just the first of our fully integrated suite of software products for the glass industry. We are already working on a commercial storefront module which is due for release in the final quarter of 2007. Combined with our electronic catalogue solutions for both web and CD, plus our in-house web design capabilities, we see ourselves as the premier provider of niche IT solutions to the glass industry."
For Additional Information Contact:
John Whiteman at CyberFlex on +1 312 291-4462