FlexCabs - The new boxcutter on the block (and much more)
Well, I've finally gone and done it. The software that I wrote for myself and have mentioned on this forum several times is almost ready for beta. I have some developers alpha testing it now and it should be ready for beta testing in a couple of weeks. It's called FlexCabs and the site is at http://www.flexcabs.com A number of forum members had e-mailed be privately after my last post about a month ago and have already bought the pre-release version and now it's time to announce it to everyone starting with the members of this forum.
Here are the basics... FlexCabs is a cabinet CNC package that takes your cabinet lists or parts lists either manually entered or imported from design packages like eCabinets (Thermwood), KCDW, Cabinet Vision, 20/20, etc. It then generates the parts according to your specifications, generates all the CNC operations on the parts and nests them onto as few sheets as possible.
Ok, so this all sounds like any boxcutter application. But this one is different in that it supports any number of CNC operations on each part. It also does not rely on simple setup screens where you're forced to choose from a handful of options and then bend your construction techniques to match what the software wants to do. FlexCabs is driven by XML configuration files that specify exactly how to behave. There are no preset limits or constraints. You want a stopped dado 30% down from the top of your base cabinets for a fixed shelf? No problem! You want holes for Rafix panel connectors? No problem! ANY construction technique can be accomodated, as long as it uses cuts that can be made by a 3 axis router like the ShopBot. Don't change your construction techniques, just tell us how you want it done and we'll create the configuration file for you, or show you how to do it so you can modify it later. After the initial beta testing is done, we'll have a library of all the techniques used by the first users and we'll just add from there as the user base grows. Pretty quickly it will be rare to find anything we don't have a pre-configured file for.
The other unique thing about FlexCabs is that after the standard version is released, we'll get the Pro version out which includes arcs support! This means radius corner shelves, curved cabinets, curvy flat-packed furniture, etc. And all of these parts are parametric as well so if you want to scale a cabinet or piece of furniture up but leave the corners with a fixed radius, it's no problem. On the website I have an example of a small child's bench (picture below) that I made using FlexCabs and it shows one great type of project that until now was difficult to scale without lots of manual work.
Child's Bench Cut Using FlexCabs Pro...
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and the CNC operations for it...
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One last great feature is the nesting speed and efficiency. This program can nest 100 parts in just over 4 seconds with extremely low material waste. The nesting really is second to none.
Please check out the website to look at some examples and a full list of features...
http://www.flexcabs.com
One last note, the software has a configurable post processor so you can make your own post tweaks if you want. Out of the box it will support ShopBot (of course!) and also GCode for Mach3. We'll add other posts as we run across users of other machines.
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