The CNC Bender Technology Alliance of SMT Industries and Advanced Tubular Technologies has released a new version of CNC Bender software (for horizontal CNC bender control and bender cell control) that builds upon and enhances the unique Dynamic Option concept as authored by CNC Bender Technology Alliance programmers. Dynamic Options are used to control various bender setup features and avoidance moves in the CNC Bender software. Unlike fixed options, however, they allow operators to gain unprecedented control of the user interface of the CNC Bender operator station. For example, the ability to control the order in which Dynamic Options are displayed on the screen is an important capability because it allows the most important options to be moved to the top of the display lists. Now CNC Bender software has the new capability of controlling the visibility of Dynamic Options in its user interface. The goal was to develop a system that allowed for quick hiding or displaying of any of the over 100 options available in eight different dynamic option groups. For example, users who don't need to view options for safety scanners, loaders, conveyors, mist devices, or mandrel lube (because they are not applicable to their bender setup or application) can hide these unused Dynamic Options. "Allowing end-users to quickly control which dynamic options display on the screen at any moment in time is a major step toward allowing operators to morph the software according to their need and application of the moment" says Michael Cone, the lead developer for the CNC Bender software team. The principle assumes that it is important to allow the unneeded options to become temporarily invisible without actually removing them from memory or part files. "In addition to hiding the option, we wanted to allow an operator to painlessly switch any hidden dynamic option back to its visible state without loss of data, then have immediate access to the new feature." This morphing capability gives another important advantage when security is an issue: Changing the visibility state of dynamic options requires a password that can be set by a manager. This means that a manager can securely remove selected dynamic options from the user-interface when their state or value should not be adjusted by other operators. "This kind of flexibility was not a simple matter for our programmers. It made our development time quite a bit longer in the beginning. We decided then that we would go the extra mile to build unheard of flexibility into a CNC bender software control package. End users really appreciate this kind of forethought" says Cone. Founded in 1976, SMT Industries is an industry leader in CNC bender machinery-production and design in Sidney, Ohio. Advanced Tubular Technologies is a Waterford, Michigan software development company that has specialized in producing software and communications solutions for tube fabricators since 1983. The two companies formed the CNC Bender Technology Alliance to develop new technology for the tube-bending industry.

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