I retired, and almost immediately started on the list. Not a bucket list of places to see, but a list of things I’ve always wanted to make. Software I could picture but never had the time to build properly while a day job was eating my hours. GlassDe.sk is the first of those to grow up into something real.
What it is
GlassDe.sk is cutting optimisation and order entry software for small glass workshops. The pitch on the front page is simple: less waste, faster orders. The tagline says it better: built by glass people for glass people.
If you’ve never watched a glass workshop work, here’s the problem in a nutshell. Customers order panes in all sorts of odd sizes. The glass arrives on big stock sheets. Someone has to decide how to cut the small pieces out of the big sheets so as little as possible ends up in the skip, and then actually do the cutting without making a mistake that turns an expensive sheet into scrap. Get it right and you make money. Get it wrong and you’re paying for glass you’re throwing away.
Why I built it
The honest answer is that it was on the list. I’d had this one in my head for years, and retirement finally gave me the time to stop thinking about it and start building it.
I used to own a glass shop, so I know this problem from the inside: the pile of odd-sized orders, the stock sheets, the offcuts leaning against the wall, and the quiet dread of a bad cut on an expensive sheet. That’s what “built by glass people” means here. It was built by someone who spent years on the other side of the counter and always thought there had to be a better way to plan the cutting.
The other reason is that the software I could see for small shops tended to fall into two camps: big, expensive, industrial systems built for factories, or something so basic that it still left the owner with a pencil and a calculator. A small workshop deserves something in between: properly clever where it counts, and simple everywhere else. Simple to learn and quick to use was the design rule from day one.
What it does
A cutting optimiser that thinks like a cutter. This is the heart of it. Plenty of software can produce a mathematically tidy layout. The trouble is that a layout is no use if the person at the bench can’t actually cut it. GlassDe.sk produces plans that follow real shop-floor cutting rules, not just clever geometry. The sample plan on the site cuts 31 pieces from 16 sheets with 1.7% waste, and across test batches it has come in under 3%.
Fast order entry. Orders go in quickly and are priced straight from your own price list, so the quote and the cutting list come from the same place.
Stock and offcuts. It keeps track of what’s on the rack, including the leftover pieces. Offcuts are where a lot of money quietly hides in a glass shop, and the optimiser can use them before opening a fresh sheet.
A cutting station. Clear next-cut instructions and labels, so whoever is on the saw always knows what’s next.
Sealed units and processing. It handles sealed unit manufacturing and glass processing, not just straight cutting.
Works across the shop. Macs and PCs share one set of data over the shop network, so the office and the workshop are looking at the same thing. Anyone can follow the cutting list in a browser on a tablet, phone or computer with nothing to install.
Sensible access. Everyone gets a PIN, and the workshop view never shows prices. The people cutting glass don’t need to see what the customer is paying.
Why a desktop app
Plenty of software these days lives entirely in a browser and rents itself back to you monthly. For a workshop, I wanted something that runs on the machines already in the office (Mac or Windows), keeps its data on the shop network, and doesn’t stop working when the broadband does. The browser part is there only where it earns its place: cutting lists on the shop floor.
Where it is now
It’s in testing. There’s a tester programme on the site for glass shops who want to try it before release, and that’s the stage where I learn the most. Real orders, real offcuts and real workshop habits beat anything I can imagine at my desk.
What I’ve enjoyed
Retirement projects have a different feel from work ones. Nobody sets the deadline, there’s no meeting about it, and the only person I have to impress is me. I can spend a week getting a cutting rule exactly right because it bugged me. That’s the luxury of doing the things you always wanted to make.
If you run a glass workshop and fancy being a tester, or you just want to see it, head over to glassde.sk.