The commonest shower door fault has nothing to do with the door. It is a 700mm leaf swinging into a toilet 550mm away, on a plan where the arc was never struck, found on the day it is hung — at which point the options are a narrower opening, a different configuration, or moving a fixture that is already plumbed in. Striking that arc on the plan takes a minute.
Three configurations exist and they trade different things away. A hinged door gives the full opening and the best seal, and it needs the swing. A sliding or bypass door needs no swing at all, which is why it survives in tight rooms, but half the opening is permanently blocked by a panel and the bottom track collects everything the shower produces. A pivot door hung on an offset pivot rather than at its edge lets a wider leaf turn in a narrower space and usually swings both ways, which is the useful compromise where the arc is tight but a track is unwanted.
Doors should open outwards, and outwards is what costs the space. A door opening inward carries its wet face over the bathroom floor every time and traps anyone who falls against it. So the arc gets checked against the toilet, the vanity, a towel rail and the room's own door, since bathroom doors and shower doors regularly want the same square metre. Hinges with detents at ninety degrees can be specified to swing both ways, which keeps the outward habit and still gives a way through when the room is tight.
Glass and hardware follow. Frameless doors are typically 10mm tempered, semi-frameless 8mm and framed 6mm, and the leaf's weight goes straight into the hinges and whatever they are anchored to. Every hole in a tempered panel — hinge cut-out, handle, towel bar — is made before the glass is heat-treated, so a bar through the door is a decision taken at order.