If your product comes in many sizes, finishes and options, your sales team probably answers the same questions every day. Which bracket fits this roof? What does the longer version look like in black? How many clamps do I need? A 3D configurator turns those questions into a page your buyers can use without you.
What a configurator is
A web page where a buyer picks options and sees the product change in 3D as they go. Rules in the background stop combinations that don't work. When they're done, the configuration becomes a parts list or a quote request your team can act on.
Where it pays off
- Products with many variants, where buyers struggle to picture the combination they need.
- Products that are hard to explain, where seeing the assembly answers questions a datasheet can't.
- Sales through distributors and installers, who need a quick, correct answer to quote their own customers.
- Trade shows, on a tablet or a big screen, where the configurator starts the conversation.
Features that matter for industrial products
Consumer configurators focus on colours and looks. For industrial products, these matter more:
- Option rules. Only valid combinations can be built, so every request your team receives can actually be made.
- Dimensions and exploded views. Engineers and installers want to measure and see how parts fit.
- An automatic bill of materials. Every configuration produces its parts list with your part numbers.
- Quote requests with the full configuration, sent to your inbox or CRM, so sales doesn't start from scratch.
- A PDF summary the buyer can share with colleagues.
- Speed on phones. Optimised 3D models load quickly, even on site.
- Insight. The options people choose tell you what to stock and what to develop next.
Configurator or planning tool?
A configurator suits a product with options, such as a machine, an enclosure or a gate. A planning tool suits a product placed into a project, such as a mounting system laid out on a roof, where quantities depend on the project's size. Many manufacturers need the second, or a mix of both. Our solar configurator is an example: the user marks the roof or plot on a map, and the tool produces the layout, the parts list and the 3D assembly together.
What you need to start
- Your product list, options and part numbers.
- The rules: what fits with what, and the limits.
- CAD of the components. Simplified models are fine.
- Prices, if you want to show them.
- Your brand colours and logo.
How a project runs
- Agree the options and rules for a first version, usually your best-selling range.
- Build a working prototype your sales team tests with real customer cases.
- Add the remaining products, connect quote requests to your inbox or CRM, and launch with one embed code.
- Keep it hosted and updated as your range changes.
The rules usually take longer than the 3D. A product with five options and a few rules is a small project, and a range with hundreds of parts and spacing tables is a larger one. We give a fixed quote once we have seen the product and its options.
Common mistakes
- Modelling every variant by hand, instead of parametric models that change with the options.
- Heavy 3D files that load slowly on phones.
- No rules, so buyers configure products you can't make.
- No follow-up, so quote requests sit unanswered. Decide who answers them before launch.