The product is the specification
Teams commissioning a configurator tend to think first about how it will look: the viewer, the lighting, the controls. Those matter, and they are the easier half. The harder half is teaching software everything your best salesperson knows about what can and cannot be built. That knowledge is rarely written down. It lives in price lists, in production drawings, in habit and in the memory of two or three people.
A configurator will offer exactly the combinations its rules allow. If a rule is missing, customers will design products you cannot make, and discover it after they have set their heart on one. Writing the rules is therefore the first and most valuable requirement, and it is work only your own people can do.
List every option, with its type
| Type of option | Example | What to record |
|---|---|---|
| Choice from a list | Frame colour, fabric, handle style | The allowed values, each with a code, name, image and price effect |
| Dimension | Width, height, depth of a made-to-measure unit | Minimum, maximum, step size and how the model stretches or repeats |
| Quantity or count | Number of shelves, modules or seats | Limits, spacing rules and effect on other parts |
| Add-on | Lighting, soft-close, cup holder | Where it can be fitted, and what it requires |
| Position | Door on the left or right, window placement on a wall | Allowed positions and clearances |
| Personalization | Engraved text, uploaded logo, monogram | Character limits, fonts, placement, content rules and approval |
| Non-visual | Warranty, delivery method, assembly service | Shown as choices outside the 3D view |
Give every option and value a stable code, the same one your ERP or price list uses. Names are for customers and can change. Codes are what connect the configurator to everything behind it.
Write the rules between options
| Kind of rule | Example | In plain words |
|---|---|---|
| Requires | A glass door requires the reinforced frame | Choosing A forces B |
| Excludes | The low base cannot take the tall back | Choosing A removes B |
| Limits | Widths above a threshold need a centre support | A value changes what else is needed |
| Depends on context | Outdoor finishes only for outdoor models | A whole group of options applies to some products only |
| Derived | Number of legs follows from length | Not chosen by the customer. Calculated |
| Default | Standard handle unless another is picked | What is selected at the start |
| Availability | This fabric is discontinued, that one is out of stock for a period | Temporarily or permanently unavailable |
- 01
Collect from the people who know
Production, engineering and experienced sales staff, separately, then together. They will disagree, and resolving that is part of the work.
- 02
Write each rule as one sentence
With the codes of the options involved. Avoid rules that need a paragraph to explain.
- 03
Record the reason
Structural, regulatory, commercial or supply. When the reason changes, you will know which rules to revisit.
- 04
Test against past orders
Run a sample of real orders through the rules on paper. Every order should be allowed, and known mistakes should be blocked.
- 05
Decide what the customer is told
When a choice is unavailable, show why, such as available with the reinforced frame, and offer the change. A greyed-out option with no explanation frustrates.
Decide where rules and prices are held
Products change. A configurator whose rules are written into its program code needs a developer for every new fabric and every price update, and soon falls behind the catalogue. Require that options, rules and prices are held as data that a trained member of your team can change through an administration screen or a controlled spreadsheet import, with a preview before publishing.
- 01
Is there an existing source of truth?
What to decideAn ERP, a pricing system or a product configuration tool may already hold options and rules. If so, the configurator should read from it, not duplicate it.
- 02
Who calculates the price?
What to decideA simple sum of option prices can live in the configurator. Prices that depend on customer, quantity, region or complex formulas belong where invoices are produced.
- 03
Who may change what?
What to decideProduct managers for options and rules, finance for prices, with a record of every change.
- 04
How are changes tested?
What to decideA preview environment, and a set of saved test configurations rerun after each change.
- 05
What happens to saved designs when rules change?
What to decideA configuration saved last month may no longer be valid. Decide whether it is repriced, flagged or adjusted.
Specify the customer's journey
- Starting point. A sensible default product, a few popular presets or a short guided question. A blank canvas intimidates.
- Order of choices. Lead with the decisions that constrain the others, such as size and type, then finishes, then accessories.
- Feedback. The model and the price update at once with every change, and the camera moves to show what changed.
- Views. Free rotation and zoom within sensible limits, useful preset angles, interior or opened states, and dimensions shown on request.
- Summary. A clear list of everything chosen, with codes hidden but available, and the total.
- Save and share. A link that reopens the exact design, for the customer's partner, colleague or salesperson.
- Devices and access. Which phones, tablets and browsers must work, with an alternative for people who cannot use the 3D view.
- Languages and units. Every option name, message and measurement, for each market.
A worked example
Rules for a modular shelving configurator
This example is invented to show rules being drawn out and tested. A shelving maker sells a modular system through dealers and wants customers to design their own.
- OptionsWidth in three steps, height in five, depth in two, shelf count, drawer units, doors, back panels, four finishes and a wall or floor fixing. Thirty-eight option values, each given the code used on the price list.
- RulesTwo workshops produce 27 rules. Examples: doors require a back panel. Units above a set height must be wall-fixed. Drawers fit only in the deeper version. A shelf is needed every so many centimetres for stability.
- DisagreementSales believes glass doors can be fitted to the widest unit. Production says they sag. The rule is settled as excluded, with the reason recorded.
- TestSixty past orders are checked against the rules. Fifty-eight pass. Two are blocked: both were the over-wide glass doors that had later been returned.
- UpkeepOptions, rules and prices are held in tables the product manager edits, with a preview and ten saved test designs that are reopened after each change.
The two blocked orders convinced the sales team that the rules were right. Dealers now receive designs that can be built as drawn, with a parts list in the maker's own codes.
Specify the output
Output a business can use
- A list of option codes that matches your systems exactly
- A price calculated by the agreed authority, with its breakdown
- A parts list or bill of materials where production needs one
- Rendered images of the design from set angles
- A link that reopens the design for staff and customer alike
Output that creates work
- A screenshot and a free-text description
- Option names with no codes
- A price the sales team must recalculate
- No record of which version of the rules produced it
- Designs that cannot be reopened or amended
Decide where the output goes: an email to sales, a record in the CRM, an item in a web shop basket, a quote document or an order in the ERP. Our guide on connecting a product configurator to quotes and orders covers that connection in detail.
Requirements checklist
3D configurator requirements checklist
0 of 11 checkedWhat to do next
Put your production lead and your most experienced salesperson in a room with the price list and ask them to name every combination a customer must never be allowed to order. Write each as one sentence. That list is the start of your requirements, and it is useful to the business whether or not a configurator follows.
Our 3D product configurator development page explains how we turn rules like these into a working tool. Send us your option list and we will tell you what else we would need.
Common questions
Who should write the product rules?
Your own production, engineering and sales people, because only they know what can be built and sold. A development company can run the workshops, ask the awkward questions and structure the result, but it cannot invent the rules. Plan time for these people to take part, and expect them to disagree at first.
How many options can a configurator handle?
Technically a great many. The practical limits are the effort of producing a model and material for each value, the number of rules to maintain and test, and how many choices a customer can face before giving up. Start with the options that account for most orders, and add the rest once the first release is in use.
Should rules be in the configurator or in our ERP?
If your ERP or a configuration tool already holds options, rules and prices reliably, the configurator should read them from there, so that there is one source of truth. If no such source exists, the configurator's own data tables can become it. What should be avoided is two separate sets of rules that drift apart.
What happens when our product range changes?
With rules and options held as data, a trained member of your team adds or retires values, adjusts rules and updates prices through an administration screen, previews the result and publishes. New options that need a new 3D model or material involve asset work as well. Decide in advance how saved customer designs are treated after a change.
Can a configurator handle made-to-measure dimensions?
Yes, within defined limits. The requirement must state the minimum, maximum and step for each dimension, how the price responds and how the 3D model adapts, whether by stretching a part, repeating a module or switching to a different component. Structural rules tied to size, such as added supports, need writing down too.
