What a construction configurator does
Think of it as the building version of the "build and price" tool on a car maker's website, with one big difference. A car configurator picks from parts that already exist. A construction configurator has to work out the parts from the choices.
Change the width of a post frame building and the trusses get longer. Add a bay and there are more columns, more purlin and more steel. Put a 16-foot overhead door in a sidewall and the framing around it changes. A real construction configurator handles that automatically, because it is modeling the structure, not just the outside of it.
The result is one design that serves three jobs at once: the sales conversation, the material order and the build.
How it differs from CAD
CAD software can draw anything. That is its strength and, for a building dealer, its problem. Someone has to know how to draw the building, member by member, and every change is more drawing. It takes training, it takes time, and it is not something you hand to a customer.
A construction configurator is narrower on purpose. It knows the rules of the building types it covers, so the person using it makes choices instead of drawing lines. A salesperson can design a building in minutes. A customer can do it on your website. The configurator handles the framing logic that a drafter would otherwise work out by hand.
That doesn't replace engineering. Frames still have to be designed for the site's loads, and some jobs still need a stamped set. What it replaces is the hours of redrawing and recounting that sit between a customer's idea and a priced quote.
How it differs from a contact form
Most building dealer websites still ask for a name, a phone number and a message. What comes back is something like "need a price on a 30x40 shop." No height, no doors, no options. The dealer has to call and ask twenty questions before the quoting can even start.
A website configurator flips that around. The customer designs the building first, then sends it. The lead arrives with the full design attached, so the first call is about confirming and adjusting, not interviewing. Customers who spend time designing a building have also told you they are serious. We covered this in detail in contact form vs 3D configurator.
What building types use one
Construction configurators show up wherever buildings follow repeatable rules. For building dealers, that usually means some mix of five framing systems:
- Post frame. Pole barns, shops, ag buildings and barndominium shells.
- Red iron. Steel buildings, both bolt-up (pre-engineered and bolted on site) and weld-up (stock steel cut and welded).
- Stick frame. Conventional stud walls, including interior framing inside a shell.
- Hybrid post frame. Post frame buildings with steel trusses.
- Tube frame. Carports and light steel buildings.
Plenty of configurators cover one or two of these. Redline covers all five in one platform, which matters if you sell more than one kind of building. See five framing systems for the price of one plan.
What a good construction configurator produces
The picture is the part everyone notices, but it is the least important output. Here is what a good one should give you from a single design:
A 3D model with real framing
Turn the cladding off and the structure should be there: columns, trusses or rafters, purlins, girts and bracing, placed where a crew would put them. If there is nothing under the steel, it is a visualizer, not a configurator.
A material list
Counts and lengths for every member, plus sheeting, trim, doors and windows, counted from the model. When the design changes, the list changes with it. See getting a real material list out of a 3D building model.
A quote
The material list priced with the dealer's own numbers, turned into a quote the customer can read, with the 3D building on it. Redline sends branded quotes with live 3D rendering and line-item pricing.
A lead with the design attached
When the configurator is on the dealer's website, the customer's design should land in the dealer's dashboard as a lead, ready to open, adjust and quote.
Plans
Dimensioned elevations, sheet layouts and permit-ready plans from the same model, so the drawings, the order and the quote all describe the same building.
Who uses one
Three groups get the most out of a construction configurator:
- Building dealers and contractors, who use it to design, take off and quote buildings in the office or on site, instead of rebuilding the takeoff by hand for every change.
- Building material suppliers, who quote material packages and need the list to match the building the customer wants. See software for building material suppliers.
- The dealer's customers, who design their own building on the dealer's website and send it in as a quote request.
The same model serves all three, which is the whole point. Nobody has to retype the building.
Where it runs
A construction configurator used to mean software on an office computer. Today it should run in a browser on any device. Customers shop on their phones, and dealers sell standing on the job site. Redline's Website 3D Designer works on phones, tablets and desktop, and the dealer configurator runs in a phone's browser with nothing to install.
Getting started
If you are a dealer, the two places a construction configurator pays off first are the quote and the website. Redline's dealer configurator is $250/mo flat with 2 seats included and $0 setup. The Website 3D Designer puts a configurator on your own website for $145/mo on its own, or $290/mo bundled with the dealer configurator. The 10-day free trial needs no credit card.