A 3D product configurator that sells while you produce
A 3D product configurator lets customers compose your product online, live in 3D, with a correct price on the spot. SEMANU guides the entire journey, starting with the analysis that surfaces your product, calculation and pricing logic without errors.
- No vendor lock-in · No commissions
- Mutual NDA · Independent process analysis
- Reply within 1 business day
From quoting weeks to minutes
A 3D product configurator lets customers or dealers compose a product online and view it in 3D right away: dimensions, materials and options change live on screen, with a correct price alongside. The engine behind it is CPQ software: Configure, Price, Quote.
For manufacturers with many variants, that is the difference between quoting weeks and minutes. Every request that travels past sales, drawing office and calculation today becomes a configuration your customer creates themselves, correct from the start. Connected to your ERP system it is also called an ERP configurator: prices and bills of materials then come straight from your own system.
The 3D technology is rarely the problem. The product, calculation and pricing logic behind it is. That is why every configurator project at SEMANU starts with a business analysis.
What your customer sees
A swimming pool, a custom panel or your product: the principle is always the same. Compose, rotate, instant image and price. Every variant is visible without studio shoots, including complex custom products.
What you manage behind it
You manage products, prices and projects yourself, without a developer. You add new variants and options in product management, adjust tiers and margins in price management, and every customer design is stored as a project with version history: a quote from three weeks ago comes back exactly as it was.
That logic does not appear by itself. SEMANU extracts it without errors in the business analysis: from complex Excel sheets, from the heads of your experts and from the exceptions nobody wrote down. Only then does it become manageable.
Export documents: from quote to production
Not a casual gadget: every configuration instantly delivers the documents your process needs. A price quotation for the customer, a technical drawing for work preparation and a bill of materials for purchasing or ERP. Other exports are possible too, such as cutting files for CNC machines or control data for other production equipment. This is the bridge from sales to production.
Did you know a configurator can do far more than visual options and prices?
SEMANU also specialises in engineering configurators and calculation modules for complex technical custom products. Where a sales configurator focuses on customer experience, an engineering configurator instantly calculates structural and technical feasibility in the background.
- Force and load calculations: automatic checks on dead weight, snow and wind loads, in line with Eurocodes and standards.
- Material and stress checks: deflection, profile thicknesses and maximum spans calculated instantly.
- Parametric CAD and production design: production-ready 3D CAD file, cutting and bending lists and assemblies.
The result: no delay at the engineering department. Your quote instantly contains a technically validated, producible design without a manual calculation note or CAD drawing involved.
The pitfall: garbage in = garbage out
Most configurator projects do not run aground on the 3D technology but on the company's own product rules: exceptions that live only in people's heads, price agreements that differ per customer, combinations that are just not technically possible. Feed that logic in half-finished and you get a configurator that is half right.
In the business analysis, SEMANU translates that implicit knowledge into watertight logic and helps determine which 20% of variants drive 80% of revenue. That way you start with a sharp MVP and the rest moves to phase 2 in a planned way.
A good analysis is the key to the entire project: it makes sure the product and the business flows are truly understood and that the expectations of customer, build partner and management are aligned upfront.
From idea to working configurator
SEMANU specifies and safeguards, a build partner builds. That keeps the advice independent from whoever ends up building the configurator.
From first call to live configurator
Check or scope call
Take the free check or book a call right away. We test whether your product and organisation are ready.
Business analysis
Product logic, pricing structure, data and integrations go on paper in a specification document with acceptance criteria.
Build partner selection
Build partners quote on the same document. You compare objectively and fix ownership and exit in the contract.
Build and oversight
The partner builds while we guard scope, quality and acceptance criteria through to delivery.
Live and self-managed
Your configurator is live. You manage products, prices and rules yourself, without a developer.
Are you ready for it?
Wondering whether your product and organisation are ready for a 3D configurator? The free check tests it in ten questions: from product logic and pricing structure to data and integrations. In two to three minutes you know where you stand and receive a personal PDF report in your mailbox.
Frequently asked questions about 3D product configurators
What is a 3D product configurator?
A 3D product configurator lets customers compose a product online and view it in 3D right away: dimensions, materials and options change live on screen. For manufacturers it replaces quote drawings and email traffic with one interactive product page. Connected to your ERP or CPQ, it produces a correct price and bill of materials instantly.
What is CPQ software?
CPQ stands for Configure, Price, Quote: software that automatically turns a product configuration into a correct price and quotation. It guards which combinations are technically possible and calculates tiers, options and margins. For companies with many product variants, CPQ takes days of lead time out of the quoting process.
What is 3D visualisation?
3D visualisation shows a product as a digital three-dimensional model you can view from every angle, often directly in the browser. The difference with a photo: you show every variant without a studio shoot for each one. Combined with a configurator, the customer sees exactly the product they are composing.
Our product rules are hugely complex and live in Excel. Can we even use a configurator?
Especially then. Complex rules in Excel are usually the proof that a configurator is hiding in your business; they just have not been structured yet. In the business analysis we untangle those sheets and the knowledge of your experts into logic a configurator can execute flawlessly. The complexity does not disappear, it becomes manageable.
What does a 3D configurator cost?
The range is wide: from tens of thousands of euros for a sales configurator with limited variants to a multiple of that once engineering calculations and ERP integrations come into play. The biggest cost driver is not the 3D but the product logic. Ask for an indication in the scope call: after the analysis, build partners quote against the same document and you know where you stand upfront.
How long does building a configurator take?
Count on three to nine months from analysis to go-live, depending on the number of variants, calculations and integrations. The analysis phase of four to eight weeks sets the pace for the rest: the sharper the logic, the fewer surprises during the build.
Can we have our existing product configurator renewed?
Yes. Often the 3D technology is still usable but the problem sits in the product logic or pricing integration behind it. The business analysis maps what can stay and what needs renewal, so you do not pay for a full rebuild when a targeted renewal is enough.
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SEMANU is an independent software advisory firm for SMBs: we sell no software and receive no vendor commissions. Read how we work as an independent software advisory firm.