The 3D models in a configurator is structured into
- Products
- Components
- Designs
- Materials
The relationships looks like the following:
The only entity that contains a 3D-model is the Design. The other entities (except for Materials), are used to structure the Designs into a logical hierarchy to support the requirements for the configurator.
¶ Configurator
The Configurator is the entitity that puts it all together, it has:
- 3D-models - via Products
- A Layout - changes the user interface to support different use cases
- Menu - the main point of interaction, allowing the user to change the model, read information, move the camera, and more
- Prices
- Rules - advanced rule system to support specific scenarios
- Unique URL - when accessing the configurator in a browser. Read more about customizing the URL.
¶ Product
A product is a collection of components for a physical location within the house, or by other logical similarities, such as exterior, interior, first floor, second floor, roof, kitchen, bathroom.
The main reasons for using products are:
- Faster loading - Ability to avoid loading a group of non-cruicial components when initially loading a configurator.
- Easier customizations - Ability to hide entire products in animations, such as the roof and second floor when viewing the first floor.
- Reusability - Products can be reused in multiple configurators, and their components, designs and materials can have unique prices in every configurator.
¶ Component
Components are the main building blocks in a configurator, and can be translated into a single building component.
Each Component should be responsible for a building component on a specific floor. This makes it possible to hide components if displaying something below them, and makes it easier to track down and fix faulty models.
Don't merge components that can be further broken down, for example "Outer walls floor 1, 2 and 3"
Do divide into more components if possible, for example Outer walls floor 1, Outer walls floor 2 and Outer walls floor 3
¶ Context names
Context names are used to dynamically target a type of component, such as the roof, outer walls, floor in the bathroom, kitchen counter top, etc. This makes it possible to swap components without creating a hard reference to any of them.
The context name has the following purposes:
- Used in menu buttons to make the choices inside the component available to the user, i.e. designs and design materials. The choices are displayed in the options menu.
- Used to make components mirror another, such as when the window should match the color of the exterior walls.
¶ Design
A design is used to represent a shape of a component with a 3D-model, and can be displayed to the user to allow selections. A design can also be empty (no 3D-model) to represent a no-choice.
This faucet component has three designs, where the empty design C works as an option to exclude the faucet from the house:
Each design can have different colors, which is implemented by using Design materials.
Characteristics:
- A design's name, description and icon is displayed in the options menu. This information can be managed by a Design template.
- A component can only have one design loaded at any time.
- The first design in a component is loaded by default.
- The design is the only entity that directly contains a 3D-model.
¶ Material (design material)
A design material is one or more materials applied to a design, and can be displayed to the user to allow selections. In simpler terms, design material are the different colors a 3D-model can have.
Characteristics:
- A design material's name, description and icon is displayed in the options menu. This information can be managed by a Design material template.
- Core materials are always loaded, and materials that Loads automatically are loaded by default.
- Design materials reference one or more Materials, which can be found in the tenant's Material library, making it possible to reuse the same material in different components and designs across multiple projects.
¶ Sub components
Components can be added to designs to create sub components. They can be used to include components based on a design choice, such as a chimney:
