Controls

Controls are what your customer touches. Each one asks a question about the product, and the answer drives the 3D model, the price, or both.

You add them in the Controls tab of the GUI section. Give each one a label, since that is what your customer reads, and a set of choices where it has them.

Choosing from a fixed set

Dropdown is compact and right when there are many choices or when the choice is not the interesting part of the page. Ten wood species belong in a dropdown.

Radio buttons show every choice at once, which suits two to five options where you want the customer to see the range. They make choices feel considered rather than hidden.

Checkboxes are for independent extras, where any combination is allowed. Add a cable channel, add felt feet, add a care kit.

Switch is a single yes or no, presented as a toggle. Assembled or flat packed, with or without a lid.

Numbers and free entry

Range slider is for a continuous measurement, like width or length. It pairs naturally with a pricing formula, so the price moves as the customer drags. Set sensible minimum, maximum and step values, because a slider that allows a 3 mm shelf is a slider you will regret.

Number is the same idea when the customer knows the figure they want and would rather type it than aim at a slider.

Text collects a line of words, most often a name or a short message for engraving or printing.

Textarea is the same for longer text, such as delivery notes or a message on a plaque.

Date and time collect a date or a time, for products where a delivery day or an event time is part of the order.

Email collects an address, validated as one.

File lets a customer upload their own artwork. Combined with personalisation on the Pro plan, an uploaded image can appear directly on the product.

Colour gives them a colour picker for products where you genuinely offer any colour rather than a chosen range.

Button is not a question. It performs an action, such as downloading a PDF of the configuration.

Making the choices look like the product

For dropdowns, radios and checkboxes, you can change how the options are presented, and this is where a configurator starts to look considered rather than generic.

Plain text is the default. Colour swatches show the actual colour, which is the only sensible way to pick between fifteen paints. An option can carry more than one colour, drawn as a segmented swatch, which is useful for a two-tone finish or a patterned fabric.

Image swatches show a picture per option, which is what you want for wood grain, marble or textile, where a colour name tells the customer nothing.

Cards give each option an image, a label and a description together, for choices that need explaining. Buttons and pills are compact labelled shapes, good for sizes.

Dropdowns have their own presentation choices, including a styled list that matches your theme rather than using the browser's native list, and versions that show an image or a description beside each entry.

Naming and pricing options

Each option has a value, which is what the configurator matches against, and a label, which is what the customer reads. Keep values simple and stable, and put the nice wording in the label.

Options can carry a price, which is the amount that choice adds to the total, covered in Pricing. On the Pro plan an option can also point at a real product in your catalogue, so choosing it adds your actual stocked item to the order.

There is also a manufacturer code field, which never appears to your customer but does appear on the order document your workshop receives. This is where you put the code your supplier or your production team uses, so the person making the thing sees "WLN-2201" rather than "Walnut, dark".

Showing an option only when it applies

An option can be set to appear only under certain conditions, so a lining colour is offered only once the customer has chosen a lined version. The same applies to whole controls.

For simple dependencies, set the condition on the control or the option directly. For anything involving several things at once, Logic is the better tool.

Validation

Controls can require an answer, and text fields can be limited in length or checked against a pattern. If something is required and missing, the customer is told rather than being allowed to buy the wrong thing.

There is a validation summary element you can place in the layout, which collects every outstanding problem in one spot instead of leaving them scattered.

Keeping it manageable

The temptation with a good configurator tool is to expose everything you are capable of making. Resist it a little. A customer facing forty controls buys nothing, while the same product with six well-chosen questions sells.

If you genuinely have many options, group them with sections, accordions or tabs in the Layout tab, and consider hiding advanced ones behind a condition until they are relevant.