Introduction to different parts of the 3D product configurator
As noted in Brief introduction, the 3D product configurator is composed of the Planner, the Manager (aka Management UI), the Backend and the APIs. This page goes through each part in more detail
The Planner
The Planner takes all the configuration guidance that is made on the Manager and based on the configuration, visualises the possibilities to the buyer users on the 3D scene. Menus and structures represent the content of the Product Tree View under the Product to the user for selections in form of texts, thumbnails, 3D models, materials etc and the integrations leverage the data from the Manager configuration, like SKU / Sales Code mappings to fetch pricing information that the Planner shows to the user.
You can learn more about the way The Planner works from using the planner
The Manager
The most important part for doing configuration is the Manager.
As the Manager is used to define the composition rules and setup the assemly logic, it's the central part of work prior to launching the configurator to your customers/users and will be a central part of maintenance and updates down the operational road. Depending on your role and configuration, you might have access to one or more tenants, which help segregate data to relevant organizations and groups.
When you log into the Manager you will be directed selecting the tenant you want to access or in case you only have access to one tenant, directly to the tenant itself.
If you have access rights to multiple tenants and you have not selected tenant in the login URL, the Manager shows you a listing of tenants you have access to and in order for you to enter, you must click on the tenant icon. Note that the tenant names in the picture are obfuscated.
If you logged in with tenant URL or you have only access to single tenant, you enter directly to the tenant main screen.
On the left of the screen you will have a menu bar that contains links to important areas of the Manager. The menu is contextual, so it will look different when you have not selected a tenant and when you have. You can see the tenant name in the URL bar of the browser
The menu bar when tenant is selected looks like and adds the following items to user
- Home - the homepage
- Products - the configuration window for products that are configured in the Planner
- 3D Scene - the Manager UI viewer for testing & staging work
- Translations - the localization area for the Planner multi-language support
- View Changelog - new deployment updates and new features and improvements and fixes
- Give Feedback - place for you to share your needs and vote and view feedback from others
- Documentation - this site you are looking
- Logout
You can read more about the Manager from here
The Backend
Many things happen on the backend, and the backend APIs allow some functionality to be custom developed to your application. Majority of the backend is something you do not have direct access to. Refer to API documentation for information about the API calls that you can perform on the backend.
Note
APIs are a feature in our roadmap and will be documented when released