What a preset catalog is
A preset configurator starts from a fixed set of models. You pick a model, then choose from the sizes, colors and options someone set up ahead of time. Anything outside that list turns into "call us."
Presets are easier to build software around. Every combination is known in advance, so pricing and drawings can be prepared once and reused. That's convenient for the software company. It's a lot less convenient for you.
Customers don't buy from a catalog
Nobody walks up with a building that matches a preset. They want the shop a little wider than the standard size because the equipment has to fit. They want the lean-to on the other side because that's where the driveway is. They want an overhead door where the preset has a walk door. They want a mezzanine over the back bay.
Each of those is a small change. In a preset tool, each one is a dead end. The customer either settles for something close or you finish the quote by hand. Either way, the tool stopped helping right when the customer got specific. Specific customers are the ones ready to buy.
Why it matters to closing
A customer looking at their own building acts differently from one looking at something close. They stop comparing options and start making decisions. Door here. Window there. Wainscot in this color. That's buying behavior, and you want more of it.
A preset pushes the other way. The customer sees something that isn't quite right and goes looking for someone who'll show them what they actually asked for. If that someone is another builder down the road with a pencil and a notepad, the preset just cost you a deal you were close to.
There's a pricing side too. When the design is custom, the price has to come from the design, not from a lookup table of preset sizes. If the tool can't price the building the customer actually wants, you're back to estimating by hand, and any number you give on the spot is a guess.
What full custom design looks like
Redline is the only configurator with full custom design options instead of a catalog of presets. You start from the building, not a model number. Width, length, height, foundation, pitch, truss, soffit, wainscot and gutters are set to whatever the job needs.
Your customers get the same freedom on your website. The Website 3D Designer adds attached buildings, lean-tos, open walls, partition walls and mezzanines, and places doors and windows with Add Opening. When they send a quote request, the full design lands in your dashboard. What a full-spec lead does for you.
Because the building is modeled as framing, the output follows the design: material lists, dimensioned elevations, sheet layouts and post layouts. Once your supplier price sheet is loaded, pricing comes from your costs. A custom building gets a real number, not a "starting at."
Custom doesn't have to mean slow
The worry with custom is that it takes longer. It does if custom means drawing every building from scratch. It doesn't if the configurator already knows how a building goes together. You change the input. The framing, drawings and takeoff follow.
That's the real point. Presets are fast because somebody did the thinking in advance for a short list of buildings. A good configurator is fast because the rules are built in, so the thinking applies to any building you put in front of it.
How to tell what you're looking at
- Ask for a size that isn't on the list. Odd width, odd length, a taller sidewall.
- Put a lean-to on a side the demo didn't use.
- Move a door to a spot the demo didn't show.
- Turn the cladding off and look at what's underneath. Why that matters.
- Ask where the price comes from after each change.
If any of those turns into "we'd handle that offline," you're looking at a catalog with a 3D viewer on top.
Try it on a real job
The full configurator is $250/mo with 2 seats included and $0 setup. Use the 10-day free trial on the building you quoted last month, not a demo building, and see if it gets all the way to a priced design. The features page lists what's included.