Where quoting actually happens
Think about where you are when a customer asks what a building would run them. It's rarely the office. You're in the truck between jobs. You're on a site walk. You're at the counter at the farm store. The question comes up when the customer is thinking about it, and that's the best moment to answer it.
The usual answer is "let me get back to you." Then you drive back, sit down, rebuild what you talked about from memory and a sketch on a notepad, and send something a day or two later. By then the customer has called somebody else too.
What "works on a phone" should mean
Plenty of software says it's mobile. Usually that means a login screen that fits the phone and a dashboard you can scroll. The design tool itself still wants a mouse and a big monitor. That's not working on a phone. That's checking email on a phone.
A configurator that really works on a phone lets you build the building there. Set the size. Change the roof. See the frame. Get a number. No laptop in the truck, no app to install, no "I'll finish this at the office."
Redline is the only building configurator that runs the full estimator on a phone. It runs in the phone's browser. There's nothing to install.
What you can do from the truck
On a phone, the dealer configurator sets width, length, height, foundation, pitch, truss, soffit, wainscot and gutters. Frame View, Elevations, Sheet Layout and Design Loads are one tap away.
That covers the conversation you're actually having on site. The customer wants it wider. You make it wider. They ask what a steeper pitch looks like. You show them. They ask about wainscot. You add it, and they see it on their building instead of in a brochure.
Frame View matters more than people think. When a customer can see the structure under the steel, they understand they're buying a building, not a picture. It keeps you honest too. If something in the frame looks wrong, you catch it in the driveway instead of after the order goes in.
Pricing on site
A design without a number doesn't close anything. Once your supplier price sheet is loaded, pricing comes from your own costs, not a generic table. Change the building and the number follows it.
That's the difference between "it'll be somewhere around" and a number you can stand behind. It also means you're not doing math on a calculator app while the customer watches. How to quote a building in a single visit.
Your customers are on phones too
The other half of mobile is your website. A lot of people look at buildings on their phone, at night, after work. If the designer on your website doesn't work there, those people leave.
The Website 3D Designer works on a phone too. A customer can add attached buildings, lean-tos, open walls, partition walls and mezzanines, place doors and windows with Add Opening, and send a quote request with the full design into your dashboard. You open it and you're looking at their building, not a name and a phone number. Why contact forms lose building leads.
What to test before you trust it
Don't take anyone's word for "mobile," including ours. Pull out your phone and try it:
- Build a real building from scratch without pinching to zoom.
- Change the size and pitch and watch the model update.
- Look at the frame, not just the skin.
- Open the elevations and read them on the small screen.
- Get a price from your own costs.
- Do all of it standing up, outside, where you'd really be using it.
If you can't do that standing in a driveway, it doesn't work on a phone. It just loads on one.
What it costs
The full configurator is $250/mo with 2 seats included and $0 setup, and it covers all five framing systems on that plan. The plan that adds the designer on your own website is $290/mo. Details are on the pricing page. The 10-day free trial is the easiest way to test it on your own phone.