Handbook — gull system

The gull system manual: the six steps of a CAD configurator, rules and functions, forms, Excel, output documentation, workflow, web configurators and troubleshooting.

Handbook

The gull system manual: how to build a CAD configurator, how to turn it into a page for your customers, and what to do when something does not go as expected.

The handbook describes gull system as you see it, screen by screen and button by button. At each step it also covers what the screen itself does not show: what an empty field does, why something did not happen, and what to watch out for.

Questions you ask before buying (what the product does, what it costs, who owns the models) belong in the FAQ and on the product pages.

Every article is a tutorial: a short introduction, the steps with screenshots, common problems and what to do next. Short extra advice is in Tips and tricks.

How the handbook is arranged

• Getting started. Installing, signing in, the app settings and your first configurator.
• Building a CAD configurator. Capturing parameters, drawings, colours and materials, inputs and rules.
• Orders and documentation. Forms and Excel, folders and file names, the workflow and the order Log.
• Web configurators. The page for your customers: design, layout, export, publishing and orders from the page.
• Library and administration. Lists in the Library, sharing with the company and the Trash.
• Tips and tricks. Short advice that saves time.

What holds everywhere

• The model is yours and stays yours. gull system connects to a finished assembly, part and drawing and drives them. It does not draw or generate them itself, so the configurator controls only what is already in the CAD.
• A configurator is built in six steps. Capture parameters, Define inputs, Rules, Input sources, Output documentation, Workflow. The steps are in the configurator's side menu, and articles refer to them by name. The configurator's name, model and CAD are in its Properties.
• An input's name carries the wiring. An input's name is what rules, form fields, Excel columns and folder-name formulas refer to. Renaming propagates everywhere, so it pays to name inputs the way you talk about them.
• One Save, in the window header. Every screen is saved with the Save button in the window header (Ctrl+S). A capture in the CAD is sent only by the panel's Save button; a web page changes only by export and publishing.
• When gull system is not sure, it refuses. gull system never guesses an ambiguous instruction, and a material is picked from a list rather than typed. The reason is that the CAD does not report many mistakes: it leaves the original value on the part and everything looks fine. You see a refusal at once; a silent mistake is easy to miss.
• When something did not happen, read the Log. For every order the Log shows what reached the model and what did not, including rules that returned nothing. An empty result is not an error; it means "send nothing". Reading the Log is faster than guessing from the result.