What a customer can change on the page — gull system handbook

The boundary of a gull system web configurator: a library of exported states, a finite number of combinations, configurations, suppression and lists yes, a free dimension no, when it is custom work.

What a customer can change on the page

A page does not rebuild the model in the browser. It shows one of the states SOLIDWORKS saved at export — as many as there are combinations of values in the form. What is on a list works; a free number does not.

How a page works

At export SOLIDWORKS walks every combination of values the page's form allows and saves each as a model. The page then only switches between the saved models by what the customer picked. Nothing is computed in the browser — which is why a page is fast, and why an arbitrary number cannot be typed on it.

The rule

If every answer the customer can give is on a list, the page can do it. As soon as they can type a number, it is custom work.

• Input on the page: choosing an assembly configuration (a List from Options) - Works?: yes - Why: a finite number of variants
• Input on the page: accessories on / off (a Checkbox → suppression) - Works?: yes - Why: two states
• Input on the page: a size from a range (a List: 1200, 1500, 1800) - Works?: yes - Why: three states — a rule drives the dimension, but from a list
• Input on the page: colour, texture, material from a list - Works?: yes - Why: the appearance does not change the geometry
• Input on the page: quantity 1–8 (a Parameter with MIN, MAX and Step) - Works?: yes - Why: a number with a step is a list: 8 states
• Input on the page: length 500–3000 mm as a free number - Works?: no - Why: infinitely many states; the app refuses such an input by name at export

How many combinations there are

• Three configurations × two accessories × four sizes = 24 states. Reasonable.
• Three configurations × a length in 10 mm steps from 500 to 3000 = 753 states. Too many; turn the length into a range.
• Colour, texture and material do not enter the product — they change only the appearance, not the geometry.
• If the form has a Library Table that narrows the choice, only as many states as it has rows are created.

What to do with a dimension that should be free

• Most often a range is enough: the customer picks 1000, 1250, 1500 mm instead of any number. Production usually prefers that anyway.
• The free number stays in the CAD configurator: there SOLIDWORKS runs and the dimension rebuilds exactly. You take the web order as an enquiry and an engineer enters it through a form.
• If you need a free dimension on the page itself, that is work for us — get in touch and we build it to order.