Every gate is sold with a pencil sketch and a “roughly like this”. The customer cannot picture the slats with their pillars, the motor is left for later, and someone has to go out and measure the opening and the side clearance before giving a price. With the finished gate on screen, opening at the entrance to their house, the conversation is a different one.
On the workshop table there is a delivery note turned over with three pencil sketches on the back. They are all for the same customer, a house in an estate twenty minutes away: a four-metre slider for the car and a matching pedestrian gate. The customer wants “something like my neighbour's, but more modern”. The first sketch had bars; the second, horizontal slats; the third mixes slats with an arched top the customer saw in a magazine.
Every sketch has meant a phone call and a photo on WhatsApp. The customer looks at the paper on their phone and cannot picture it: they do not know how the slats will look in anthracite grey next to their masonry pillars, or whether the slider has room to open alongside the garden wall. Before putting a price on it, the workshop has to go back to the plot to measure the clear opening, the height and the side metres the leaf needs to slide.
And then there is the automation. The motor, the remotes, the flashing light and opening from the phone are quoted separately by a trusted installer, so the customer receives two pieces of paper with two prices and the feeling that the gate “has gone through the roof”. They ask for time to think. Meanwhile the workshop has two jobs on hold waiting for a yes and another customer who has called asking for “the same as my brother-in-law's, but in black”.
Bars, slats, flat sheet, mesh or wooden lattice; straight, spiked or arched top; masonry or metal pillars. Every combination completely changes how the entrance looks, and a hand drawing shows neither the colour nor the proportions.
What it costs youHours of drawing that go unpaid if the customer does not confirm.
A slider needs side clearance to open; a swing gate needs room inwards for its two leaves. Without those measurements you cannot even choose the type, so the workshop drives to the plot before giving a price. If the customer ends up choosing another workshop, the trip and the morning are lost.
What it costs youMeasuring visits that come to nothing.
The motor with remotes, opening from the phone, the flashing light, the video entry system and the integrated letterbox usually go on another piece of paper or get mentioned verbally. The customer adds it all up at the end and finds it expensive, or buys the gate without a motor and has someone else automate it later.
What it costs youThe automation, and its margin, goes to somebody else.
There are standard-size gates sold at a fixed price. Against that, a made-to-measure gate explained with a drawing and a number looks expensive. If the customer cannot see that yours fits their opening, their pillars and their façade, they compare metre by metre and go for the standard one.
What it costs youBespoke work, which is your value, gets sold as more of the same.
While the customer hesitates, the workshop does not know whether to hold the week for that gate or give it to another job. Every doubt arrives as another phone call or a photo of something seen online, and every answer is another sketch. The diary fills up with “nearly confirmed” jobs that cannot be started.
What it costs youWeeks of workshop time that cannot be planned.
Add up the sketches and visits that never turn into orders. The figures are from a typical workshop; put in yours.
€ a month
The values are an example: replace them with yours. The calculation is a simple multiplication and does not come from any study.
The workshop stops drawing variants by hand. Design, top finish, colour and pillar type are changed with one tap and the gate is seen in 3D with its real proportions: the customer tries slats or bars, straight or arched, anthracite or dark green, and saves an image of the versions they like.
Design, top finish, pillars and colour in 3D
The customer enters the width of the opening and the height, and the configurator shows how much side clearance the slider needs to open. The gate opens and closes with a button so the full travel can be seen. By the time they call the workshop, they already know whether their plot takes a slider or whether a swing gate suits them better.
Sizes, side clearance and opening in 3D
The customer sees the total from the start and the automation goes into your order, not somebody else's. Motor with two remotes, opening from the phone, flashing light, video entry system and integrated letterbox are added while the gate is being designed, and your price list adds each one to the indicative price.
Automation with an indicative price
The customer saves up to three versions of their gate and looks at them together, with the differences in design, opening, extras and price highlighted. With augmented reality they place their gate at real size at the entrance to their house from their phone. That is where you can see why it is not a catalogue gate.
Comparison tool and augmented reality
The customer keeps their gate on their phone and settles their own doubts: they change the colour, try the arched top or compare it with a swing gate without calling the workshop. When they say yes, the order sheet arrives with the leaf and its sizes, the design and the colour, the motor kit and the receiver, ready to schedule.
The gate saved on their phone and an order sheetSet a 5-metre opening as a slider, look at the side clearance it asks for and switch it to a two-leaf swing gate to compare.
An open demo, with no registration, with example products and prices. It is designed for manufacturers, dealers and installers: private customers are welcome to try it, but we do not sell the product.
Bring photos of finished jobs: with the demo in front of us we can see in 20 minutes which designs, top finishes and automation would have to be loaded so the customer designs their gate before calling you.
Most projects for manufacturers fall between €14,500 and €35,000, depending on the catalogue, the manufacturing rules and the integrations. Maintenance and hosting from €190 a month. We start from a base that already works: you are not paying for development from scratch.
Would you rather talk it through? Call 662 061 421 or write to grup3d@grup3d.es.
There are more short answers in frequently asked questions about 3D configurators and who we are in 3D configurator company.
Sliding, two-leaf swing and single-leaf pedestrian, with bars, horizontal slats, flat sheet, mesh or wooden lattice and a straight, spiked or arched top. For your workshop we would include your designs, profiles and finishes, including those models of your own that people ask for most.
When they enter the width of the opening, the configurator shows the side clearance the leaf needs to open; in the demo, a 4-metre slider asks for 4.3 metres of travel. With your manufacturing rules, that figure is adjusted to your guiding system so it matches what you would measure on the plot.
Yes. The motor, the remotes, opening from the phone, the flashing light and the video entry system are configured as extras with their price. If a partner installer fits the automation, your price list can include their part and the request can be assigned to them by area, along with the gate.
Developments start from €6,500 for a visual configurator of one product family; most projects for manufacturers fall between €14,500 and €35,000, depending on the catalogue, the rules and the integrations, plus maintenance from €190 a month. With gates, what changes the scope most is how many types, designs and top finishes you want to show, how your price list is calculated and whether the requests have to go into your CRM. We settle it in a 20-minute demo, with photos of the gates you make most in front of us.
Yes. The single-leaf pedestrian gate is one of the three types in the demo and takes the same designs, top finishes and colours as the slider and the swing gate. The customer configures both with the same finish, compares them and orders the set in one go, instead of ordering the pedestrian gate months later and in another shade.
An order sheet with references and quantities: the leaf with its sizes, design and colour, the motor kit, the receiver for opening from a phone and the extras chosen, plus the PDF the customer saw. If you work with an ERP, the order can go straight into it.
See all the door and window configurators → · See all the 3D configurators by sector →
Walls, floor, ceiling, doors and control panel
See page →PVC, aluminium or timber · 6 opening types · 6 glazings
See page →Sectional, roller, high-speed or sliding
See page →A guide to ordering or making a driveway gate: sliding, swing or pedestrian, how to measure the opening and the space it needs to open, what to decide and what gets calculated.
Read the guide (in Spanish) →