Multilingual 3D Configurator: Languages, Feet or Meters, and Exports
By Facundo Campo, 3D quoting tool developer
In short: A multilingual 3D configurator adapts text, units, standard sizes, currency and industry vocabulary to each buyer's country, so a manufacturer can sell abroad with one tool and one set of building rules.
A multilingual 3D configurator is the same configurator for your product, running on the same building rules, but talking to each buyer in their own language, with their units (feet or meters), their currency and the words they actually use for what they're buying. If you want to sell abroad, translating the buttons is the easy part. Everything else is what decides whether the tool works.
Why translating the text isn't enough
Say you run a steel building shop in Rosario, Argentina, and you want to start quoting in Uruguay, in Chile and later in the US. With a configurator that only speaks Spanish, three things happen:
- The buyer in Uruguay understands it. The buyer in Chile searches for "galpón" but also for "nave" or "bodega", and your screen uses words that aren't common there.
- The buyer in the US doesn't think in meters. They think about a 30 × 40 ft metal building with 12 ft eaves, and a screen asking for the span in meters makes them do math before they decide anything.
- Numbers are written differently. In Argentina the decimal mark is a comma; in the US it's a period. A misread "7,5" is a quoting mistake waiting to happen.
So when I talk about a multilingual configurator, I mean four layers: text, units, currency and vocabulary. All four are handled during development, and none of them touches the rules for how your product is built.
Feet or meters: the part people underestimate
Converting units looks like a multiplication. It isn't. A manufacturer in Argentina works with round metric sizes: 12 × 24 m, 18 × 30 m, frames every 5 or 6 m. Convert those straight to feet and a US buyer sees a 59 × 98 ft building, which looks nothing like what they're used to ordering. Over there, standard sizes go up in steps of 5 or 10 ft.
There are two ways to go, and it pays to decide before you start:
- Show the same sizes, converted and rounded, when the product is built the same way for every market. That's the simplest option and it works well for modules, horse stalls or homes with fixed dimensions.
- Keep a separate size list per market, when you're willing to build in feet for that country. The 3D model is generated the same way from the rules, because the engine doesn't care whether the width came in as 9 m or 30 ft.
What you don't want is a mix: the buyer picks sizes in feet and the shop floor gets a metric number with decimals nobody asked for. The order that reaches production has to be in the units your shop works in, whatever units the buyer used. I cover that in from quote to production.
Currency and pricing by country
If your configurator shows a price, the language brings the currency with it. A quote for Chile in Argentine pesos is useless, and one in US dollars for Uruguay may or may not work depending on how you sell there. The price table can have a column per market, each with its own currency, freight to that destination and the margin you set for it.
That's built as part of the custom development, and your team manages it without calling a programmer to change a number. If you already quote in two currencies at home, the logic is the same one I describe in quoting in multiple currencies, just with one more country.
Industry words, country by country
Every market has its own words, and buyers don't trust a screen that doesn't use them:
- In Mexico they say "nave industrial" and "lámina"; in Argentina, "galpón" and "chapa".
- In Colombia, "bodega" and "cubierta".
- In the US, a pole barn, a carport and a metal building are different products, not synonyms.
- In the UK, a garden room isn't a shed, even though both sit at the back of the garden.
That's why I don't translate word for word. I write the English version directly in English, thinking about how a buyer over there would say it, and the manufacturer checks the product terms, because they know what their customers call things. For other languages, the best move is to have a native speaker who knows the trade review the text before it goes live.
What exists today and what's built to order
The Estructuras 3D site and its three public configurators already work in Spanish and English: metal buildings, prefab homes and horse stables. Open any of them in either language and you'll see the interface change while the model stays the same.
Whatever is specific to your business is developed for you: another language (Portuguese for Brazil, say), feet and inches, standard sizes per market, prices in another currency, and the PDF quote in the buyer's language. All of it comes from the same configuration and the same building rules, so you don't end up maintaining one configurator per country.
How to approach your first foreign market
If you've never sold abroad with a configurator, you don't need to launch in five countries at once. A sensible order:
- Pick a market where you already get inquiries or have a dealer.
- Decide whether you'll build to the same sizes or to sizes made for that country.
- Collect the words your buyers there use: emails, messages, quotes you've already sent.
- Have someone from that country test the configurator before you announce it.
For the sales side, I explain how things change when the buyer can't visit your shop in exporting with a 3D configurator.
I'm Facundo Campo, a software developer based in Quilmes, Buenos Aires, Argentina. I work in English and Spanish with manufacturers in any country, over video calls, and I deliver each stage as a link you can test in your browser. If you want to see your product in another language or with other units, message me on WhatsApp at +54 9 11 6193-3176 or email facundocampo100@gmail.com, or see how custom 3D quoting software works.
Frequently asked questions
Does the buyer pick the language, or do I?
Either works. Usually the configurator opens in the language of the site it's embedded in and has a switch to change it. How it works in your case gets decided during development.
Can it show feet and meters at the same time?
Yes, a unit switch or both measurements side by side can be built. What matters is that production always gets the order in the units it builds with.
Do I need a separate configurator for each country?
No. It's one configurator with the same product rules and different text, units, currencies and price tables per market. Change a rule once and it changes everywhere.
Who writes the text in other languages?
I write the English text myself, directly in English. Your team checks the technical terms for your product, and for other languages it's best to have a native speaker who knows the trade review it.
