Shed and Patio 3D Configurator for Australia and New Zealand
By Facundo Campo, 3D quoting tool developer
In short: A 3D configurator for builders in Australia and New Zealand lets buyers design their shed, patio, carport or granny flat and see it in 3D, using local terms and metric sizes, so the enquiry arrives with the structure already defined.
A shed and patio 3D configurator is a web tool where an Australian or New Zealand buyer designs their shed, patio, carport or granny flat by choosing the size, roof, doors and colors, and sees it in 3D while they decide. Down under, these products come with their own vocabulary, and a configurator that doesn't speak it stands out the wrong way.
Speaking the buyer's language
Before getting into the configurator, it's worth lining up the terms, because they're what your buyer searches for and expects to read:
- Sheds cover a lot of ground: garden sheds, garage sheds, farm and machinery sheds, hay sheds, and barn-style sheds with a taller center section and lean-tos down the sides.
- Patios are roofed structures attached to the house that turn the back of it into covered outdoor space, with a flat, skillion or gable roof.
- Carports, single or double, attached or freestanding.
- Granny flats: a small home at the back of the block, for family or to rent out.
- Roller doors and PA doors on the openings list.
- And in New Zealand, kitset buildings that arrive as a kit for the owner or a builder to put up.
A configurator for a builder in Queensland, New South Wales or Canterbury has to use exactly those words, in metric.
Why 3D helps so much with a patio
Of all these products, the patio gets the most out of 3D. Your buyer isn't buying a standalone structure; they're adding to their house. They want to know how it meets the back wall, whether a gable roof blocks the upstairs window, whether a flat or skillion roof still lets light into the kitchen. Brochure photos make that hard to picture. A 3D model they can spin and walk under makes it easy to decide.
Sheds raise similar questions, just about use: will the tractor clear the roller door, is a lean-to worth adding for the firewood, should the machinery shed be open at the front or fully enclosed.
What the buyer decides
- Size: width, length and height. A 6 × 9 m garage shed, a 12 × 18 m farm shed, a 6 × 4 m patio.
- Roof: gable, skillion, curved or flat, and the pitch.
- Openings: roller doors, sliding doors, PA doors and windows, each on its wall.
- Walls: open, enclosed or partly enclosed, with or without a lean-to.
- Colors: roof, walls and trim.
What you can try today
The metal building configurator on my site shows how the engine handles this kind of structure: width, length, height, pitch, gable, single-slope or curved roof, truss or solid-web frames, open, half-height or fully enclosed walls, frame and sheeting colors, a side lean-to with its own width and drop, a sliding door you size and can open, walk doors and windows. For granny flats, the prefab home configurator has a floor plan editor, a porch, furniture and a metal roof option.
Both have a Walk mode, night view, layers, image download and a share link, and both work on a phone. They don't show prices, and they aren't Australian configurators yet: a shed, patio or carport with your sizes, your profiles and your terms gets built as custom work on the same engine. For carport logic specifically, I wrote about the carport 3D quoting tool.
Wind, cyclones and council approval
Northern Australia has cyclone regions, and structures across the country are designed for the wind region they go into. In both countries, some jobs need council approval. The configurator doesn't replace that work: it can apply rules you set per region, like maximum sizes or reinforced structures, and everything else gets checked by a local professional.
Time zones and how we'd work
I'm Facundo Campo, a software developer based in Quilmes, Buenos Aires, and I work remotely in English and Spanish. The time difference with Australia and New Zealand is big: late afternoon and evening in Argentina (UTC−3) lines up with early the next morning on Australia's east coast and in New Zealand. We'd book video calls in that window and handle the rest over email and WhatsApp. Often you'll leave a comment at the end of your day and wake up to the change done, with a link to try it in your browser. You send your catalog, photos, option list and a few sample quotes. More on the process in how I work with manufacturers.
If you build sheds, patios, carports or granny flats in Australia or New Zealand, message me on WhatsApp at +54 9 11 6193-3176 or email facundocampo100@gmail.com. I answer in English and Spanish. You can also read about custom 3D quoting software, or check what you need for a 3D quoting tool before getting started.
Frequently asked questions
Can the configurator show the patio attached to the house?
That can be built: a reference back wall with its eave height, so the buyer sees how the patio connects. The home configurator already shows a house on a block, which is the starting point for that.
Does it work for kitset sheds?
Yes. Kitsets are ideal for configuring, because the parts are standard and the rules are clear. The configurator can also generate the parts list for each kit, as part of the build.
Is it in metric?
Yes. Australia and New Zealand sell in metric, which is what my configurators already use. Wording, terms and currency are set up during the build.
How do we coordinate across that time difference?
With video calls in the window where our days overlap, and the rest over email and WhatsApp. Every step arrives as a link you can try whenever suits you.
