Ecommerce & Retail · Product Configurators
We developed an interactive 3D product configurator and automated the creation of production-ready files for a custom e-commerce product.
Outcome
35 minutes of manual prep removed per order; elevation data becomes preview and production shapefile.
A direct-to-consumer business built its reputation on unique, custom-manufactured art. Their products require a high degree of personalization, allowing customers to create something that is truly their own. This model sits outside the capabilities of standard e-commerce platforms, which are built for inventory, not complex, on-demand creation.
The client intended to launch a new product line of 3D topographic maps, a concept that presented a significant technical challenge. They needed a way for customers to select any geographical area in the world and see an accurate 3D preview of the final physical product. The subsequent manual process of converting that custom order into precise manufacturing files was slow, costly, and a barrier to growth.
Robust Devs was engaged to engineer a complete solution. We built a custom web application that integrates with Shopify, managing the entire customer journey from interactive design to the automated handoff of production-ready files. The system provides a fluid user experience and removes the operational friction from their manufacturing process.
The challenge
How we solved it
Technologies
Customers can explore a world map, select any location, and frame their desired area within a set of geometric shapes. The system instantly calculates the topography and renders an interactive 3D model of the final art piece. This gives the buyer complete control and confidence in what they are commissioning, connecting their choices directly to the physical product.
When a purchase is completed in Shopify, our system automatically processes the order's unique parameters. It packages all the geographic coordinates, elevation data, scale, and material choices into a single georeferenced shapefile. This file serves as a perfect digital blueprint for the manufacturing equipment, removing the 35 minutes of manual file prep each order used to take and ensuring every piece is produced exactly as the customer designed it.
How we built it
Let the customer design on a live map and 3D model, then generated the manufacturing file from the same data. The product is a relief map cut from real terrain, which no standard configurator can represent. Leaflet handles the map selection in the browser and Three.js renders the 3D preview, while a Laravel backend pulls MapTiler and OpenStreetMap elevation data and does the calculation the renderer needs. The same order data feeds production: on a successful Shopify purchase the system generates a georeferenced shapefile with the manufacturing specification and delivers it to the workshop, which removed 35 minutes of manual file preparation from every order.
In the client's words
“Thirty-five minutes of prep per order, gone. I did not think the shapefile part was possible in a browser.”
Tell us what you're building. We'll show you how we'd approach it and what it would take to ship.