Configurations and design tables

A configuration is a named version of the same design with its own values: a small, medium and large box, a bracket for M3 and for M4 screws, a long and a short handle. If you know SolidWorks configurations or Onshape configurations, this is the same idea.

The Thing as you model it is the Default configuration. Every other configuration only stores what is different from Default. Change a feature in the recipe and every configuration gets it; change a size in one configuration and only that one changes.

Make sizes in one sentence

Ask the agent:

• "make sizes S, M and L where M is the current one and S and L are ±20 %"
• "add a configuration for M4 screws"
• "a long version with a 200 mm handle"

The agent adds the configurations without touching your model's own values, checks that every size builds, and shows the result as a normal proposal to accept. It is charged as a simple edit.

The design table

Open it from Parameters → Configurations… (or the table icon next to the configuration switcher), the Thing tree's ⋯ menu, or ⌘K Design table…. It works like a spreadsheet:

• Rows are configurations. Default comes first. Use the ⋯ on a row to show, rename, duplicate or delete it.
• Columns are what configurations change: Thing parameters, piece parameters, suppressed pieces and steps, and each piece's material and colour, plus the part number and description. Add column adds any other parameter, step or piece.
• Blank cells follow Default. They show Default's value in grey. Select a cell and press Delete to clear it.
• Click a cell (or press Enter, or just start typing) to edit it. The arrow keys, Tab and Enter move around, and Esc cancels.
• Cells take formulas. Any parameter formula works, plus default.<name>, which is that parameter's Default value. =default.width * 0.8 makes S 80 % of M, and S follows when you change M later. A cell that breaks (an unknown name, a circular formula) is outlined in red with the reason, and the change isn't saved.
• Paste from Excel or Google Sheets with ⌘V or Ctrl+V. A pasted block fills cells from the selected one, and rows past the end become new configurations. A pasted table with a Configuration header row is imported by name.
• Import CSV and Export CSV. The exported file has one row per configuration, so you can edit it in a spreadsheet and import it again. Rows are matched by name, new names become new configurations, and unknown columns are skipped and listed.

Switching

When the Thing has more than one configuration, a Configuration switcher appears at the top of the Parameters panel. Switching is just for you: it rebuilds the model in that size on your screen, but it doesn't change anyone else's screen or the version history. The Make page, Make list and Render Studio follow the configuration you're looking at, and remember it in that browser tab.

"Only this one" or "all configurations"

Under the switcher, Only “S” and All configurations decide what a parameter edit does:

• Only this one (the default) changes the value in the configuration on screen. On Default, the other configurations keep what they showed before. If one of them was following Default for that value, it now keeps the old value.
• All configurations changes the parameter itself and clears every configuration's own value for it, so they all follow the new value.

A parameter with its own value in the shown configuration has a small coral tag with the configuration's name. Click the tag to make it follow Default again.

Leave a feature or piece out of one configuration

• A step: in the Recipe, the eye button on a step turns it off or on in the configuration on screen, for example the LED hole in S only. The row shows Off in S.
• A piece: in the Thing tree, open the piece's ⋯ menu and choose Leave out of “S” or Put back into “S”. A piece that's left out isn't built, exported or listed in that configuration, and neither are its connections.
• In the design table, the Suppress columns do the same for any configuration.

A feature that only one configuration has is turned off in the others.

Everywhere you make things

• Export: pick the configuration in Make → Export, or All configurations as a zip. That gives one file per configuration, named <name>-<configuration>.<ext>, plus a README with the part numbers. ⌘K Export every configuration… takes you there.
• Make list / BOM: the Make list shows the configuration on screen, with its sizes, materials and left-out pieces.
• Drawings: each sheet can draw its own configuration (Sheet & views → Configuration). The title block shows the configuration and its part number. Add a configurations table adds a tabulated drawing table: each value that differs between configurations gets a letter (A = width, B = depth…), with one row per configuration.
• Render Studio: renders the configuration on screen. Switch it in the Make header.
• Marketplace: a listing made from a Thing with configurations offers them as a Configuration dropdown when someone uses it. The linked part remembers the configuration it was made from, and updates keep it.
• Try versions: Save as configuration on a version card keeps that version as a new configuration instead of changing your model. Size changes become its values. Steps or pieces the version adds are added to your model and turned off in every other configuration. A version that moves pieces or edits a step can't be a configuration, so open it as a branch instead.
• History: commits, compare and merge show configuration changes ("S: width 32 → 30", "Added configuration “XL”"), and merges combine them cell by cell.
• Working together: configuration edits sync live like any other edit. Two people changing different cells both keep their change. If the same cell is changed twice, the first save wins and the other person is told.

Good to know

• Up to 100 configurations per Thing.
• A linked Marketplace part's sizes come from its own listing configuration (Configure on the link), not from your design table. You can still leave it out of a configuration.
• Default can't be deleted, but you can rename it, for example to "M".