Autodesk is considering a number of options to allow you to organize your designs, instead of the simplistic “flat list” we have today. We are interested in your feedback on this issue. Here are a few discussion-starter questions, feel free to answer these or bring up anything else:
How many designs (roughly) do you expect to manage on Configurator 360?
How would your designs be organized/categorized?
Would there be any difference in presentation/function between the “catalog” and the “designs tab”?
What other factors should we consider?
I think it would be cool if we could get 50-60 product lines (With thousands of individual end products) going in configurator. I like the Windows file structure-esque view for the administrative view...helps sort out what you've got.
I see the catalog side being more marketing/aesthetically oriented. Maybe there could be a little bit more artistic control there (via HTML/javascript/otherwise). If this was to be a customer facing portal, there might be some ideas from groups other than engineering about how it should look. I thikn the separation of the tabs is important, because the administrator isn't going to want to sift through the artsy version of the catalog and the marketing person is going to be appalled at the hopefully more utilitarian view of the designs tab.
Our organziation would be by product line, but we could also probably break out into other catalogs (by industry, by function, etc) to help people funnel into the right product for them.
If my company implaments C360 we will be creating about 91 models. It would be nice to have the ability to group these models in the catalog according to model family so help organize the models.
My company wouldn't have levels of categories but I imagine others would like to be able to put categories inside categories also.
I'd like to have the option of a folder view with subfolders or a catalog of thumbnails where I can pick which model represents the family, or upload an entirely different graphic.
Daniel