Pergola configurator or a 3D scene of the customer's yard?
· 6 min read
A homeowner looking at pergolas wants to know two things: what it will look like at their house, and what it will cost. Pergola dealers can answer with five kinds of software, and each answers a different part of that question. This guide compares them as categories, not brands, says where each one wins, and shows how they fit together.
Five kinds of pergola software
“Pergola configurator” is used for very different tools. Before comparing them, it helps to sort them by what the customer actually sees:
- Website 3D configurator: the visitor picks a size, a roof, colours and options, and turns the pergola around in 3D on a neutral backdrop, often with a price and a request form.
- AR placement: the phone's camera shows a pergola model standing on the real terrace, live, for as long as the phone points at it.
- AI photo visualizer: the homeowner uploads a photo and an image model paints a pergola into it.
- CAD and design software: precise drawings and 3D models, made by someone trained to use them.
- A 3D scene of the customer's yard: the yard is scanned, rebuilt as a 3D scene, and the pergola is designed inside it. This is what Situvista does.
Website 3D configurator: the best first step
A 3D pergola configurator on the dealer's website does one job very well: it turns an anonymous visitor into a lead with a real request attached. Instead of an empty contact form, the dealer receives a rough configuration: the kind of roof, an approximate size, the colours the homeowner liked.
What it cannot show is the customer's own house. The pergola stands on a neutral floor under a neutral sky, so the homeowner still has to imagine how the frame looks against their wall and whether it blocks the kitchen window. The size they type is a guess, and the price it gives is a price for that guess.
That is fine for a first step. A configurator is there to start the conversation, not to finish it.
AR, AI and CAD: three tools, three jobs
AR placement puts a model on the real terrace through the phone's camera. While you hold the phone it is immediate and convincing, and it is a good tool at a visit. But it lives in the moment: when the app closes, nothing is left that the customer can open again, compare with another option or show to the rest of the family, and the result depends on how well the phone understood the ground that day.
An AI photo visualizer is quick and often free. For inspiration it is useful: a homeowner sees a style or a colour on a picture of their own house within seconds. But the image is painted, not measured. The pergola may be the wrong size, its posts may land in a flowerbed, and details may be invented. It is one viewpoint, with no way to walk around it.
CAD and design software are the opposite: exact, and made for production. Workshop drawings, sections and structural details belong there. A CAD model, though, is drawn by a trained operator, usually starts without the customer's site around it, and is not something a homeowner opens on their phone in the evening.
A 3D scene of the customer's yard
The fifth approach starts from the site. The customer opens a capture link on an iPhone and is guided through a short scan of the yard, with nothing to install; a phone with LiDAR gives the best result, and a few photos are the alternative. Or a salesperson walks around the house with the staff app on an iPhone or iPad. The scan becomes a 3D scene, and the dealer designs the pergola inside it, in the studio, with their own models, colours and prices.
Because a scan is true to scale, the pergola has its real size against the real wall. The scene knows where the house stands and where the sun was when it was scanned, so the shade on the terrace can be shown hour by hour, for any date. The customer receives one link that opens in the browser: their own yard in 3D with the pergola in it, AR on their phone, colours to try and a PDF to keep. The quote and the bill of materials come from the same design.
It has limits too. It needs a capture first, and a scene built from photos is a visual proposal rather than a measured one. The sizes from a scan are good for the design and for an indicative quote; the final measurement still happens at the visit, once the customer has confirmed.
Side by side
The table compares the five kinds as categories. Individual products differ, so treat it as a map rather than a verdict.
| Website configurator | AR on the phone | AI photo visualizer | CAD software | 3D scene of the yard | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shows the customer's real site | No, a neutral backdrop | Yes, live through the camera | Yes, in one photo | Only if someone models it | Yes, in 3D from every side |
| True to scale | The product, not the site | Roughly, depends on tracking | No | Yes | Yes, from a scan, with an estimated uncertainty |
| Works without a site visit | Yes | Needs someone on the terrace | Yes | Needs measurements first | Yes, the customer scans |
| Shade on their terrace through the day | No | Depends on the app | No | With a sun study, if set up | Yes, hour by hour |
| Quote and bill of materials from the same design | A price for a rough configuration | No | No | Drawings, often priced separately | Yes |
| Effort per lead | None after setup | Low, but on site | Low | High, a trained operator | A capture, then a design in the studio |
| Best for | Getting the lead | A quick look on site | Style and colour ideas | Production drawings | The quote and the decision |
They work best together
These tools are less rivals than steps. A website configurator brings the lead in. AI pictures can feed ideas. CAD makes the drawings the workshop builds from. Between the lead and the order sits the moment the customer decides, and that is where a scene of their own yard does the work: one proposal, true to scale, on their terrace, with the price next to it.
Situvista covers the two steps the customer sees. Its configurator for the dealer's website (today for fences and carports; a pergola enquiry arrives through the same dashboard) sends the lead to the lead dashboard, and the studio turns that lead into a scene of the customer's yard with the pergola designed in it. The bill of materials comes out of the same design as a PDF, an Excel sheet, a CSV for the ERP and a DXF for CAD, so the drawing reaches the workshop in a format it already uses.
If you are choosing pergola design software, start from the question your customers ask most. If it is “roughly what would it cost?”, a configurator answers it. If it is “will it look right at our house?”, they need to see their house.
