The Configurator That Stopped Being Deterministic

A Legacy ETO Configurator, Read and Rebuilt

A spiral staircase configurator originally built in Autodesk ETO, with design data going back to 2011, converted into a modern iLogic configurator in Autodesk Inventor. The AI read the design, reproduced the reference configuration, checked its own arithmetic against the original and only then started building. Just over two hours for the analysis and the rebuild.

The Question People Keep Asking

In a number of tests, AI has already demonstrated an ability to build configurators with the Modern CAD toolset.

This time, I’m testing what people keep asking: can it take a configurator that already exists, understand it, rebuild it and even improve it?

Why? Because most manufacturers with a rules-driven product aren’t starting from scratch. They’re sitting on something built years ago within a tool that’s now “legacy” by an engineer who’s moved on. Rebuilding it is a project nobody wants to fund and trying to fix it is a nightmare…

What the Video Shows

This one is a spiral staircase configurator originally built in Autodesk ETO with design data going back to 2011. The brief was to convert it into a modern iLogic configurator in Autodesk Inventor. As usual, I wanted this as autonomous as possible as I wanted to see what the AI would do on its own…

It read the design before writing anything, then reproduced the reference configuration and checked its own arithmetic against the original. Only then did it start building.

It took just over two hours for the analysis and the rebuild and the interesting part is what the model became…

No Longer Deterministic

A traditional configurator is deterministic – it does what was coded and the first request outside the rules is where it stops. This one isn’t like that any more. At the end of the video, the staircase has been coloured as a rainbow would be, every tread a different shade. There’s no rule for that. No parameter, no form field, no code. Just a prompt.

This proves some important possibilities. A coded configurator covers the predictable ninety per cent. An AI editing layer on top handles the ten per cent nobody anticipated…without a change request, a developer or a release.

Just imagine…

(Built with Inventor AI and ModernCAD Memory, running on Autodesk Inventor.)

Is There a Configurator Everyone’s Afraid to Touch?

You can watch the full demo series in one place at demos.moderncad.com.au. If there’s a legacy configurator in your business that everyone’s afraid to touch, start the conversation – or drop us a message on LinkedIn or email info@moderncad.com.au. We’ll show you what this looks like on yours.