Tutorials Changelog

Project Settings → Email, rewritten for the new email design

The Email tab in the Project Settings guide now lists the settings the tab really has — mail driver, server details, sender, recipients, the email template look and domain checks — and explains the new Preview email button.

• Project Settings → Email tab: accent colour, top bar gradient, email logo and footer text; Preview email shows your emails exactly as they are sent.
• Why an email logo uploaded before October 6, 2026 shows your sender name instead, and how to fix it.

New guide: importing free 3D models from online libraries

A new step-by-step guide shows how to search Poly Haven, Sketchfab and the Smithsonian from Assets → Browse Online, check a model's license, import it in one click and read its Configurator Readiness score.

• Importing Free 3D Models from Online Libraries — search, license review, import, readiness score, giving credit and troubleshooting.
• Uploading 3D Models — the free sample models tip now points to Add 3D → Sample models and to Browse Online.

1 new guide in this release.

The loading screen now waits for your materials

Two guides now explain that the loading screen in Preview and on Share links stays up until the model is shown with its starting materials — including From Category Select Material blocks — instead of hiding as soon as the model is downloaded.

• Project Settings → Loading tab: when the loading screen hides, and the 20-second ceiling on a very slow connection.
• Bulk-Add Materials by Category: the block shows placeholder swatches while its materials load, and the model is never shown untextured.

Downloading Your Assets: one file, the original upload, or a .zip

A new guide shows how to download your 3D models, textures and graphics from the Assets library — a single file named after the asset, the original OBJ, FBX or ZIP you uploaded, or several files at once as a .zip — on every plan and on phones.

• New: Downloading Your Assets — single downloads, original files, multi-select .zip downloads, limits, who can download, and troubleshooting.
• Uploading 3D Models now points out that the original file you uploaded can be downloaded later.

1 new guide in this release.

Jewelry & Gemstones: build a ring configurator with stones that sparkle

A new guide walks you through a jewellery configurator from start to finish: gemstone materials that refract light and show fire, precious metals, the jewelry lighting environment or your own HDR, rendering quality on phones and computers, and how to model stones so they render correctly.

• New: Jewelry & Gemstones — a step-by-step ring configurator, every gemstone setting, the 15 gem presets and 9 jewellery metals, lighting and custom HDR, quality and frame-time cost, modelling rules and troubleshooting.
• Material Library now lists the Gemstones category and the jewellery metals (114 presets in 14 categories).
• Project Settings covers the new Lighting settings: Environment & Reflections, Environment Rotation and Gems & Glass rendering quality.
• Augmented Reality (AR) explains how gemstones and polished metal look in AR and try-on.
• Uploading 3D Models points to the free sample models in the 3D Model Library, including the new Jewelry models.

1 new guide in this release.

The AI Assistant beside the editor: follow-ups, live steps and remembered preferences

The AI Assistant & Agent Workflows guide now explains how to work with the assistant while you edit: the panel that sits beside your project, follow-ups like "change that to Walnut", watching and stopping its steps, what happens when a reply is interrupted, and the preferences it can remember for you.

• AI Assistant & Agent Workflows: new "Working with the assistant beside the editor" section.

Materials and lighting: what Reflection Strength, IOR and the Lighting tab really do

The Creating Materials and Project Settings guides now describe the material and lighting controls as they behave: Reflection Strength at 0 removes all environment light, IOR sets how strongly a Transparent material reflects, and the Lighting tab no longer lists an environment picker.

• Creating Materials: Reflection Strength explained — new materials now start at 1, and 0 leaves a material lit only by the scene lights.
• Creating Materials: Index of Refraction now works for Transparent materials; the guide explains that it changes reflections and does not bend light.
• Project Settings: the Lighting tab table lists Exposure (the master brightness) instead of the environment preset picker, which has been removed because every preset looked the same.

Shopify: charge the configured price in the cart and keep a picture of the configuration on the order

The Shopify guide now explains “Cart price and picture”: how to make the Shopify cart and checkout charge the price your configurator calculated instead of the product’s own price, and how to save a picture of the shopper’s configuration with the order.

• Shopify: turning on “Cart price and picture” in the Simplio3D app, and the one extra permission Shopify asks for at that moment.
• Shopify: the two new block settings — “Price in the cart” and “Configuration picture on the order” — on the Add to cart, Configurator options and 3D configurator blocks.
• Shopify: which projects can use the Simplio3D calculated price, how tax is handled, the limit of 10 configured products per cart, and why your product’s own Shopify price still matters.

Shopify: one account, billing through Shopify, and moving an existing subscription

The Shopify guide now explains what happens when you connect or create a Simplio3D account from the Shopify app, how your plan is billed through Shopify, and how to move a subscription you already pay by card onto your store’s Shopify bill.

• Shopify: "Create a free account" fills in your store’s details; an email that already has a Simplio3D account signs in to it instead — a second account is never created.
• Shopify: Billing & Plan for a plan billed through Shopify — status, trial end, renewal, resource usage and "Manage plan in Shopify".
• Shopify: the trial messages, and why connecting, reinstalling or reconnecting never starts a new trial.
• Shopify: "Move billing to Shopify" for a subscription paid by card — approved on Shopify first, the card subscription ends only after that.

WooCommerce: configured products, the configured price and per-project checkout

The WooCommerce guide now explains the three options you choose for each project — whether shoppers land on the cart or go straight to checkout, whether the cart gets the configured product with its 3D image and chosen options or the product as it is, and whether the Simplio3D configured price or the WooCommerce price is charged.

• WooCommerce: how configured products work — a hidden product per configuration carrying the configuration image, the options and the price, reused for identical configurations and removed after 30 days unless ordered.
• WooCommerce: which projects can use the Simplio3D price, what to do when they cannot, and where to see why a shopper could not check out.
• WooCommerce: why the API key needs Read/Write permission, and how the connection test checks it.

Shopify: the Simplio3D app starts in Shopify

The Shopify guide now describes the two ways to use Simplio3D with Shopify as they work today: the Simplio3D app is installed from the Shopify App Store and connected from inside your Shopify admin, and Dashboard → Integrations → Shopify is only for connecting your own Shopify app.

• Shopify: step-by-step for installing the Simplio3D app from the Shopify App Store and connecting it to your Simplio3D workspace from Apps → Simplio3D.
• Shopify: how an agency connects a client's store — the client installs the app, and the store is connected to the client's workspace.
• Shopify: the dashboard install link and its troubleshooting rows are gone; disconnecting the app is done from Shopify.

Shopify: getting help from inside the Simplio3D app

The Shopify guide now shows where to get help without leaving your Shopify admin: the Simplio3D app's Support & suggestions section opens this guide, a support ticket or a feature suggestion, and copies your store details to paste into the ticket.

• Shopify: a new "Getting help" part — Apps → Simplio3D → Support & suggestions, what "Copy store details" includes (and leaves out), and the optional Shopify App Store review invitation.

Connect Claude from its connector directory

The AI Connections (MCP) guide now explains the quickest way to connect Claude: Simplio3D is listed in Claude's connector directory, so you search for it, sign in and choose what Claude may access, with no token to copy.

• AI Connections (MCP): step-by-step connection from Claude's connector directory, what the approval page pre-selects, and how to widen or revoke access afterwards.

AI Connections now available on the Starter plan

The AI Connections (MCP) guide no longer says a Pro or Enterprise plan is required: every paid plan, Starter included, can connect Claude, Cursor or VS Code. The Trial & Billing guide now lists which AI features you keep on Starter.

• AI Connections (MCP): available on Starter, Pro and Enterprise and during the trial, with a note on which plan rules a connected assistant still follows.
• Trial & Billing: the AI Assistant, Generate with AI and AI Connections stay available after choosing Starter; Modular projects, duplication and the SDK / API token do not.

New: build configurator pages in Elementor

A new WordPress Plugin in Elementor guide shows how to build a configurator page with Elementor’s Shortcode widget — copying each shortcode from the block editor, laying out the viewer and options, selling in WooCommerce, styling, and fixing the common problems.

• WordPress Plugin in Elementor: the five shortcodes, and how to copy them with every setting from the block editor.
• WordPress Plugin in Elementor: a viewer-plus-sidebar layout, linking a WooCommerce product for Add to Cart, and the most useful settings.
• WordPress Plugin in Elementor: styling with Elementor and CSS, and a table of messages with what to do.
• WordPress Plugin: now points Elementor users to the new guide.

1 new guide in this release.

New: build configurator pages with the WordPress plugin

A new WordPress Plugin guide shows how to connect your account from WordPress, place the Viewer, Options, Price, Summary and Add to Cart blocks on any page, and sell configured products in WooCommerce at a price Simplio3D verifies. The WooCommerce guide now states plainly what its two link types do.

• WordPress Plugin: connecting a site, building a page block by block, and how cart prices are protected.
• WordPress Plugin: quote requests, modular projects, and what text and upload options do in WordPress.
• WooCommerce: Redirect to Checkout and Add to Basket charge the linked product’s WooCommerce price; configured carts use the WordPress plugin.
• WooCommerce and WordPress Plugin: the plugin is optional — your dashboard WooCommerce connection keeps working the same way with or without it, even for a product linked in both.

1 new guide in this release.

Uploading Graphics: correct limits, what happens to your SVG, and why an upload fails

Uploading Graphics now lists the real limits — 50 MB for JPEG, PNG, GIF and WebP and 10 MB for SVG (it previously said 16 MB and 2 MB) — explains which parts of an SVG are removed on upload and why, and gives the fix for every message the upload dialog can show.

• Uploading Graphics: corrected file limits, and no longer presents “under 500 paths” as a limit — detailed SVGs upload fine.
• Uploading Graphics: a new “What happens to an SVG when you upload it” part listing what is kept and what is removed.
• Uploading Graphics: a new “If an upload fails” table with each message and what to do.
• AI Project Builder: the graphic upload limit now matches the Assets page (50 MB, SVG 10 MB).

Sharing & Embedding: make an embedded configurator load faster

Sharing & Embedding now explains what an embedded configurator spends its loading time on and what you can do about it — mainly shrinking the textures inside your 3D model, plus two small additions to your own web page.

• Sharing & Embedding: a new “Loading speed on your website” part with a five-step checklist.
• Sharing & Embedding: why returning visitors load faster, and why password-protected links skip the shared cache.

Options Mode: choose what shoppers see under a Text Input field

The Text Input entry in Options Mode now covers the new Shopper Display switches — how to hide the font and size tags, the “Applied to” line that names your 3D part, and the character counter from shoppers in Preview and the Share view, and why new Text Input blocks start with those technical details already hidden.

• Options Mode: where the Shopper Display switches live on a Text Input block and what each one hides.
• Options Mode: existing blocks keep showing the tags until you switch them off; new blocks start clean.

Shopify: connect a store you don’t own

The Shopify guide now opens with the choice that actually decides whether your setup will work: install the Simplio3D app, or use your own Shopify app. It documents the install flow end to end — including the agency case, where you generate a link, send it to your client, and they approve it in their own Shopify admin without ever sharing a login — explains why the credentials path fails with shop_not_permitted for a client-owned store no matter what you change in Shopify, and spells out that one Simplio3D account connects one store at a time — so several client stores means one workspace per client.

• Shopify: a new "Two ways to connect" comparison at the top of the guide, so you pick the workable method before building anything.
• Shopify: step-by-step for installing the Simplio3D app on a store you can log into, and for sending an install link to a client who administers the store.
• Shopify: what the install asks for — write_draft_orders and read_products, and nothing about customers, orders or payments.
• Shopify: how install links behave — single use, about an hour to live, refused on a different store — and how to disconnect versus uninstall.
• Shopify: a Troubleshooting table covering shop_not_permitted, "Reconnect required", expired or reused install links, and a missing read_products scope.
• Shopify: a new "Working with several client stores" section — one Simplio3D account connects one store at a time, so the supported way to serve several clients is one workspace per client, with the steps for joining a client workspace and connecting their store from inside it.

Upload FBX, OBJ, STL, DAE and ZIP packages — converted to GLB for you

The Uploading 3D Models guide now reflects a real change in what the platform accepts: you can upload GLB, GLTF, FBX, OBJ, STL, DAE — or a ZIP package bundling a model with its material and texture files — and every non-GLB format is converted to GLB automatically during upload. The guide covers what each format keeps through conversion (materials, textures, animations, part names), how to package an OBJ with its .mtl and textures, why GLB is still the best choice, and how upload errors and warnings now name the exact file and reason.

• Uploading 3D Models: the Supported Formats table now covers all seven accepted formats, with a per-format note on what conversion preserves — FBX and DAE keep their animations and materials, OBJ keeps its materials when the .mtl and textures are included, STL gets a neutral default material.
• Uploading 3D Models: ZIP packages — bundle one model with its .bin/.mtl/texture files and the upload resolves them automatically; you can also just select the files together in one upload.
• Uploading 3D Models: the old "convert other formats first" advice is gone — conversion is automatic. GLB remains the recommended export (it skips conversion entirely).
• Uploading 3D Models: version chains still work across formats — a chair.obj upload is stored as chair.glb, so it joins the same version chain as an earlier chair.glb.
• Build a Configurator with AI: the in-chat model uploader accepts the same widened format list.

Shopify: why a connection can fail with "shop_not_permitted"

The Shopify guide now explains the one Shopify rule that decides whether the connection can work at all: the app you create and the store you connect must belong to the same Shopify organization. Merchants were building the app in a different organization — an agency or partner account, or a second organization they also have access to — installing it successfully, and then hitting a "shop_not_permitted" error that no amount of re-adding permissions, releasing new versions or reinstalling could clear. The guide now tells you how to check this before you build the app, and what to do when the two cannot be matched up.

• Shopify Integration: a new warning explaining the same-organization rule, including the fact that owning a store, or having the app installed on it, does not by itself put that store in your organization.
• Shopify Integration: a one-minute check — compare the organization ID in the Dev Dashboard address bar while looking at your app and while looking at your store; they have to match.
• Shopify Integration: what to do when they do not match — build the app from the organization that owns the store, or contact support so we can connect the store a different way.
• The connection test now names this cause directly instead of showing a raw "Token exchange failed" message.

What the Continue button on a reply means

The AI Assistant guide now explains why a long request can finish in two replies. Each reply has a working allowance for looking things up in your project; when a request uses it all, the assistant writes up what it found and offers a Continue button rather than stopping short. The guide covers what is kept, what carries over, and how splitting a request avoids it.

• AI Assistant & Agent Workflows: a new note on the Continue button — what it means, that nothing is lost and applied changes stay applied, and how phrasing a request in two parts usually avoids needing it.

Workflows you can pause, and workflows run from Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor or VS Code

The AI Workflows guide now covers the Paused status and how to resume a run, what happens when an AI app you connected starts a workflow for you, and why only one run at a time may change a given project. The AI Assistant guide explains the same boundary from the editor side: a connected app can put a workflow's question to you and send back your answer, but approving a change stays yours alone.

• AI Workflows: a new Paused status in the status table — what puts a run on hold and how to resume it.
• AI Workflows: a walkthrough of runs started by a connected AI app, including why an older connection cannot start them until you re-authorize it with the workflow permission.
• AI Workflows: only one run that changes a given project at a time — what the refusal means and which runs are never blocked.
• AI Workflows: five new troubleshooting rows, covering a run stuck at Paused, a workflow you did not start appearing in your list, and an app that says it cannot start workflows.
• AI Assistant & Agent Workflows: the answering and approving rules restated precisely for connected apps — they relay your choice, they never invent one, and they can never approve.
• Both guides now tell you to ask your administrator when AI is not switched on, instead of naming the AI model behind the assistant — which model answers is managed for you and can change between answers.
• Build a Configurator with AI: a new "After the build: developing the draft" section covering the two ways to carry on — editing by hand and asking the AI Assistant — and the four things worth checking first, starting with the 3D targeting.

Build with AI: what makes the Build button light up, and editing the plan yourself

The "Build a Configurator with AI" guide now explains exactly what the plan needs before the Build button turns on, what each amber warning is telling you, and everything you can change in the plan panel without asking the assistant.

• New "Before you build: when is the button enabled?" section — the three things that must be fixed, and the six warnings that do not stop a build but are worth reading (the loudest being materials planned with no 3D model, where the swatches appear but do nothing).
• New "Editing the plan yourself" section — rename the project or a block, add and remove finishes and form fields, set a base price and currency, pick or unlink a store product, and why your edits are never overwritten by the assistant.
• New "It can look at your actual workspace" section — what the assistant is able to check while you talk (your models and their part names, materials, projects, store and the documentation), what the "Checked …" line under a reply means, and the hard limit that it can only read.
• New "Asking it how Simplio3D works" section — the builder now answers product questions from the real documentation and links the pages it used, and every reply summarises what it changed and what to do next.
• Documented the tabbed layout on phones and narrow windows, and that closing the dialog keeps your draft.
• Troubleshooting: corrected the greyed-out-button row and added three more — swatches that do nothing after a build, only seeing one pane, and a conversation that seemed lost.

Three new AI guides: building with AI, following workflows, and connecting an AI agent

Generate a whole configurator from a description, follow and unblock the AI jobs running against your projects, and connect an outside AI assistant to your workspace with a scoped token you control.

• New guide: "Build a Configurator with AI" (Projects) — describe your product, edit the build plan before anything is created, attach missing 3D models or textures inline, and approve the pricing and store steps as it builds.
• New guide: "AI Workflows" (Projects) — what each status means, how to answer a question, apply or decline a proposal, resume or cancel a run, and which workflow types are available today.
• New guide: "AI Connections (MCP)" (Integrations) — create a scoped connection for an AI agent, pick least-privilege scopes, rotate or revoke it, and understand why a token is a credential and a connection is tied to one workspace.

3 guides in this release.

AI workflows guide covers the dashboard page and remembered catalogue columns

The AI Assistant guide now explains that closing the chat no longer loses a workflow — every run is listed under Dashboard → AI Workflows — and that a re-imported price list reuses the column choices you already confirmed.

• Expanded "AI Assistant & Agent Workflows": where to find a workflow that is waiting on you, and how to answer or approve it outside the chat.
• Documented that repeat catalogue imports remember your column choices, that a changed spreadsheet layout asks again, and which header languages are recognized.

AI Assistant & Agent Workflows guide

A new tutorial covers letting the AI audit, repair and build your configurator — including what it asks you before changing anything, and which changes always need your approval. The tutorials also gained this changelog, so you can see what documentation changed and when.

• New guide: "AI Assistant & Agent Workflows" (Projects) — run a project audit, apply safe fixes, build material options from your 3D model, import pricing and SKUs from a catalogue, and check publish-readiness.
• Explains the approval model in plain terms: low-risk edits apply immediately and are undoable, while pricing, SKU and deletion changes only ever propose a plan you confirm.
• States the honest boundaries: publishing always happens in the Share dialog, and modular snap setup and bills of materials are not automated.
• New page: "Tutorials Changelog" — every documentation release, newest first.

2 guides in this release.

Tutorial library baseline

The starting point for this changelog: the 30 guides that already covered assets, materials, the project editor, sharing, integrations, AR and account management. Individual releases are tracked from this date forward.

• Getting started, plus uploading and versioning 3D models, textures and graphics.
• Creating materials, the material library, PBR texture maps and worked material examples.
• The project editor end to end: Objects, Options, Modular, Conditional Logic, Pricing, Forms, Settings, Sharing and AR.
• Integrations: WooCommerce, Shopify, the API and SDK, native mobile, custom UI and headless embedding.
• Quote requests, trial and billing, and team members.

30 guides in this release.