Products and variants

Each product has a default model, optional variant rules, and display and AR settings. Nothing reaches shoppers until you publish.

Open a product

• In the app, go to Products, search by name or SKU, and click the product. The filters With 3D, Without 3D and Needs attention narrow the list.
• Or, in your BigCommerce control panel, go to Products, open a product’s ⋯ menu and choose 3D & AR.

The product page has the cards 3D model, Variant rules, Display and AR, What shoppers will see and Version history. Its status pill reads No 3D, Draft, Published (the storefront is updating), Live, or 3D off.

Default model

In the 3D model card, choose a model under Choose a model (or Upload a new model). The default model is shown for every variant unless a rule says otherwise. Only models that are Ready can be chosen; others show “Not ready yet”.

If the model has material options, a Material field appears: keep Default material or pick one. To change the model later, click Change.

Variant rules

Variant rules show a different model, a different material, or no 3D for some variants. Each rule reads as a sentence:

When [option] is [value] show [model or Hide 3D]

1. Click Add rule.
2. Choose the option (for example Color) and its value (for example Blue).
3. Choose what to show: another model, the same model with another Material, or Hide 3D.
4. To match more than one option, click And… and add another condition (for example Color is Blue and Size is Large). To remove a condition, use its × button.
5. To match one exact variant, choose A variant (SKU) as the option, then pick the variant by SKU.

Variants that no rule matches show the default model (the card says so under the rules). Products without options show “This product has no options, so every shopper sees the same model.”

Which rule wins

When more than one rule matches the variant a shopper chose:

1. A rule for one variant (SKU) wins.
2. Otherwise, the rule with the most conditions wins (Color is Blue and Size is Large beats Color is Blue).
3. Between equal rules, the first one (highest in the list) wins.

Use the Move rule up and Move rule down buttons to change the order, and Remove rule to delete one (the message that confirms it offers Undo).

Hide 3D for a variant

Choose Hide 3D in a rule’s “show” field. Shoppers who choose that variant see your product images only, with no 3D thumbnail or AR button.

Materials per rule

If the chosen model has material options, a material field appears next to it in the rule. Use one model with several materials (for example fabric colors) and one rule per color, instead of uploading one model per color.

Limits

• Up to 200 rules per product.
• Up to 10 different models per product.
• Products with more than 600 variants are not supported.

When the catalog changes

If you delete an option, an option value or a variant in BigCommerce that a rule uses, the rule shows an error such as “The option value “Blue” was deleted from this product in BigCommerce. Choose another value or remove the rule.” To avoid showing the wrong model, the app turns 3D off for that product, marks it 3D off, lists it under Needs attention and emails you. Fix or remove the rule (the message has a Go to rule button), then publish again.

Display and AR

• Show 3D on this product: turn it on to review and publish; turn it off to turn off 3D.
• Let shoppers view it in their space (AR): shows the AR button on phones and the QR code on computers.
• AR placement: On the floor or On a wall.
• Size in AR: Real size (shoppers can’t resize it) or Let shoppers resize.

More in AR (view in your space).

What shoppers will see

This card previews the saved draft: choose option values and the preview shows the model (and material) shoppers will get for that variant, with pills for Website 3D, iPhone & iPad AR, Android AR and Computer: QR code. A variant with no 3D says “No 3D for this variant: shoppers see your product images.”

Save draft, Review and publish

Any change shows a bar at the bottom of the page: “Unsaved changes”, with Discard, Save draft and Review and publish. While you edit, the live version stays live.

• Save draft keeps your changes without publishing. Other people with access to the app see the draft too. If you leave the page with unsaved changes, the app asks first (“Leave without saving?”). If the page reloads or your session expires, unsaved changes are kept in that browser tab and offered back (“You have unsaved changes from …”) when you return.
• Review and publish opens a window: “This is exactly what shoppers will get. Choose options to check each variant.” For each value it shows which model shoppers see, whether a rule or the default model matched, and the AR for that variant. Click Publish (or Back to editing).
• Preview (at the top of the page) opens the same window read-only.

After publishing you see “Published version {n}. Live on {storefront} in about a minute.” The pill shows Published until the storefront has the new version, then Live. If no storefront shows 3D yet, the page tells you, with Go to Storefronts.

If someone else saved a draft of the same product while you were editing, a window “This product changed while you were editing” lets you Load their version (discarding yours) or Keep mine (replacing theirs).

Version history and Restore

Every publish creates a version. The Version history card lists them, newest first, with who published and when (for example “Published Oct 7, 10:14 AM by …”); the current one is marked Live. Other entries include Restored, Updated to the new model version (a model’s file was replaced), Updated after a catalog change, Published with bulk assign and 3D turned off. Use Show older versions for more.

To go back to an earlier version:

1. Click Restore next to it.
2. Confirm: “Restore version 1? It becomes version 3 and goes live.” The old settings are published again as a new version.

About your draft when you restore:

• If your draft had no edits of its own (it was the same as what was live), it follows the restore, so the editor shows what is now live.
• If your draft had unpublished edits, they are kept as they are.

A version can’t be restored if a model file it used no longer exists (“A model file of that version no longer exists, so it can’t be restored.”).

Turn off 3D

Open the product’s ⋯ menu and choose Turn off 3D (or switch off Show 3D on this product). Confirm in the window “Turn off 3D for {product}?”. Shoppers then see only your product images. Your model, rules and version history are kept, so you can publish again any time.

To turn 3D off for a whole storefront instead, see Storefronts.

Set 3D model for many products

From Products:

1. Tick the products (up to 50 at a time; the selection is kept when you change pages).
2. In the bar that appears (“{n} selected”), click Set 3D model….
3. Choose a Model (only ready models can be chosen) and, if it has material options, a Material.
4. Click Set model and publish.

Each product gets this model as its default and is published right away. Its variant rules and display settings stay as they are. The window shows the progress (“Publishing · {done} of {n} done”) and a result per product:

• Published;
• Skipped: “Someone edited this product after you started, so we left it as it was.” Open it to check;
• Failed: for example “This product was deleted from your catalog.”

You can close the window while it runs; only one bulk assignment runs at a time.

From a model: on the model page, Assign to products opens the same window with that model already chosen; search for the products to add.

The same bar has Turn off 3D, which turns 3D off for the selected products after you confirm.