Sign Trade Supplies updates its KOPA post-and-panel online configurator with a 3D rendering tool to simplify wayfinding sign design.
Sign Trade Supplies has added a 3D generator to its online KOPA configurator, giving sign makers an immediate visual preview of any post-and-panel layout at the point of ordering. Users enter their panel dimensions and configuration, and the tool renders the finished sign in three dimensions rather than leaving them to picture it from a column of numbers.
KOPA is a modular aluminium post-and-panel system supplied in kit form, widely used for wayfinding projects across car parks, golf courses, council estates, and retail parks. Panels up to 2,400 x 1,200mm slot into powder-coated aluminium frames, finished in black, white or Decro wood-effect profiles in teak or light oak, with concealed fixings throughout.
Garrick Dartnell, Head of Marketing at Sign Trade Supplies, says the feature came directly from watching how customers use the KOPA configurator, “Typing numbers into boxes tells you the dimensions, but nothing about how the finished sign will actually appear in the desired space. The 3D view gives an immediate, visual sense of scale and layout, and how the graphics look on the sign. This helps the sign-maker guide their client towards the right solution for their application.”
Part of the Trade+ workflow
The generator sits inside the existing Trade+ KOPA calculator, so there is no separate software or login. As users configure panel size, post height, single or double-sided options, and finish, the preview updates alongside their choices. The aim is to close the gap between specification and expectation at the earliest possible stage.
For wayfinding projects in particular, where multiple signs of varying sizes need to read consistently across a site, the ability to visualise scale and proportion during the configuration process has obvious practical value.
Garrick concludes, “KOPA was built to make post and panel signage faster to order, faster to install and less likely to go wrong on site. The 3D preview is part of that same thinking. If you can see it, you can be confident in it, and confident sign makers produce better outcomes for their clients.”