Creating a Site Model

Creating a Site Manually

A Site Model is a three-dimensional model which clusters information by assigning meaningful names to clearly defined areas in the space of a Site. With a site model, you can define and name the buildings, floors, rooms, or even more fine-grained spaces of a site.

This process should be used in cases where precise site model definition is required. If you do not require a precise site model, you can create it automatically.

Note: In order to see any changes reflected in your site model such as adding or removing floors, adding rooms, or editing your building outline, you must always click Save in the Datasets section of your menu.

Before You Start

Use a floorplan of the building and make sure you have the following information ready before you start creating a site model: ​

• How many buildings does the complex have? ​

• Where are the perimeters of those buildings? ​

• What are the names of the buildings? ​

• How many floors does each building have?

Defining a Building Site

1. Go to Site Setup > Site Model.

2. Hide all the aligned datasets except the ones you want to be a part of your building by clicking the eye icon next to them.

3. Go into the Top View by clicking on the red label and click +Building from the Editor Options menu. This will begin the process of defining the walls of your building.

   

4. Click on the corner of your building. This will be the first spot you start drawing your building from, and where you will need to click to complete the outline of your building.

   

5. Start drawing the perimeter of your building around the datasets, using the underlying map as a guide. Try not to exclude any of the Point clouds, as this may affect your floor plan. Extra points far outside of your building, or "noise," can be left out.

   

6. In case you make a mistake, you can right click on a point and delete the last placed point.

7. When you are finished defining the shape, close the outline by connecting the last node to the first node. The node will turn green to indicate that the building outline is closed.

   

8. Now that you have a rough outline of your building, you can continue editing the shape of your building by dragging the white points around the perimeter until you are satisfied.

9. Click Save.

10. Add a building name by clicking the Pencil icon next to Building.

11. Click Publish once you have finished.

Aligning the Datasets to the Ground Floor

Important: Since you have already aligned your datasets, it is important that you do not adjust this alignment. This step is simply to ensure that your site model knows where the ground floor is located, so make sure you only move your building as a whole.

1. Go to Site Setup > Dataset Alignment.

2. Unhide the aligned datasets that you want to be a part of your site model by clicking the eye icon next to them.

3. Use the Side Views at the bottom of your screen to check if the datasets aligned on the ground floor are sitting on the gray line. If they are, move onto Defining a Floor.

4. If the ground floor datasets are not on the gray line, unlock the whole building by clicking the Lock icon.

   

5. Use the Transformation menu to adjust the alignment of your ground floor so that it is sitting on the gray line.

   

6. Once you have matched your building to the gray line, lock the datasets.

7. Click Save.

8. Click Publish once you have finished.

Defining a Floor

1. Go back to  Site Setup > Site Model.

2. Use the View Configuration panel to select either Side View (N ->S) or Side View (E->W) or both.

   

3. Use the rectangular area that appears in the Top View panel to adjust the content visible in the Side View below, depending on which side you have selected. Do this by moving your mouse over the rectangle and scrolling out with your mouse to adjust the size. Drag and drop the rectangle to where you would like it to be placed.

Note: You can rotate the view area by moving the rectangle on the top left panel while holding the Shift key.

4. Once you can clearly see the outlines of the floors, go into one of the Side Views by clicking on its label. Then click + next to your building name to create the ground floor of your building.

   

5. The ground floor is named Floor 0 by default. You are able to change this by clicking on the pencil icon next to Floor 0 and editing the name.

   

6. Click OK to save the settings.

Note: It is also possible to change your floor polygon (outline of the floor's vertical walls) from the Top View. In most cases, editing or defining a new floor outline is not necessary and should only be done in special cases, since this will increase the complexity of the site model and make it more error-prone.

8. You will now see that a yellow mesh rectangle has appeared around your ground floor. You can adjust the height of the floor by dragging the floor and ceiling so that the entire floor is covered.

   1. Make sure that the limits cover the ceiling and the floor, and that the floor does not cut into the floors above and below.

   2. Click Save and your ground floor dataset will automatically be assigned to this floor.

      

9. A solid yellow box around the ground floor is displayed when the floor defined.

   

10. Click + next to the building name to add another floor. The next floor can either be added above or below the ground floor you just created.

    

11. Continue adding floors and defining their heights until your site model includes all the floors of your building.

12. Click Publish once you have finished.

Note: When you are adjusting the height of one floor, this will adjust the adjacent floors as well. Always avoid cutting into adjacent floors and never cut into the floor above.

Defining Rooms

Now that you have a basic site model, you are able to add more attributes to your building, such as rooms.

1. Go back to  Site Setup > Site Model.

2. Unhide the floor and specific dataset with the room that you want to add by clicking the eye icon next to it. It is much easier to add a room when you are only viewing the floor that it is on.

3. Using the View Configuration menu, select Top View.

   

4. Use the red rectangular area that appears in the Side View screens (either Side View is fine), you can adjust the content visible in the Top View above. Do this by moving your mouse over the rectangle and scrolling out with your mouse to adjust the size. Drag and drop the rectangle to where you would like it to be placed.

   

Note: You can rotate the view area by moving the rectangle on the top left panel while holding the Shift key

4. Once you can clearly see the outlines of the rooms from the top view of your building, go into the Top View by clicking on its label.

5. Click the + button next to the floor you want the room added on.

   

6. Draw the outline of the room, similar to how you outlined your building in the beginning. The room outline must stay inside the floor and building outline.

7. Using your cursor, click the corner of the room which you want to define. This will be the first spot you start drawing your room from, and where you will need to click to complete the outline of the room.

8. Start drawing the perimeter of the room, using the underlying building as a guide.

   

9. When you are finished defining the room, close the outline by connecting the last node to the first one. The node will turn green to indicate that the outline is closed.

   

10. Now that you have a rough outline of your room, you can continue editing the shape of the room by dragging the white points around the perimeter until you are satisfied.

11. Rename the room by clicking on the Pencil icon next to the room you just defined. Click OK when you are done.

12. When your room is defined and named, click Save. You will now see the room as a part of your building. Repeat steps 5-12 to add more rooms to your site model.

Adding Additional Buildings

1. Use the steps in Defining a Building Site to add the next building to your map.

2. If you need to connect neighboring buildings, select Snap to lines and vertices in the menu. This will "glue" your mouse to the first building you defined when creating another building.

   

Adding Custom Attributes

To further label your site model, you can add custom attributes to the buildings, floors, and rooms.

1. Go to  Site Setup > Site Model.

   

2. In the site model side menu, click edit next to the entity that you want to add custom attributes to.

   

3. In the Edit site entity menu under Custom attributes, enter the key in the Key field and the value for the key in the Value field.

   

4. Click + to add the custom attribute to the site entity. You can delete custom attributes by clicking Delete next to the custom attribute.

   

5. Click OK.

6. Click Publish when you have finished.

Backing Up Your Site Model

1. Click Save once you have finished adding all building attributes that you want, including floors and rooms.

2. Export your site model.

Checking Your Site Model

1. Once you are satisfied with your work, click Save.

2. Exit the site model in the top right corner and this will bring you back to the main view of your site.

3. You will now see a floor changer on the right side of your screen if everything has worked properly.

Exporting a Site Model

1. Go to Site Setup > Site Model.

2. Click Export site model from the Editor Options menu .

Importing a Site Model

1. Go to Site Setup > Site Model.

2. Click Import site model from the Editor Options menu.

3. Select the file you want to import.

Note: You cannot import a site model that is the same as or overlaps with the site model currently used for the site.

4. Click Save.

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Creating a Site Model Automatically

A Site Model is a three-dimensional model that clusters information by assigning meaningful names to clearly defined areas in the space of a Site. With a site model, you can define and name the buildings, floors, rooms, or even more fine-grained spaces, of a site.

This process refers to automatically generated site models. Please check the criteria below carefully before you get started to determine if you can auto-generate or if you should manually create a site model instead.

Before You Start

Most often, you can use the auto-generate function to get a rough outline of your site model. However, there are some cases where this is not recommended. The most common cases of when you should manually generate your site model are when you have:

• Multiple, nearby buildings in one instance. ​

• Different floor heights which do not line up with each other in different parts of the building complex (think floors with ramps or platforms).

If one of the above criteria applies, you should not use the auto-generate function.

Note: In order to see any changes reflected in your site model such as adding or removing floors, adding rooms, or editing your building outline, you must always click Save in the Datasets section of your menu and Publish.

Auto-Generating the Site Model

1. Go to Site Setup > Site Model.

2. Select Auto-generate in the Editor Options section of the menu. Confirm that you will overwrite the existing site model.

   

3. Once the site model appears, the datasets will be grouped into a building with floors in the Datasets menu. Check the results to confirm that datasets have been matched correctly.

4. Click Save.

5. Click Publish when you have finished.

Fine Tuning the Site Model

1. You can change the name of a building by clicking the pencil icon next to Building.

   

2. The site model automatically assigns names based on where your ground floor is located. The ground floor is labeled Floor 0. If the automatically generated floor names are not accurate, change the name of floors by clicking on the pencil button next to each floor name.

Note: If you do not need a perfect floorplan, the auto-generated building outline does not have to be extremely precise. In fact, the auto-generated site map is sufficient for many use cases. However, in some cases, for example if you need highly accurate floorplans, it is important to fine-tune your site model so that it is very accurate.

3. To adjust the site model outline, expand the top left view by clicking Top View.

4. Click the boundaries icon next to the building name. You will see a blue polygon placed on top of your building that likely does not appear to match your building. You will need to edit this.

   

5. Start moving the white points of this polygon to fit around your actual building – the more precise you make it, the better your floor plan will look.

   

6. Once you have sufficiently outlined your building on the map, you can move on to editing the floor and ceiling heights of your building (minumum height is 1 metre).

7. Click Save.

8. Click the Top View label again to go back to your split screen view to start working on fine-tuning your floor heights.

9. Once you are in the split screen view, use the View Configuration menu to select either Side View (N->S) or Side View (E->W) or both.

   

10. Use the rectangular area that appears in the Top View panel to adjust the content visible in the Side View below, depending on which side you have selected. Do this by moving your mouse over the rectangle and scrolling out with your mouse to adjust the size. Drag and drop the rectangle to where you would like it to be placed.

Note: You can rotate the view area by moving the rectangle on the top left panel while holding the Shift key.

11. To adjust the height of the floors, change to the side view by clicking on either Side View titles.

12. In the Site structure section of the menu, select the floor you want to start with by clicking on the boundaries icon next to the floor name.

    

13. You will now see that a yellow mesh rectangle has appeared around your selected floor. You can adjust the height of the floor by dragging the floor and ceiling so that the entire floor is covered. If you get a bit of the ceiling below, it will show up on the floor of the story above and vice versa. Make sure that the limits cover the ceiling and the floor, and that the floor does not cut into the floors above and below.

14. Click Save.

15. Repeat steps 12-15 for each floor of your building and ensure that each floor of the building has the correct height.

16. Check if there are any floors missing. If you need to add another floor, select the floor of which you want to add a floor above or below.

17. Click on the + button next to your building name.

18. Choose to add a floor either above your top floor or below the floor you have selected.

19. Adjust the height of the floor you just added by repeating steps 12-15.

20. Click Save.

21. Click Publish when you have finished.

Defining Rooms

Now that you have a basic site model, you are able to add more attributes to your building, such as rooms.

1. Unhide the floor and specific dataset with the room that you want to add by clicking the eye icon next to it. It is much easier to add a room when you are only viewing the floor that it is on.

2. Using the View Configuration menu, select Top View.

   

3. Use the red rectangular area that appears in the Side View screens (either Side View is fine), you can adjust the content visible in the Top View above. Do this by moving your mouse over the rectangle and scrolling out with your mouse to adjust the size. Drag and drop the rectangle to where you would like it to be placed.

   

Note: You can rotate the view area by moving the rectangle on the top left panel while holding the Shift key

4. Once you can clearly see the outlines of the rooms from the top view of your building, go into the Top View by clicking on its label.

5. Click the + button next to the floor you want the room added on.

   

6. Draw the outline of the room, similar to how you outlined your building in the beginning. The room outline must stay inside the floor and building outline.

7. Using your cursor, click the corner of the room which you want to define. This will be the first spot you start drawing your room from, and where you will need to click to complete the outline of the room.

8. Start drawing the perimeter of the room, using the underlying building as a guide.

   

9. When you are finished defining the room, close the outline by connecting the last node to the first one. The node will turn green to indicate that the outline is closed.

   

10. Now that you have a rough outline of your room, you can continue editing the shape of the room by dragging the white points around the perimeter until you are satisfied.

11. Rename the room by clicking on the Pencil icon next to the room you just defined. Click OK when you are done.

12. When your room is defined and named, click Save. You will now see the room as a part of your building. Repeat steps 5-12 to add more rooms to your site model.

13. Click Publish when you have finished.

Adding Custom Attributes

To further label your site model, you can add custom attributes to the buildings, floors, and rooms.

1. Go to Site Setup > Site Model.

   

2. In the site model side menu, click edit next to the entity that you want to add custom attributes to.

   

3. In the Edit site entity menu under Custom attributes, enter the key in the Key field and the value for the key in the Value field.

   

4. Click + to add the custom attribute to the site entity. You can delete custom attributes by clicking Delete next to the custom attribute.

   

5. Click OK.

6. Click Publish when you have finished.

Backing Up Your Site Model

1. Click Save once you have finished adding all building attributes that you want, including floors and rooms.

2. Export your site model.

Checking Your Site Model

1. Once you are satisfied with your work, click Save.

2. Exit the site model in the top right corner and this will bring you back to the main view of your site.

3. You will now see a floor changer on the right side of your screen if everything has worked properly.

Exporting a Site Model

1. Go to Site Setup > Site Model.

2. Click Export site model from the Editor Options menu.

Importing a Site Model

1. Go to Site Setup > Site Model.

2. Click Import site model from the Editor Options menu.

3. Select the file you want to import.

Note: You cannot import a site model that is the same as or overlaps with the site model currently used for the site.

4. Click Save.