Difficulty: novice
Content
Learning Objectives
After reading this article, you’ll be able to:
- Provide input for 2D or 3D floorplan creation
- Follow the steps to upload a floorplan in Workplace back-end Studio
- Update an already uploaded floor plan
SVG floorplans allow for both room and desk objects to be visualized in Workplace. Since the basis is any kind of drawing (png, pdf, ... see below): colors, icons, text, social distance arrows or others can be added to the end-result SVG, as you can see on the examples below.
SVG floorplans are uploaded and mapped directly in Workplace back-end https://studio.cobundu.com/.
This is what the result can/will look like on Workplace touch points:
Obtain the SVG Floorplan
To obtain the 3D floorplan, contact the Spacewell Internal Drawing Team, and provide
- Floorplan, in any format
- Information on floor size (eg 1000m2)
- Additional information on number of floors-to-come etc
Preferred Floorplan Submission Format: DWG
Our preferred format for floorplans is DWG (CAD), as it provides accurate measurements and scale for creating precise 3D models.
Even if the DWG file is outdated, please include it, as it still aids us in obtaining accurate measurements and scale.
Alternative Formats: PDF
If a DWG file is not available, we also accept floorplans in PDF format.
PNG, JPG, and similar formats can be accepted if the resolution is good. This would need to be verified by Spacewell.
Updates and Revisions:
- Preferred Update Method: If there are updates, kindly modify the original DWG file and submit the revised version. This ensures consistency and accuracy in the modeling process.
- Alternative Update Methods: In cases where updating the DWG file is not feasible, feel free to use the tools you have, such as PowerPoint (PPT) or similar applications.
Ensure to provide clear annotations or comments to highlight changes.
For usability reasons, we can’t go into too much detailed reference points. We work with standard desks and chairs, standard icons.
Depending on resource availability, you will receive your 3D image in a PNG or JPG format, which can be used for upload into Studio, within 5-10 days.
There is 1 correction loop included in the project.
Info
Make sure to have all stakeholder approval on the floorplan design before you upload the SVG in Studio.
Prerequisite for the next steps: 2D or 3D floorplan (see Drawing floorplans (SW internal))
Step 1: Image clean up
The rendered 3D image should be in a PNG or JPG format at this stage
Preparation includes:
- Crop the image
- Remove background
The following guide describes how to complete this process using the program Paint Net. Paint Net is not a Spacewell tool. It can be downloaded for free from the internet.
Step 1.1. Crop the image
Open Paint Net > Open your image in Paint Net
1. Select the Tool “Rectangle Select”
2. Select the area you want to keep / everything outside of this rectangle will be cropped
Info
Keep in mind that the live floorplan has zoom buttons on the lower right hand corner and the Workplace App has a legend at the top. Keep some room for these. The rest (left and bottom) can be cropped closely.
3. Keep the selected area and click on « Image » in the toolbar
4. Select « Crop to Selection »
→ Your image will now appear cropped in your modification window
Step 1.2. Remove background
Once you have cropped the image, remove the background
1. Click on tools and select the « Magic Wand »
2. Click the magic wand anywhere into the
white space of the picture
The initial tolerance will be 50%.
3. Adjust the tolerance until the point that only the background is selected
The tolerance is good when only your background is shaded in the light blue, and no parts of the image are cut
4. Once you have found the perfect tolerance, press the « Delete » button on your keyboard, and the background will become checkered like this:
Info
If you press the « Backspace » button, the background will become black and this is not correct. Make sure to use the delete button
5. Once you have cropped the image and removed the background (make sure it is checkered, not black); you can save the image as PNG.
Leave the pop-up options as « auto detect », and click « OK »
Note
Save as PNG! JPG does not support removed backgrounds and it will not work for the next steps
Step 2: Finalizing the floorplan (in Inkscape)
- Prepare the SVG plan
- Add layers
- Add polygons
- Add the final touch
- Save as an SVG file with a file size of max 3 MB
The following guide describes how to add polygons using the program Inkscape. Inkscape is not a Spacewell tool. It can be downloaded for free from the internet.
You can create SVG plans with different software but we strongly recommend to use Inkscape to get the best results. We use this tool mainly to get polygons on the floorplan and save the final result in an SVG.
Also see chapters “Tips & Tricks” (on Inkscape) and “Troubleshooting” at the bottom of this page.
Note
Inkscape offers many functionalities that are not supported in Workplace. Any configuration that deviates from this guide may or may not be supported by Workplace.
Step 2.1. Prepare the SVG plan
- Open Inkscape
- Open the prepared PNG image.
- Make sure to take over Image DPI from the prepared png file
Step 2.2. Add layers
- Create 2 Layers by clicking on the « + » sign on the right hand side (make sure they are in this order) :
Polygons
- Image
- If they require extra icons or text, we suggest to save these in a separate layer
3. Select the entire image (using your mouse), right-click on the image and move it to the layer « Image »
Info
TIP: Lock the image layer by selecting the eye-symbol, so you don’t accidentally modify this layer
4. Click on the polygon layer so that you are in it (the blue highlight means you are currently working on that layer)
Step 2.3. Add polygons
After having selected the polygon layer:
- Using the left menu/ toolbar, select
the “Rectangles/Squares” to draw the polygons for the rooms
- the “Circles/Ellipses/Arcs” to draw the polygons for the workplaces
Info
“Circles/Ellipses/Arcs” is the name of the feature.
Please draw perfect circles (see below) or ellipses for optimal rendering in the Workplace platform.
For desks, we recommend to draw circular polygons which are easier to place and allow a more easy selection in the Workplace App and other touch points.
Info
Draw one perfect circle/section, and copy / paste it for the rest of the desks.
Info
Or make groups of polygons to work faster and complete the polygon layer quickly (but then be careful to un-group to avoid the introduction of transformations, see below)
How to draw a perfect circle?
To draw a perfect circle W and H dimensions should be equal. It's a best practice to lock those dimensions so you can reshape it in an easy way.
Use the “Rectangles/Squares” or “Circles/Elypses/Arcs” feature for regularly shaped locations,
to create weird shapes:
- use “Bezier curves/Straight Lines” feature or
- draw squares and circles until you have your desired shape, then select menu item Path > Union to get 1 polygon
2. Select the shape to color the polygon (Fill: any color) and remove the border of the polygon (Stroke Paint: None).
We’re initially giving it a color so that we can recognize which polygon is already there or is still on our to-do-list.
Change the opacity to 30-40% so that you can see what it would look like on the live floor plan and perfect your polygons.
Before uploading the finalized file in Workplace, we’ll set the color to white with opacity 2%
Info
Use red or another vibrant color for drawing the polygons so you can see them well (this will not be visible on the final floor plan)
3. To adjust an object, select the arrow or just press “S” and select the polygon (select a corner to pull that corner):
- First click (straight arrows) allows you to enlarge/move the object
- Second click (round arrows) allows you to transform the object. This action is not allowed / not supported by Workplace.
Warning
Make sure not to use any transformation action on a polygon or in a polygon group.
Supported modification actions: scaling and moving.
Not supported modifications/transformations: matrix, rotation, flip (scale -1,1) and skew.
Check for Transform elements
To check if there are any transformations click shift+ctrl+x to open XML Editor:
- Select a polygon.
- If a line says “transform” you can try to delete it or delete the polygon and create it without transformation.
Note
Avoid only_selected="false" in SVG file, as this is an unsupported attribute.
If polygon groups were used, we also risk to introduce transformations on those levels.
- So make sure to “ungroup” the polygon groups by right clicking on the group.
- A pop-up will present different options. Choose the “Ungroup” (Shift+CTRL+G) option.
Now the polygons are separated & ungrouped.
Check if there are any transformations by selecting shift+ctrl+x as described above.
Resolve Transform elements
Sometimes Transform elements creep into your SVG on other levels than in polygons, or is present in a polygon that you just didn’t check in the above step.
This might only become visible in Workplace, after you’ve uploaded your SVG and mapped all locations to the floorplan…
Luckily, there is a plug-in/extension for Inkscape that will let you remove transform elements, without losing the layer/grouping structure of the SVG (which can otherwise cause other issues):
- download the SVG from Studio
- run the Inkscape extension on the file (follow the instructions in the Readme section)
- re-upload in Studio
Step 2.4. Add the final touch
1. When you’re finished drawing all your polygons, it’s time for some fine tuning on
- Alignment
- Overall checks to make sure things are even
- Room checks
- Make sure all needed polygons are available
- …
2. Once you are pleased with your drawing, select the polygon layer and change the opacity to 2%
Step 2.5. Save as an SVG file with a file size of max 3 MB
Info
SVG file should not be bigger then 3MB. If this is the case, resize the background image.
Step 3: Upload & Mapping
If Space Management module is configured, visit: Space Management - Floor plans
If Space Management module is not (yet) configured:
- Go to https://studio.cobundu.com/ > Settings > Floor Plan Settings
- Go to the relevant floor in the list and go to “Views” to check out all uploaded floorplans
3. To upload a new floor plan, select “Add View”, give your floorplan a name/reference and upload your SVG drawing
- Select the pen icon in the overview to configure the drawing
Select "Configure drawing" to start the mapping:
- Select polygon per polygon
- Select the location from the dropdown list on the right
- Press « Assign »
- Make sure you Save the configuration changes
- Make sure to also press « Save » on Floorplan Views page
Info
For the first upload: Map only one polygon and then click save in this window and in the floorplan views. Go to the different touchpoints and check that everything looks good. This will avoid a second mapping in case something is wrong.
4. Save the mapping and also save the Studio “Floorplan Views” page
5. Now your floor plan will appear in all the Workplace touchpoints !
Modifications on existing Workplace floor plan
Surely, the layout of the floor will change over time. This might require a change/addition of polygons, or a change to the background. In this case, you can download the mapped drawing and re-upload, without having to do the mapping again.
Below steps explain how to keep the mapping of the existing locations in Workplace, while adding an extra polygon, which will allow us to link a new location, either to make it reservable or to link a sensor.
Steps to add a new location polygon to a live floor plan
Prerequisite: make sure to set up your new locations in the master data
Steps to add a new location polygon to a live floor plan
- Go to https://studio.cobundu.com/ > Settings > Floorplan Views, select “configure” on the relevant floor
- You’ll find all of the current locations are already mapped.
- Download the drawing / SVG file of this floor plan.
- Open the download with Inkscape.
- On your floor plan in Inkscape, every linked location in Workplace will be represented by black squares and circles. They are the so-called polygons.
- On the bottom right you can see the layers. For now, we're not going to do anything with the layer locations because the layer locations is all the linked locations. Lock the layer to make sure nothing will change.
- The only layer you’d want to touch is the polylines layer, because the polygons are stored on this layer.
- Zoom to the location where you want to add a polygon.
- Select the square functionality in the left menu.
- Click and drag to create a new polygon.
- Make sure to keep opacity around 2%.
- Save the drawing.
- If you get a weird (page) border around your floor plan, check file document properties to remove the border.
- Close Inkscape.
- Go back to Studio > Settings > Floor Plan Views, select “upload” (button with upward facing arrow).
- Select your modified drawing to upload the floor plan in Workplace.
- Select “configure”: As you can see, all of the locations are still there, still intact, still linked. An you can see your extra polygon.
- Link the IWMS location to this polygon and save your changes.
- Set the new floorplan to be your default view.
- Remove any old floor plans from the list
If icons are not positioned correctly compared to the polygons in the SVG floorplans, check out Floorplan management
Tips & Tricks
1. While drawing polygons, in any format, please remember that Workplace will display sensor information (eg occupancy-silhouette, utilization-number, task count-number, ...) on the Live Floorplan in the geometric center of your polygon; even if this might seem off-center compared to the background drawing (eg tables in left below example) or might fall out of your polygon (eg u-shape polygon in the right below example):
- Don’t use transform elements or mis-use a certain object to create another shape (e.g. if you want to draw an arrow: don’t start with a rectangle)
- Before exporting your file: clean up your floor plan.
- File size 3 MB is recommended. In case of very large floors, it’s possible to 'compress' the SVG file, (seemingly) without loss of quality. You can use a PNG-24 compression, but in most cases, a PNG-8 compression is also good enough.
- If icons are not positioned correctly compared to the polygons in the SVG floorplans, check out Floorplan management
- Check out the description on Social Distancing/Disabled Feature on Floor plan settings
Tips & Tricks on Inkscape
1. Select the size (eg Height) + lock to make sure that your shape stays proportionate
2. To copy : copy+paste (2 actions) or ctrlD (= 1 action)
3. To keep the polygons on the same line: select and replace while keeping ctrl turned on
4. Use Align + distribute to have the same space between eg workplaces
- General things to check in Inkscape
Troubleshooting
- After rendering, the polygons are very thick compared to the floor