Table of Contents
Purpose
This chapter illustrates how you can use multiple Layouts for various use cases.
Prerequisites
- Understand what a Layout is
- Know how to create, prepareand activatea Layout
Use case 1 - different layouts for different business needs
Imagine that you want to use floors plans for technical space management and also for room/desk booking. This is a very common situation for most Spacewell customers.
Will 1 floorplan fulfil both business needs?
For technical space management, you will need an accurate, as-built floor plan that represents all spaces, with correct areas and shapes, so that you can apply an area measurement standard such as the European EN-15221-6:
For room/desk booking, this floor plan will be hard to use. Not all employees can read and interpret a technical floor plan. Moreover, it contains a lot of detail that is not relevant for them, because they cannot book corridors, staircases, storage rooms etc.
For this audience, a simplified 3D rendering of the floor makes much more sense:
In Space Management, you can have both!
All you have to do is import two drawings (technical drawing + 3D rendering) and create a Layout for each.
For the technical floor plan:
- Import the CAD file (DWG / DXF) and prepare it for use
- Create a Layout and link all the polygon shapes to Spaces and Subspaces
- (optionally) calculate the Space areas from the linked polylines
- Activate the Layout
- Use this layout to allocate Spaces / Subspaces to departments, cost centers, flooring, cleaning programs etc.
For the 3D rendering:
- Convert the CAD file to a 3D rendering (SVG file)
- Ensure that the SVG file contains
the 3D background image
- 1 layer with polygons that represent Spaces that can be booked and/or have sensors
- 1 layer with polygons (often circles) that represent Subspaces (usually desks) that can be booked and/or have sensors
- Import the SVG file and link only the relevant polygon shapes to Spaces and Subspaces
- DO NOT calculate the Space areas from these
- Activate the Layout
- Use this layout for Workplace (Kiosks and mobile app)
Use case 2 - dealing with changes on a floor (churn, renovations)
Imagine that you have successfully created Layouts that represent the current situation on a floor.
What if there is a change in the interior design of the floor? How can you update Space Management accordingly and how will the software treat the changes on the floor plans?
A simple example will illustrate this:
- On 01-01-2025 (= current situation) we have a Floor with only 3 Spaces: A, B and C
- A drawing “Floor_v1.DWG” was imported, which contains the polylines of A, B and C
- A Layout was created, which is using this drawing, having Start Date = 01-01-2025
- So far so good, this is the as-is situation
On 25-05-2026, Space C was split up in two separate spaces C1 and C2 (a separation wall and extra door were installed). Space managers must take 3 steps to deal with this change in the application:
Step 1 - Make adjustments to the data (Spaces / Subspaces)
All locations have a Start Date (specified at creation time) and End Date (specified at archiving time).
Actions:
- Create 2 new spaces C1 and C2 with Start Date = 25-05-2026
- Archive space C with Archive Date = 24-05-2026 (the day before)
Step 2 - Import new drawing version and create new Layout
Layouts also have a Start Date (specified at creation time) and End Date (specified at archiving time)/
Actions:
- An interior architect creates an updated version of the CAD drawing: “Floor_v2.DWG”
it contains 2 new polylines for spaces C1 and C2, and no longer contains the polyline of space C. Polylines for spaces A and B are not changed.
- Import drawing “Floor_v2.DWG” and prepare it for use
- Create a new Layout with Start Date = 25-05-2026, using “Floor_v2.DWG”
Prepare the Layout and link Spaces as usual
- You will be able to link spaces A, B, C1 and C2. This is because the application compares Start end End Dates of Spaces/Subspaces against the Start Date of the Layout. On a Layout from 25-05-2026 you will no longer see Space C because it’s End Date is 24-05-2026 !!
Step 3 - Activate new Layout and archive old Layout
After step 2, you will have this situation:
- end users will still see the old Layout (with space C) in Space Explorer
- you have created and prepared a new Layout, valid since 25-05-2026
Then there’s only 1 task left to do: make the switch from old to new.
Actions:
- Double-check the new layout. Is everything correct? If no, edit the Layout further. Else, proceed.
- Activate the new Layout
- Archive the old Layout with End Date = 24-05-2026
Summary flowchart for drawings
Use this flowchart as guidance when importing drawings in Space Management.