Data creation workflow

Available for an ArcGIS organization licensed with the Indoors extension.

The data and floor plans for a building or site must be georeferenced for use with ArcGIS Indoors.

Data creation involves the following high-level process that can be mostly automated using geoprocessing tools available with ArcGIS Indoors:

  1. Create the geodatabase.
  2. Load the floor plans and points of interest (POIs).
  3. Create the Indoors network.

Create the Indoors geodatabase

You must identify an existing geodatabase and create the Indoors geodatabase using the Create Indoors Database geoprocessing tool located in the Indoors Tools toolbox to populate it. The Create Indoors Database tool adds all the required ArcGIS Indoors Information Model feature classes and configuration tables to your specified workspace.

Load the floor plans and points of interest (POIs)

You can load floor plans from CAD drawings, for example, .dwg files from AutoCAD or .dgn files from MicroStation, point of interest (POI) layers, and occupant data. The Indoors floor plan import process uses a Microsoft Excel configuration spreadsheet to facilitate the mapping of source CAD layer names to their output GIS layers and attributes.

Note:

If you don't have .dwg or .dgn files, you can georeference floor plan images and digitize the floor plan manually.

You must do the following:

  1. Run the Generate Occupant Features geoprocessing tool to populate people points.
  2. Populate the PointsOfInterest feature class with POI data.
  3. Load events into the Events feature class.

Create the Indoors network

The creation of the network involves a handful of geoprocessing tools available with Indoors. The network tools use a pathway-based approach to automate the network creation process inside buildings. The workflow includes these steps:

  1. Generate pathways.
  2. Generate floor transitions.
  3. Thin the pathways.
  4. Optionally, classify pathways using primary versus secondary routing.
  5. Optionally, add pathways features between buildings.
  6. Create the final network dataset.