Terminology used in ArcGIS Indoors

Available for an ArcGIS organization licensed with the Indoors extension.

The following are common terms used in ArcGIS Indoors:

Area

Activity-based work environments can use areas commonly known as hotels or hot desk areas as a general space that can support numerous people without specific space assignments.

ArcGIS Indoors Information Model

The Indoors model consists of two feature datasets with a collection of feature classes, and a table, which maintains configuration information in support of Indoor Viewer, ArcGIS Indoors for Android, and ArcGIS Indoors for iOS.

Category

A category is a collection of similar points of interest that contain more details than a category group. For example, the Places + Things category group may contain an office category, which would include a list of office spaces across different facilities in your organization.

Categories can be attached to a category group to create a hierarchy of similar points of interest bundled together for a better exploring experience in Indoors apps. Categories can also exist outside of a group as stand-alone categories when they don't fit into a logical group.

Category group

A category group is a broad collection of similar categories that are useful to your organization. An example of a category group is Places + Things, which would include a catalog of categories for places and things that you want to explore on the map, such as conference rooms, offices, and restrooms. The Indoors map template includes three preconfigured category groups: Safety + Security, Retail + Services, and Places + Things.

Dead zone

A dead zone is a space where the indoor positioning system (IPS) should not display a person’s position. These are typically identified as nontraversable spaces during the initial IPS survey that should be ignored, like open spaces in multilevel facilities.

Details

The Details feature class includes linear assets that partition spaces on an indoor map, such as walls, doors, or windows. Details are used to constrain generated network pathways and to support visualization.

Event

Events are used to support search and explore capabilities, routing, and identification of landmarks in routing. The Events feature class may include indoor and outdoor information and is manually loaded from other data sources.

Facility

A facility refers to a building and may contain many levels, zones, sections, and units.

Landmark

Landmarks are point features used when creating directions to provide callouts for an enhanced routing experience. Landmark points are typically generated from existing POIs that are used to generate the pathways.

Level

A level refers to the floor of a building contained in your managed facilities.

Indoors network

The Indoors network is a routable network made up of pathways generated and curated using the Indoors Network toolset.

Info panel

A panel appears when you click on a configured point of interest (POI) or landmark on a map in Viewer. This info panel contains details about the POI, occupant, or landmark—such as the name, description, or address—as well as links to share a location using a link or QR code or optionally add a work order or log an issue. In Indoors for iOS and Indoors for Android, this panel is called an info card.

Occupant

An occupant is a person who uses indoor spaces. Occupants are commonly employees, tenants, or visitors.

Pathway

A pathway is a potential route within the Indoors network. Pathways are lattice-based and are generated using tools in the Indoors Network toolset.

Point of interest (POI)

POIs are people, places, or objects—such as assets, hardware, or equipment—that you want to locate on a map. They are used to support the search and explore capabilities, identification, routing, and identification of landmarks in routing.

Section

Also referred to as wings, sections represent a collection of spaces that include a logical subdivision of a level. Unlike zones, spaces typically belong to only one section, for example, the west wing.

Site

A site is the largest space designation within the Indoors model and may contain multiple facilities.

Space

Space is a generic term referring to areas and volumes in a building. In Indoors, the space with the smallest area is a unit, and the space with the largest area is a site.

Tracking zones

Tracking zones are geofenced spaces where device tracking should be enabled. Devices located in a tracking zone will be tracked if configured in your environment.

Transitions

Network transitions refer to possible routes between levels, such as stairways or elevators. Transitions are generated using the Generate Floor Transitions tool.

Unit

Units are the usable spaces within a building, which often have equipment, people, schedules, or other assets associated with them. Units are nonoverlapping individual functional areas such as workspaces, amenities, retail spaces, elevators, and so on.

Zone

Zones refer to areas of organization in a level, such as security, functional, managerial, retail zones, and so on. Zones are used for visualization in mapmaking and may overlap.