Floor Plans in WalkInto adds the ability to organize the tour navigation into 'Area' and 'Floor'.  On each floor Points of Interests ('Point') can be created and connected with a panorama scene.  Once these connections are made Viewer can easily navigate between 'Areas' or 'Floors' and click on any 'Points' to jump to a specific scene.  While this feature is a natural fit for Real Estate Virtual tours, this can be creative used to help add an alternate navigation structure for large areas, for example amusement parks or Museums.


Video Tutorial [For the time crunched!]





Important Concepts


What is an Area?


Imagine you need to create a tour covering two different buildings.  Building Pier 51 has 3 floors and the other building Pier 26 has 2 floors.  In this case the recommended organization is to create a Floor Plan with two different areas, Pier 51 and Pier 26.


To add a new 'Area You use the Button on right top of the Floor Plan Editor'




What is a Floor?


Extending the above example, since your first 'Area' Pier 51 has three floors, you add three floors into that 'Area'.  Similarly for Pier 26, you will be adding 2 floors.


You can manage adding and editing, deleting of Floors using the Floor editor tools on left side of Floor Plan Editor




What is Point?


Point is a panorama link you want to create on a Floor to connect it with a scene.  You get to choose the scene and set the initial viewing angle correctly so that your audience can just click on the 'Point' and jump to that scene.


You add a new Floor point using the 'Point' button on right top of the Floor Plan Editor


  




In this example we will create a simple Floor Plan with one area and two floors.  We will rename the floors to match a desired alternate pattern.  And we will add three points each to each of our floors.


Step 1 : Add a Floor Plan to your Tour.


To add the floor plan feature to your tour you will use the 'Area Plan' tool on the top tool bar - 


When you click on this icon, Walkinto will automatically create an empty floor plan , your first 'Area' and will give you a screen to upload your floor plan.  Floor plan can be in any image format acceptable on the browser.  we recommend a JPEG image re-sized to an acceptable small size so that your tour will load up faster.


Step 2 : Upload your Floor Plan 




Click on 'Browse Computer' to choose your floor plan image.



Select the image and click 'Open' : May differ depending on your operating system.




Now you have created a new 'Area' and 'Floor' in just two clicks.  We have not added any 'Points yet'.


Step 3 : Adding your first Point to Floor - Living Room.
To add a scene as a point on to the floor the first step is to shortlist that scene.  Let us say in your floor plan you want to show clickable points for 'Living Room', 'Kitchen' and 'Master Bedroom'.  In this case you first walk your tour and shortlist the approximate location you want to have as points using the short list tool.


What is the shortlist Tool?


Short list tool is a multi purpose tool that comes as a 'Camera' icon on the right top of the WalkInto screen.  



Clicking on the camera icon will add the current scene to the 'Short List carousel'.  It is then accessible at multiple points during your scene selection process.  For example while creating a scene link.  We have used the same tool and the intuitive shortlist method to pick the scene attachments for 'Floor Points'.



Here I shortlisted the scene looking into the living area and to verify that the scene is in fact short listed I have it open on the short list carousel.  All looking good so far.  Now we can get back to the floor plan editor to add this scene as a Floor Point.



Floor point definition tool is on the right top and labelled as 'Point', button  with the cross hair icon.  When you click on this button the mouse cursor will change the familiar cross hair selection - inviting you to position the point where you need on the image.




Here we clicked near the living room area to add a floor point.  Floor point comes up in blue color with a grey wedge that you can adjust using the slider in scene selection window.  As you can see the scene selection window the scene we earlier shortlisted is available in the carousel.  You can switch between shortlisted scenes using arrows outside the panorama or you can move to a different point using arrows inside the panorama.

Floor Point Editor Tool Explained


TIP: To Activate the Floor Point Editor for an existing point you Double Click with the Mouse on that point.



Editing the name of a Floor.


When you add a new floor WalkInto assigns it a default name.  It is a sequence number.  You can change this to something that is more meaningful by activating the edit for the Floor name.  You get the edit tools upon mouse over the current Floor name.  Floor names can be maximum of two characters in length.  Floor Names can repeat.



Editing Area Names.


Area is recommended to be used when your tour has different logical areas with floors geographically separated.  Such as different buildings.  Once an area is added it shows up through the left top pull down on the floor plan editor.  When you access this panel you can edit the name of the area or delete it if you no longer need it.  Remember that when you delete a Floor area that will automatically remove all the floors and points contained within it.