Showing Multiple Floors in Path Animation

March 20, 2017

New feature we have added for wayfinding applications is accordion style floors when using path animation. This means, that all floors will be visible on the screens when showing the path through multiple floors.

In 3D Wayfinder you will see all floors as they exist in real building, so they are just simplified 3D models of the real floor-plans. When switching between floors, new floors will drop into scene on top of the previous floors or fly away, if going downward with the path. All floors are exactly covering previous ones, so basically whole 3D building models are sliced by floors.

Now it is possible to keep the floor plans apart from each other, so you can see all floors at the same time. This is useful mainly for wayfinding, so it is easy to remember the whole route. But we will definitely develop this “accordion” mode further, so it can be used also in other applications. For example in BIM applications, it is possible to highlight objects in all floors at the same time. Or visualize the whole factory with multiple floors or create multi-layer metro station animations.

Animation_floor_animation_in_3D_wayfinder_optimize

Currently the distance between floors is configured under settings. In future we will add features for separating the floors by dragging the floor-buttons apart. This makes the browsing of 3D buildings much more flexible.

To use this accordion style path animation, go to Settings in Administration panel. Then find Path->3D->Leave a offset between floors. For example use 50 as an offset, and then see how it looks.

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Portals in Wayfinding Software

May 25, 2016

We have implemented new type of nodes – portals. This makes it possible to guide visitors instantly from one point to another.

Portals in wayfinding software can be used for creating an instant path between a large number of floors or when floors are drawn on the same map as shown in the image below.

Portals_in_wayfinding_software

In the case where a building has a large number of floors the portal nodes become exceptionally useful they allow the path to “jump” instantly from one floor to another making the path visualization instant.
The portal nodes are useful in the case where there is a greater distance between locations where you don’t need to show the way. For example in the case when using a train or a tunnel in between locations.

The nodes operate the same way as in the popular videogame Portal. The main idea is that you can create two gateways in between which the path can move freely either way.

Currently the portal nodes only operate on 2D maps, but at the moment we are working on developing portal nodes for 3D maps. They will be available soon to make your wayfinding solutions even more flexible.

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