Creating Points Of Interest

You can create markers used in navigation softwares and GPS devices to identify relevant locations on a map.

Points of interest are similar to simple features of type point; they are just a little more specialized.

Before you begin: You cannot create prepared vector datasets containing more than 20 000 000 geometries.
See Also
About Datasets
Displaying Object Properties
POI Representation Attributes
Publishing to a City Navigation Experience
  1. From the Referential section of the action bar, click Create Point of Interest .
  2. From 3DSpace or 3DSearch, drag the appropriate file onto the "drop source data here" zone displayed on the referential.
  3. Define the following parameters:
    OptionDescription
    Dataset NameName of the dataset.
    Publish datasetSelect this check box to publish the dataset on the server. This lets you publish your experience to a City navigation experience afterward.

    Published datasets are identified by the symbol in the Published column of the City Referential panel.

    Dissociate access rights Select this check box to dissociate access rights to a dataset from its associated dataset document. The dataset can still be accessed and its content can be visualized but the associated datasource cannot be downloaded. A new dataset document is created instead and is used to compute access rights to the dataset.

    This option is especially relevant when you need to share datasets with confidential data, for example.

    When the check box is selected, a list is displayed to let you choose the collaborative space in which the new dataset document must be created. By default, the collaborative space containing the original dataset document is selected.

    After clicking OK to close the creation dialog box, an empty dataset document is created in 3DSpace with the same name as the dataset. The dataset can then be read as soon as the new dataset document can be read.

    The icon is displayed in the City Referential panel to reflect the new status and the Properties panel shows information about the new document.
    LevelsLets you define the subdivision levels of the quadtree. For each level you add, the corresponding size (in meters) for each tile is displayed in the Tile Size area on the right.

    The tile size depends on the referential's bounding box.

    Predefined Attributes Lets you associate predefined attributes contained in the imported document to those used by the server.

    All these attributes are optional. Their behavior is the default when no mapping is defined, or when the attribute you define does not comply with the constraints assigned to each of these predefined attributes.
    Exposed Attributes Additional datasource attributes that will remain associated to the dataset.

    This means that the selected attributes are displayed in the Attributes list in the Properties panel.

    Note: Predefined attributes are reserved terms. This means that you cannot expose an attribute using the name and case of a predefined attribute, whatever the dataset type. If you try to do so, an error occurs and the dataset cannot be created. For example, you cannot expose an attribute named SCALE if these attribute is already a predefined attribute. To be able to expose the attribute, you must rename it first.

    Below are listed the attributes that are predefined for the POI dataset type:

    Attribute Name Description Constraints Default Behavior
    STRID An external ID given by the user. String

    Has to be unique among all GeoItems of a single source.

    Only the first GeoItem is kept if there is a non-unique STRID.

    		 The index in the layer is set. No update is possible (you can only regenerate it).
    NAME Name defined by the user. String

    Any other format will be set to "String".

    		 The string is empty.
    FILENAME Name of the associated resource file. String

    Relative path to a file in resource.

    		 If no explicit value is specified, it is set to the first PNG file found in the resource.

    Otherwise, the string is empty.
    StreamPriority Number value used to order GeoItems.

    GeoItems with highest values are returned in tiles at Start Level.

    		 Real The attribute is set to 0.0.
    LifespanStart Date from which the GeoItem is valid. Date or string (with date format).

    The accepted date format is: yyyy/MM/dd HH:mm:ss.SSSSSS +HH:mm.

    • Valid date separators are ‘/’ or ‘-’.
    • Valid date-time separators are space or ‘T’.
    • Valid time-time offset separators are space or ‘Z’.
    • Valid time offset operators are ‘-’ or ‘+’. No operator is equivalent to the ‘+’ operator.
    Note: The time offset is directly applied to the save date and is not kept.

    Should be set before LifeSpanEnd.

    		 The attribute is set to the start time.

    As dates are limited to positive integers and four-digit numbers of the Gregorian calendar, the start time is January 1st in year 0.
    LifespanEnd Date to which the GeoItem is valid. Date or string (with date format).

    The accepted date format is: yyyy/MM/dd HH:mm:ss.SSSSSS +HH:mm.

    • Valid date separators are ‘/’ or ‘-’.
    • Valid date-time separators are space or ‘T’.
    • Valid time-time offset separators are space or ‘Z’.
    • Valid time offset operators are ‘-’ or ‘+’. No operator is equivalent to the ‘+’ operator.
    Note: The time offset is directly applied to the save date and is not kept.

    Should be set afterLifeSpanStart.

    		 The attribute is set to the end time.

    As dates are limited to positive integers and four-digit numbers of the Gregorian calendar, the end time is December 31st in year 9999.

    In addition to these predefined attributes, there are some internal and automatically set attributes. Such attributes are not associated to any dataset type because they cannot be set by the user. They are automatically assigned to GeoItems.

    Internal Attribute Name Description Constraints Default Behavior
    uuid A guaranteed unique ID. String

    Automatically set.

    		 A guaranteed unique ID.
    SourceFileName The name of the datasource file from which the GeoItem is created is used. String

    Automatically set.

    		 The name of the datasource file from which the GeoItem is created is used.

  4. Optional: To give a name to the POI, select the attribute to be exposed (for instance NAME, but it can be any other attribute) in the Exposed Attributes list.

    Note: You can use your own POI icon instead of the default one, provided that the image is in PNG format.

  5. Click OK.
    A pop-up message informs you when the creation is successful and the City Referential panel opens (this is the case whenever a dataset is created).

    An alert is also displayed under the top bar to inform you about the preparation status (success or failure). This alerts is displayed for a few seconds but you can click from the top bar to open the 3DNotification Center and display your notification history. For more information, see Dashboard Top Bar.

    Note: As this notification is displayed only when the dataset is prepared, it might not be immediately displayed for large datasets that take time to be processed.

  6. From the Available City Datasets area of the City Referential panel, drag the dataset to the referential when its status switches to Ready.
    The dataset is displayed in the tree on the left and the POI appears on the selected referential. The anchor point is in the bottom center of the icon.

    Default Icon

    Customized Icon

    Note: By default, the elevation used for POIs is the absolute elevation. If the shapefile is in 2D, then the POI is positioned on the terrain.

  7. Optional: From the standard section of the action bar, click Properties , select Naming, and then enter the attribute to be used for naming the POI in the Name Attribute box.

    Note: the naming is case-sensitive.

  8. Optional: If relevant, you can display point groups as clusters in your experience. To do so, select the Clustering option in the Properties panel.