Automated Area Linkage

Automated Area Linkage is based on the spatial relationship between area polygons (polygons that are defined in the drawing to outline rooms or other types of areas on the drawing) and some sort of identifying text or attribute that can act as the key to the database. By “spatial relationship” we mean that the text (Room Name, Part Number, etc.) is preferably physically inside, but at least the closest text to the center of the room outline, on a given layer(s). Many Computer Aided Facilities Management (CAFM) drawings for use with the major CAFM systems have been “polygonized” - polygons have been added on a given layer to define the outline of the rooms.

Automated Area Linkage will automatically match the identifier (henceforth called “Room Name”) with the corresponding area outline (henceforth called “Room Polygon”) and create a hyperlink that typically passes the Room Name to a JavaScript function whenever the Room Polygon is clicked or hovered over. The exact mechanism used has a default but usually is customized for each client.

The layer(s) for the Room Name is defined by the Text Layer (TL) parameter while the layer for the Room Polygon is defined by the Room Layer (RL) parameter. As a result, you may hear us use the term “RL/TL Processing”.