Over the years, our clients have uploaded literally thousands of floor plans with the goal of creating interactive staff seating charts. These floor plans arrive at Floor Plan Mapper in many formats from hand drawn cubicles on paper napkins to gigantic AutoCAD files.
Although our preferred floor plan image format is PDF, any image format can be imported. Here are a few of the more common image floor plan formats:
- JPG – JPG files are saved using the method of lossy compression. The output image, as result of compression, is a trade-off between storage size and image quality. The downside of jpg floor plan images is that tend to be grainy or blurry.
- PNG – PNG files are a particularly popular file type with web designers because it can handle graphics with transparent or semi-transparent backgrounds. A PNG image won’t lose any of its data when it’s compressed. This is a big advantage over JPG files.
- DWG/DXF – DWG and DXF files are CAD system based files. Although they are most likely the best floor plan format quality wise, they can be very cumbersome. The reason being is that there are literally hundreds of layers in CAD files. When the Floor Plan Mapper team reviews a CAD file, they can sometimes find it difficult to narrow down only the information the client would like to see.
- EPS – An EPS file is a graphic file format for vector illustrations – commonly used in print and digital media. As the format is vector based, the quality of the floor plan images is excellent at any zoom scale.
- PDF – A vector based PDF delivers the best quality floor plan data for import into Floor Plan Mapper. However, a raster based PDF file will not have as good quality as a vector based file.
- SHP – SHP files are an ESRI ArcGIS based file format. Generally converted to PDF for loading into Floor Plan Mapper.
Every floor plan uploaded into Floor Plan Mapper is reviewed and edited by our staff to ensure the best looking floor plan image is published for your interactive staff seating chart. Here are some of the most common edits we make to floor plan images:
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- Remove borders/legends/title sheets
- Remove unwanted labels or scanning artifacts
- Brighten or darken office floor plan linework
- Add office wall lines
- Resize or shrink floor plan image files
One question we often get from clients is “What happens if we change the physical layout of our floor plans?”
In the event the physical layout of your office changes, we will have to re-import the floor plans for you. This takes only about an hour or so and you will not need to have to re-assign any employee locations. The floor plan will be updated in the same location as the previous floor plan. The floor plan image does not need to be the same format or dimensions as the original floor plan.
