Spatial plan

Please note: This page is currently being updated.

What is a spatial plan

A spatial plan is a design which focuses on the landscape, environment, routing, public and private space, buildings forms and more. This design can be made for an urban area as part of an urban planning project or for a more rural area. Spatial plans are created by urban designers or landscape architects and can vary in scales

Requirements on a spatial plan

The Tygron Engine can be used for importing spatial plans in the Engine to evaluate certain design measures in a plan, for example if the parking standard is feasible. Depending on the purpose of importing the spatial plan, there are some things to be taken into account:

• If the purpose is to create a 3D model of a 2D- drawing, remember that the level of detail in the Engine is not too high. Therefore, if the plan is very detailed, the design might not be visible in the Engine.
• If the purpose is creating a visualization of the plan, sometimes it may be better to use placeholders for buildings, to emphasize if the design is in an early stage.

Most of the spatial plans on a smaller scale are being drawn in AutoCAD (AutoCAD Map, Autocad 3D, AutoCAD Architecture). Therefore, below are some steps provided to import a plan as an AutoCAD file (.dwg) to a GeoJSON for importing in the Engine. In principle every spatial plan can be imported, as long as the original format can be converted to a GeoJSON.

How to insert a spatial plan to the Engine

File:Specify layer.JPG

Choose a Coordinate reference system in QGIS

How to Insert a spatial plan into the Engine:

1. Save the AutoCAD file (.dwg) in AutoCAD as a .dxf or if you use AutoCAD map save the file as a Shapefile (.shp)
2. Open the .dxf or .shp in a GIS, for example in QGIS
3. Choose the right coordinate system when QGIS prompts for a CRS
4. Save the layer as a GeoJSON.
5. Import the dile with the Geo Data Wizard

The first step is to convert the AutoCAD drawing to polygons and saving this file as a Shapefile (.shp). This can be done in AutoCAD Map, if you have another AutoCAD or if this is not possible, save the Autocad drawing in AutoCAD instead as a .dxf file.

Now the .dxf or .shp file can be opened in a GIS (Geographical Information System). In this example QGIS is used. The .dxf/.shp file can be opened by dragging the file in QGIS. QGIS prompt to choose a Coordinate Reference System. Choose the coordinate system that is being used for the spatial plan. In the Netherlands, this is probably always Amersfoort/RD New (EPSG:28992).

File:Layers.JPG

Layer panel in QGIS

If you have a .dxf file, QGIS asks which layers you want to open. Choose Select All en click Ok. There are then four layers added to QGIS:

• a point layer, which consists of the text elements
• a line layer which holds all the layers of the AutoCAD file
• a polygon layer, which contains the hatches of the AutoCAD file
• a GeometryCollection layer

The layer you probably need is the line layer. This layer can be saved as a GeoJSON. If you opened a .shp file in QGIS, the layer can be saved as a GeoJSON. The file can then be imported with the Geo Data Wizard.

Depending on the use case of the spatial plan in your project, it might be usefull to import the spatial plan as a measure. By doing so, it is possible to carry out the constructing of the plan as one action, instead of multiple actions. To import the spatial plan as a measure, open the Geo Data Wizard under the measure tab. After completing the wizard, the newly created measure can be found in the measure left panel.