Using GIS for Interactive Floor Plan

Question

GIS is brand new to me, but I've spent a couple of days researching so that I can at least ask somewhat intelligent questions.

1. I've decided to use QGIS
2. I need to do an interactive floor plan on the web and shapefiles fits the bill

Problem: I need to put the floor plan in as a backdrop (raster) to all the polygons that will represent the rooms. But, I don't know how to properly set the scale so that when I use the 'measure' tool it will actually come up with correct measurements.

Any advice?

Edit: Adding sample image to show what I'm doing. As you can see there's a floorplan that I've imported into QGIS as a raster layer. I'm going to be tracing the shapes of the rooms into a separate shapefile, which I then want to use on the web (using Silverlight) to interactively update the polygon fill colors representing temperatures in the various rooms. The problem I'm experiencing is that when I load the image separately into the Silverlight application and then load the shapefile a) The position and shape of the polygon looks nothing like it does in the GIS app b) It's in the wrong place altogether, but I think I might be able to solve that one myself. The shape that's coming out totally different is the worry? Regards, Jacques

Answer 1

Do you have your "backdrop (raster)"?

If yes, then there is two options:

1. it is georeferenced (in some non-earth coordinate system). Then everything is ok and you have just to use it with your vector data (if you have it already) or draw vector "polygons that will represent the rooms" using your raster as a background layer. In first case may be you will need to do additional georeferencing to match raster and vector layers. Be carefull in choosing the right data for georeferencing - raster or vector - you should leave accurate data intact.
2. it has no georeferencing info. Again there are two options:
   • you have vector data ("polygons that will represent the rooms"). You need to georeference your raster data using vector as control points (i.e. room corners)
   • you have no vector data. You need to calculate 3 points from your plan manually using some additional info about your rooms (rooms size), draw that points as a vector layer and then use them to georeference your raster.

Additional info for the last case (no georeferencing info, no vector data):

Actually I am not an everyday user of QGIS but I have found one tutorial which is very close to your task.

In your case you will be creating a point shapefile without any background raster (skipping step 1).

Draw first point in any place. Then take a look over your plan. Lets say that you have a room with size 4 x 5 meters. Place your second point shifting it in 4 meters by X coordinate. Then repeat it for the third point - shifting it from first point in 5 meters by Y coordinate.

For more accuracy you can place your point manually entering coordinates. In this case their coordinates will look like: Point1(0, 0); Point2(4, 0); Point3(0, 5).

Then you should georeference raster using appropriate room corners from it and previouslly created vector points.

Answer 2

Have you considered using Google Map Floor Plans?

It might save you a lot of headache in the long run.