File Types

To utilise AutoPV's automated layout generation tool, a correctly configured .kml file is required containing the development area of the site. Exclusion zones and other site features are optional, however, AutoPV will identify these too.

Correctly identified development areas will appear green, exclusion zones will appear red and all other feature types will appear blue when imported.

.kmz files are currently not accepted and will need to be extracted into a .kml file for use in AutoPV.

KML structural requirements for AutoPV

For AutoPV to correctly identify features contained within a .kml file, each feature needs to be named according to the acceptable names for each feature type specified below.

Development Areas (green): - Dev, Dev Area, Development

As a minimum, any feature containing 'dev' in its name will be identified as a development area.

Exclusion zones (red): - Exclusion, Exclude, Constraint, Setback

Other feature types (blue): - Any name other than the above.

For kmls containing multiple dev areas, it is recommended to name each dev area differently, as having 2 areas with the same name can cause unexpected behaviour within the app. Example naming: dev area 1, dev area 2, etc.

The primitive data types contained with a kml file are polygons, polylines and points. The above naming structure applies to all of these types, however, only polygons are required for development areas. Each data type can have a name and description. AutoPV uses the name of the feature to identify the feature type. Descriptions can therefore contain any value.

The order in which site features are drawn/defined in the kml is not essential as long as they are correctly labelled.

kml files should be smaller than 20MB.

Creating your KML

1) To create a .kml file, navigate to Google Earth.

2) Choose the polygon creation tool and draw a polygon representing the development area.

3) Provide a suitable name according to the acceptable names above.

4) In the 'Places' panel, right-click the newly created polygon -> save place as... -> choose .kml file type

5) For multiple dev areas or features, right-click any item in the 'Places' panel -> add -> folder. Place all drawn polygons, polylines and points in this folder then export the folder as per step 4.

You are now ready to use AUTOPV with your newly generated .kml file!