Getting Started with KnoGeo Part I— Data Presentation
KnoGeo helps commercial real estate professionals tell compelling, data-driven stories that stand-out in client interaction, improve sales efficiency and increase win rates. Teams across Canada and the US use our technology in client pitches, reports, marketing materials and presentations.
Our platform has 2 main workflows: data presentation and data analytics. In this post, I’ll be taking you through the basics of the application and how to use KnoGeo to present the market in an intuitive and interactive way.
For our data analytics article, please visit: https://medium.com/knogeo-3d-data-technologies/getting-started-with-knogeo-part-ii-data-analytics-filtering-d342fce5dad
Found in this Tutorial: Navigating the Map, Manually Highlighting Buildings, Manually Highlighting Floors, Market Selector, Time Series Analysis, Data Layers, Address Search, Highlighted Menu, and Base Map Selection
Navigating the Map
KnoGeo is a 3D map, so it may feel a little different moving around if you’re unfamiliar with the technology. To explore a city, you can click and drag just like you would with a 2D map. But, you can also tilt the map to get the full 3D experience while getting the right angle for a view, zooming to a particular area, or interactively roaming through the city.
How to move in 3D will depend on the device you are using. Camera tilt is controlled on each device by:
Mouse: Holding down either the right-click or scroll-wheel on your mouse
Keyboard: Holding “Alt” while clicking and moving the cursor
Mac: Holding “Command” while clicking and moving the cursor
Now that we’ve mastered moving around the map, it’s time to highlight the market. We’ll get to the rest of the main page soon.
Manually Highlighting Buildings
To highlight a building, simply click the building you’re interested in:
From there, you can choose any colour you like to bring attention to the building by clicking here:
With just this simple workflow, you can create a set of buildings to demonstrate a portfolio, availability, or research.
Manually Highlighting Floors
One of the unique aspects of KnoGeo technology is the ability to highlight floors, both manually and through analytics. So unique in fact that we patented the methodology for doing it! Real estate companies deal with 20x more floor-level data (leases, stacking plans, vacancies, etc.) compared to building data, so this feature allows teams to always have a tool to present their market intelligence no matter the data type.
Highlighting floors is very similar to highlighting buildings. First, click a building, and then click “Floor Mode” located here:
Once the building turns into Floor Mode, you can highlight any floors you like. Just like with buildings, you can present a single floor vacancy or a collection of options. You can create full-floor stacking plans, show lease expiries, analyze company footprints and present any data point to your clients.
Main Page
Now that you’ve mastered highlighting buildings and floors, it’s time to go over the rest of the main page on the application.
Market Selector
The Market Dropdown allows you to create a wide or more focused overview of the market. If you are interested in a specific neighbourhood, you can select it here and only see buildings in that area.
If you’d like your own market or neighbourhood in the application, please get in contact at jesse@knogeo.com
Year + Quarter
If there is historical data integrated with the platform, these toggles allow you to visualize market changes over time. For example, if you had filtered for total vacancy, you could quickly see the change compared to the previous quarter. Some of our customers have data going back to 2005, allowing them to go through a rich history of visualizations where the market has been and where it could be going.
This toggle doesn’t do much if you are manually highlighting locations, but if you have historical data you want to integrate into KnoGeo, please get in touch!
Data Layers
Background Buildings: This toggle turns off buildings that are not highlighted or in a filter set, helping to clear out the noise and only leaving the buildings of interest on the map.
Transit Lines: Turns train lines and stops on/off, helping to showcase a properties accessibility by public transit
Address Search
The address search allows you to quickly navigate to a building of interest. Just type in the address, click the result, and the app will ‘fly’ you directly to that building. Great for being fast and flexible in real time while giving a presentation or meeting with a client.
Highlighted Menu
The highlighted menu is an indicator of both manually coloured and/or filtered buildings. There are 3 main use cases for the highlighted menu:
- If you have already selected a set of buildings or floors you would like to present, you can quickly and efficiently fly to each property by clicking on them in the left-hand nav.
- You can easily change the colour of a building in the filter set.
- You can open the building into floors, allowing you to both change the colour of floors and see which floors have data attached, as indicated by the blue dot.
Base Map Selector
The base map selector is found in the top-right corner of the map, and this feature allows you to select from a variety of layers to find the one that best suits your project. There are 6 base maps included in KnoGeo and we suggest you try every one out so you know what’s available for each visualization you create!
Basic Base : A familiar map layer that everyone knows with intuitive landmarks and navigation elements
Basic Overcast: Neutral base map with soft tones of blue and green
Basic Galaxy: This space-like base map brings a futuristic look with high contrast that makes buildings pop
Monochrome Sky: Neutral base map with soft tones of blue and white
Monochrome Dark: The best base map for focusing only on buildings, this dark layer is great for contrast and highlights
Satellite Streets: Our most realistic base map layer, this satellite imagery is perfect when you want to create a true feeling of overlooking the city
Conclusion
If you have any more questions or would like to become a user, please fill out our contact form at www.knogeo.com and we will be in touch! We are always happy to provide any training or demos to help our users get the most of the platform.
If you are ready for Part II: Data Analytics, you can find it here: https://medium.com/knogeo-3d-data-technologies/getting-started-with-knogeo-part-ii-data-analytics-filtering-d342fce5dad
