Guide

1. Getting started

Anyone can look around public places. To own, manage or work in a space, you need an account.

1. 1Press "Sign in" at the top right, then "No account yet? Create one".
2. 2Type your full name, email and a password of at least 8 characters, then press "Create account".
3. 3Change the language at any time with the language list in the header: English, العربية or Français. Names of places can be given in all three.
4. 4Your name in the header opens your account; "Sign out" is there too.

2. Finding your way

Every place sits inside another, like folders: country → region → city → district → block → building → floor → unit → zone → place (a shelf, a desk, a corner).

1. 1Open "Explore" in the header. The home page lists the countries, each with its number of places.
2. 2Click a country, then keep clicking down: each page shows the map or 3D view and a "Contains" list of what is inside.
3. 3The row of names at the top of each page (the trail) takes you back up to any level.
4. 4A place marked "Private" is only visible to the people it is shared with.

3. Real map or made-up world

There are two kinds of country. Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates are on the real map; Aurelia is a made-up world.

1. 1Real map: the streets, parks and sea come from the real map and cannot be changed. You add the real buildings you need (next section), and everything inside them is yours to build.
2. 2Made-up world: you draw everything, from the land and sea to the roads, blocks and buildings, in the city builder (section 5). You get the 3D city view, walking the streets, and photo-real pictures and videos of the streets.
3. 3Inside a building both kinds work the same: floors, the floor builder, stock, shops, walking inside, VR, AR and photo-real pictures of floors.

A made-up world is the place to try ideas or sell a project that isn't built yet; the real map is for spaces that exist.

4. Adding a real building (Lebanon, UAE)

From a city down, managers can take a building straight off the map.

1. 1Open the city or district (for example Beirut → Hamra) and zoom the map in close.
2. 2Move the mouse over a building: it lights up orange. Click it.
3. 3In "Add this building" give it a name. The box shows its real height and the floors worked out from it ("About 24 m tall · 8 floors").
4. 4Press "Add building". It is added with its real outline, size and turn, and opens with its floors ready.
5. 5Picking the same building again opens the one already added, so nothing is doubled.
6. 6Press "3D street view" (bottom left of the map, once you are close in) to see the streets around you in 3D: the map's buildings, roads, parks and sea. Buildings added to Insight City stand out with their own look; click one to open it. "Back to the map" returns to the map.

If the map has no height for a building, a standard height is used; change the number of floors afterwards if needed.

5. Building a made-up city

Platform admins start new worlds; city managers shape them.

1. 1On the home page press "New made-up world", type the country name and the first city's name, then "Create and open the builder".
2. 2In a city press "Edit city". Draw land, water, beach, parks and plazas as shapes, and roads as lines; drag their corners to reshape them.
3. 3"+ Street grid" lays out a whole district of blocks, roads and buildings in one click.
4. 4Add, move, turn, resize, rename, duplicate or remove blocks and buildings. A block takes its buildings with it; a building dropped into another block joins it.
5. 5Warnings show when buildings overlap or stick out of their block. Undo and redo with the buttons or Ctrl+Z / Ctrl+Y.
6. 6Press "Done editing" to save everything in one go.

6. Buildings and floors

A building page shows the tower in 3D with every floor.

1. 1"Pull floors apart" spreads the floors out so you can see each one; "Put floors together" closes them again. Badges show units and stock on each floor.
2. 2Click a floor to open it. On a building that has no floors yet, "Click to set up the floors and open this one" creates them from the building's height.
3. 3In "Shape" give the building any outline: start from Rectangle, L, U, T, Round or Hexagon, drag the corners (they snap to half a metre), drag the small circle on a side to add a corner, double-click a corner to remove it. Under "Setbacks" pull the outline in from a floor up for a stepped tower. Press "Save shape": the 3D views, the floor builder, prices and renders all follow it.
4. 4Under "Your own wall finish" upload a photo of the wall material (PNG, JPG or WebP, up to 8 MB), pick a colour, how many metres one copy covers, and whether the window pattern shows on top. "Back to the standard look" removes it.
5. 5In "Look & 3D model" choose the outside look (facade style), or press "Upload .glb model" to use your own 3D model of the building or of a floor (up to 150 MB, from SketchUp, Revit, Blender and others).
6. 6To add something by hand, use "Add place inside": choose the type, give a name in at least one language, its use (shop, office, warehouse…) and whether it is private.

7. Drawing a floor over the architect's plan

The floor builder is where a floor's rooms, zones and shelves are drawn, to real size.

1. 1Open a floor and find the "Floor builder". Open "Architect's plan underneath" and press "Upload plan": a picture (PNG, JPG, WebP), a PDF (its first page is used) or an AutoCAD DWG / DXF drawing, up to 20 MB.
2. 2Make the plan the right size: type its real width in "Plan width (m)", or press "Set scale from two points", click two points whose distance you know (a wall, say) and type that distance.
3. 3"Drag the plan" moves it into place; "See-through" fades it. Press "Save plan position".
4. 4Press "New shape", choose unit, zone or place, name it and "Add", then click on the plan to place it. Drag its sides to resize; shapes snap to each other and to the walls.
5. 5Sizes can also be typed. "Split into equal rooms" cuts a floor into rooms in one go. Room areas and the free area are added up below the drawing.
6. 6Draw doors and windows on a room's walls; a room without a door gets one by itself.
7. 7Keyboard: arrows move (Shift for further), Delete removes, Ctrl+D duplicates, Ctrl+Z / Ctrl+Y undo and redo. Press "Save layout" when done.
8. 8"Download the original" gets back the PDF or DWG the plan was made from.

8. Stock and assets

Anything stored on a floor (stock to sell or use, or equipment with a serial number) is kept on its shelf with a full history.

1. 1On a floor, zone or shelf open "Stock & assets" and press "Add stock". Pick an item or "New item…" (name, optional code, unit such as pcs, box or kg, and a level to warn below).
2. 2Type the quantity, choose where to "Put it in", and "Save". Equipment can take a serial number.
3. 3Use "Take out", "Move" and "Count" as things change. Every change is kept in the history; items under their level show "running low".
4. 4"Where is it?" finds anything by name, code, serial or tag and tells you the shelf.
5. 5Equipment (an asset with a serial number) can carry a tag: press "Tag" on its row. You get a code such as IC-7K3Q9 and a QR label to "Print label"; on an Android phone with Chrome, "Write to NFC sticker" puts the same link on an NFC sticker.
6. 6Scanning the label with any phone camera, or tapping the sticker, opens the asset's page: where it is now and, for staff, "Move", "Add a note" (checked, repaired…) and its full history.
7. 7Assets show on the plan inside the room or shelf they are in: a dot in the floor builder and a pin in the 3D building (teal once tagged). Tap a pin in the 3D building to open its page; in the floor builder, tap a dot to choose it, then press its name. Assets left on the floor itself, in no drawn room, are listed under the floor builder.
8. 8Real furniture and equipment: open an asset in the list and press "Give it a 3D look". Pick a shape (sofa, armchair, chair, desk, table, bed, shelf unit, cabinet, machine, plant or box), its real size and colour; add a material picture (fabric, wood…) or upload its own .glb model. Then drag each piece to its spot in the floor builder and turn it with R or the arrows; a piece that sticks out of its room or overlaps another turns red. Moving the room moves its furniture with it. The 3D building, the walk-inside view and the photo-real pictures all show your real pieces.
9. 9"Download the list (Excel / CSV)" exports the stock.

9. Running a shop

Any space used as a shop gets its own public shop page.

1. 1On the shop's page press "Open the shop", then set "Shop WhatsApp": orders are sent there.
2. 2"Add product": name, price in $, description and a photo. Tick "In the shop window" to show it. Stock comes from the shelves, so it shows "Out of stock" by itself.
3. 3Share the shop page. Customers add products to "Your order", type their name and phone, and press "Send order" (and can also send it on WhatsApp). They pay the shop directly once you confirm.
4. 4Orders arrive numbered under "Orders". Move each one along: new → confirmed → ready → done, or cancelled.
5. 5Customers can also "See the shop in 3D".

10. Renting or buying space

Space is priced by its volume in cubic metres, the same prices as the sales page.

1. 1Free spaces show "Rent or buy this space" with the volume, the spot, the level and the prices: rent per month, rent per year (a year costs 10 months), or buy (then a monthly upkeep from month 2), plus a one-time fit-out.
2. 2Press "Rent" or "Buy": it opens WhatsApp with the space and the price filled in. Payment is arranged directly for now.
3. 3Once agreed, the owner adds the person under "Owners & team" as renter or owner, with an end date for a rent. Taken spaces show "This space is taken".

11. Owners, managers, staff and viewers

People are given a role on a place, and the role applies to everything inside it.

1. 1Open the place and find "Owners & team". Press "Add person", type their account email (they must have created an account), choose the role and how they hold it, then "Add".
2. 2Owners and managers can change the place and everything inside; staff can work with stock and orders; viewers can look.
3. 3"End" stops someone's access on a date; past holders stay listed under "Past holders".
4. 4Set "Visibility" to "Private" to hide a place from everyone who is not on its team.

12. Walking inside, VR and AR

Every 3D view can be walked, saved and taken to another device.

1. 1"Walk inside" on a floor walks you through its doorways and between the shelves; "Walk the streets" does the same in a made-up city. Use the arrow keys or WASD and the mouse, or the on-screen stick on a phone. "Back to the view" ends the walk.
2. 2"Enter VR" in a headset's browser (such as Meta Quest) walks the floor life-size.
3. 3"See it in your room" on a phone puts the building on your table: Android (Chrome) and iPhone (Safari).
4. 4"Save picture" saves the view as a picture; "Download 3D (.glb)" gives the scene as a 3D file for other programs.

13. Photo-real pictures and videos

The render factory rebuilds a floor or a street in Blender and makes pictures that look like photographs.

1. 1A floor: open "Photo-real pictures" and press "Quick preview" or "Final quality". You get a picture of every room, one of the open floor and a 360° view ("Look around 360°").
2. 2A made-up city, district or block: turn the 3D view to the shot you want, then in "Photo-real pictures and videos" press "Picture", "Big picture" or "Fly-through video".
3. 3A real city or district (Lebanon, UAE): open "3D street view" first, turn it to the shot you want, then order the same way.
4. 4The order shows "Waiting for the factory", then "Rendering…", then "Ready" with the picture or video underneath. The page checks by itself every 15 seconds.
5. 5Renders are made by a computer running the factory (the office PC with Blender) or a rented GPU. A picture takes about a minute on a PC with a graphics card; an 8-second video about half an hour.

Only one order per place runs at a time; the buttons come back when it is done.