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🏭 Warehouse Builder
A 3D model of your warehouses, rooms and bins, so anyone can see where a part is stored
Overview
The Warehouse Builder turns your Inventory Locations into a 3D model.
You draw each WAREHOUSE's floor plan (any shape) and it is drawn as a see-through building with a roof and doors. Its ROOMs sit on the floor,
either as walled rooms or as open areas. Inside each room you can lay out tables, shelving, racks and equipment, and place its
BINs on them. When someone looks up a part number on the Inventory Balance page, the 3D view shows exactly where it is.
Open it with the 🏭 Warehouse Builder button at the top of the Inventory Locations page.
Floor Plan Editor
Every warehouse and room/area starts with a floor plan: its outline seen from above, which can be any shape, and its wall height.
Open it with Floor Plan on the Warehouse Builder page, the Floor plan link in the Size column on
the Inventory Locations page, or Edit floor plan in the Building Editor or Room Builder.
- Unit and wall height: pick ft, in, m or mm and enter the height of the walls (floor to ceiling, not the roof peak). A room can use a different unit from its warehouse; it is converted automatically.
- Start from a shape: enter a width and length and click Rectangle or L-shape, or click Draw new and click each corner on the grid. Close the shape by clicking the first (orange) corner or pressing Enter.
- Change the shape: drag a corner to move it, click a wall to add a corner there, and select a corner and press Delete (or the ✕ in the corner list) to remove it. You can also type each corner's position in the list. Corners snap to the grid (0.5 ft, 6 in, 0.1 m or 100 mm). Undo steps back.
- Walls are numbered W1, W2 and so on, starting from the front-left corner and going around the outside. Doors are placed on these numbered walls.
- Walls can't cross each other. Scroll to zoom; drag with the right mouse button (or hold Shift) to pan.
- Click Save floor plan. If the new shape no longer has room for something that was placed (a room in a warehouse, or a bin in a room), it is taken out of the layout so you can place it again. Doors that no longer fit on their wall are removed, and components outside the new outline are listed so you can move them in the Room Builder.
Moving a room to a different warehouse, or a bin to a different room, takes it out of the old layout. Place it again in its new building or room.
Building Editor
On the Warehouse Builder page, click Edit Building next to a warehouse.
- Roof style: flat, gable, hip or shed (single slope). The roof sits above the wall height. Sloped roofs need a rectangular building; any other shape has a flat roof.
- Doors: pick single, double or roll-up, the numbered wall it is on (the wall numbers are shown in the 3D view), and its position measured from the left end of that wall as seen from outside. Each door type starts at a standard size, which you can change. Click a door in the list to edit or delete it.
- Rooms: the list shows every room in this warehouse. Click one to add it to the building, then drag it on the floor, or type its position (from the left wall and from the front wall). Rotate 90° turns it, and Remove from building takes it off the floor without deleting the room.
- Show as: choose Room for a walled room or Area for an open zone of the warehouse floor (such as a receiving or staging area). An area is drawn as a marked patch of floor.
- Rooms cannot overlap and must fit inside the building's outline (a room that overlaps or sticks out through a wall turns red). When you add a room it goes to the first spot where it fits, turning it if needed.
- Click Save building when you are done. Use the 3D, Top and Front buttons to change the view. Drag empty space to orbit, scroll to zoom and right-drag to pan.
Room Builder
Click Room Builder next to a room on the Warehouse Builder page, or in the Building Editor, to lay out what is inside it.
- Components: add tables, workbenches, desks, cabinets, pallets, carts, machines and boxes (shelving and pallet racks that hold bins are RACK locations; see the Rack Builder). Each starts at a typical size that you can change. Give it an optional label, drag it into place, rotate it, duplicate it or delete it.
- Machines: a Machine / equipment component can be linked to one of your machines from Settings → Admin Settings → Machines. Pick it from the Machine list in the component's details; its name becomes the label (you can still change the label), and its make, model and status are shown. Each machine can stand in only one place, so a machine already placed in another room is greyed out in the list. If a machine is later deleted from Admin Settings, the component stays in the room, unlinked.
- Racks: the list shows the racks that belong to this room. Click one to place it, then drag or rotate it. Its bins come with it.
- Bins: the list shows the bins that belong to the room itself (not to a rack). Click one to place it, set its size, and drag it to its spot. Set Above floor to lift it off the floor. Bins can stack and sit on shelves, so they are not checked for overlap.
- Everything must fit inside the room's outline (anything outside is outlined in red). Click Save room when you are done. The components and bins also appear inside the room in the building view.
Rack Builder
A RACK is a storage location like a warehouse, room or bin. Add one on the Inventory Locations page under a
warehouse (a rack standing on the open warehouse floor) or under a room, then add its BINs with the rack as their parent. Location
paths then read WH-1 › RM-1 › RK-1 › BIN-000001 or WH-1 › RK-1 › BIN-000001 everywhere they are shown.
- Open Rack Builder from the Warehouse Builder page or from the Size column on the Inventory Locations page.
- Choose the style (Shelving unit or Pallet rack, which only changes how it is drawn), the unit, the width, depth and height, and the number of shelves (1 to 20). Shelves are evenly spaced, with the bottom one at floor level. Use typical size for this style fills in a common size.
- For each bin, pick its shelf and set its size. Bins line up from left to right on their shelf; use the arrows to change the order. Put unshelved bins on shelves fills the shelves from the bottom with any bins that aren't on one yet.
- A shelf can't hold bins wider in total than the rack, and a bin can't be taller than the space between shelves or deeper than the rack.
- Place the rack itself in the Building Editor (racks that belong to the warehouse) or the Room Builder (racks that belong to a room). Moving or rotating the rack moves its bins with it. Racks can't overlap each other, and a warehouse rack can't stand inside a room.
Finding a part on Inventory Balance
Search for a part number on the Inventory Balance page. Above the results,
Where it is stored shows the warehouse with the rooms that hold the part highlighted in orange. If the bins have been placed
in the Room Builder, the view zooms in and points at each bin. If the part is in more than one warehouse, use the buttons at the top to switch.
- Click a row in the results to select that bin: it turns blue and the view zooms to it. Click the row again to clear the selection.
- Location zooms to where the part is, and Building shows the whole warehouse.
- If a room is not placed in its building yet, or a bin is not placed in its room, a note below the view links to the editor where you can place it.
Who can edit
Anyone in your workspace with inventory access can view buildings and rooms. Saving a building or room layout requires the
Editor role with the Inventory Locations permission, the same as adding or editing locations.
Need More Help?
If you have questions or need assistance, please visit our Contact page to get in touch with our support team.
For other SavantPLM topics, see the SavantPLM Help index.