Geofences


Intoduction to Geofences

Geofences are used to define virtual perimeters. The system can control whether object crossed geofence border (either “in” or “out”). All these events are logged, so user can obtain geofence reports and receive alerts.

Moreover, you can assign various rules for events to particular geofences. For example, if you need to get speeding alerts only within a certain area (e.g. in city) or route.

Also, by left-clicking the geofence on the map, you can see the number of tracked objects in it.

To access Geofences tool click the Polygon icon on the map toolbar. Here you can create and import new geofences or edit the existing ones. To display desired geofences on map simply mark checkboxes.

Geofence types

There are three basic types of geofences available:

  1. Circle – geographical area with a given center and the shape of a circle with a minimum radius of 20 meters (radius and center of the circle are defined by user).
  2. Polygon – area bounded by an arbitrary polygon with any number of vertices.
  3. Route – allows to create a virtual perimeter between two (or more) points. E.g., it is used in order to ensure that a vehicle doesn’t leave a predetermined route, and if it does, an alarm can be set to inform the interested party.

How to create a geofence

  1. Locate the desired area on the map. You can use ‘Address search’ tool.
  2. Choose ‘Geofences’ tool by clicking on the Square icon in the right upper corner of the map.
  3. Point the mouse to the Add geofence button and select type of the geofence.
  4. Draw a geofence on the map:
    – Circle – move a circle with a mouse, having pressed the center of the circle. To change the size of the circle pull the point on the edge of the circle.
    – Polygon – initially has a form of the correct pentagon, which can be easily and randomly changed. To add new vertices you need to pull the mouse over the center of one of the polygon’s sides. To delete a vertex just double-click on it.
    – Route – you need to choose start and end points, the system will automatically build a route between them. If you want to add more points on the route, drag the route with the mouse. Next, determine the size of the vicinity.
  5. Specify the name of the geofence and save it. Geofences you created can be edited or deleted.

Colour Your Geofences

You have a possibility to colour created geofences for better visualization. It is very helpful in case you have a lot of geofences on the map. So you are able to divide them into groups and distinguish them at a glance. For example, offices may be painted in red, warehouses in blue and parkings in grey.

To change а colour of your geofence:

  1. Open a list of geofences
  2. Choose a necessary zone
  3. Click “Edit”
  4. Choose the colour you like and you will see how a geofence has changed the colour on the map.
  5. Save results.

Geofences import

In case you need to add a large amount of geofences to your account it’s a way quicker to import all of them from a file rather than create manually one by one. You can import geofence data to the system from two types of files:

  • Excel
  • KML (formed with Google Earth or other accounting data systems)

Please note that you can only import circle geofences from Excel files.

To start importing from a file:

  1. Choose the “Geofences” tool.
  2. Press the “Circle geofences import” button. Geofences

You can use our File example to import your geofences:

  1. Download the File example.
  2. Add information about your geofences to the file. Make sure your file contains information on label (name), address, longitude, latitude, and geofence radius.
  3. Upload the edited file to a monitoring service.
  4. If your file has headers – please enable Use headers from file option.
  5. Press Next.

In the opened window, you can check header fields. If everything is correct, click Next.

!When preparing a file, we recommend to add header fields in order to ensure correct synchronization. If your file contains header fields, they will be automatically detected. Otherwise, you can specify them manually.

At the next stage you can check whether all the records are ready for import. If everything is correct, click Proceed.

Once the import has been completed successfully, the new geofences will appear in the list.

You can import geofences of any shape from KML files.

To start importing from a file:

  1. Choose the “Geofences” tool.
  2. Press the “Geofences import from KML” button. Geofences
  3. Click on the “Browse” button to select the needed KML file on your computer.
  4. Change the default radius.
  5. Once you have selected the needed file, click “Upload”.

!Please note that the default radius is only used for route geofences. For other types of geofences, you can just skip this point.

Once the import has been completed successfully, new geofences will appear in the list.