How to use OLG’s Office Designer Platform

When it comes to simulation gaming, there are two kinds of people in the world.  You’re either the person who picks the default character skin and jumps straight into the action, or you’re the guy who spends hours customizing your character and building their virtual house first.

If you’re that second kind of person, you probably have no issues spending an entire caffeine-riddled weekend painstakingly laying down virtual furniture and interior décor.  In fact, I’d bet you spend more time doing this than actually playing the game, if at all. 

Now, some people might argue that all those hours spent building a virtual house were a waste of time. But if you’re in the project furniture and office fit-out business, being able to design a functional floorplan is a skill that you likely use every single day.

For that reason, we’ve made our very own interactive office designer available to our selected customers to use for free.

In this article, we’ll describe the tools and features you’ll find in OLG’s Office Designer as well as some hidden Easter eggs that can take your floor plans from good to outstanding.

If you’ve never used OLG’s Office Designer before, by the end of this article, you’ll know exactly how to use it and what kind of competitive edge your business can enjoy as a result.

Create an Account

Despite being free to use, OLG’s Office Designer does require a simple sign-up to grant access.  Once you’ve registered your details, one of our customer service representatives will approve and activate your account.

Use an Office Designer Template

When starting a new project, you’re given two options, “Choose A Template” or “Start from Scratch”. 

Choosing the template option will display a range of office floorplan templates, many of which have been already pre-populated with OLG office furniture.

Choosing one of these options will load a two-dimensional floor plan featuring a specific range of office desks, chairs, boardrooms, meeting rooms, and breakout areas. These templates are pre-loaded with OLG products, all sized to scale with the correct dimensions of their real-world counterparts.

While these templates already have walls, partitions, and defined rooms, everything can be moved, resized, and adjusted to match your requirements.

Drawing a Floor Plan from Scratch

If none of the offered templates resembles the space you are planning for, you’re able to open a blank page by clicking on “Start from Scratch”. From here, you can add both structural and partition walls that can be drawn exactly to scale using the inbuilt ruler tools.

Once you’ve completed the floorplan boundaries, the next step is to furnish the space.  Under the FURNISH tab, you can select non-furniture items like lighting, windows, doors, and stairs.  This allows you to perform space-planning as well as visualise the impact of specific light sources.  (An entire finance department peering into the afternoon sun won’t be too pleased about your west-facing office plan!)

It’s also under this tab that all the OLG office furniture is categorized and listed for use.  Each product is designed exactly to scale and can be dragged and dropped onto your floor plan.

Upload an Existing Floor Plan

More often than not, you’ll have been given an empty floor plan, a headcount, and some basic instructions about what the office space should look like after the refurbishment.

To upload an existing floor plan, select “Start from Scratch” andclick on the UPLOAD tab on the left-hand navigation window.  Select your image file and then upload it as a background image.  To match your floor plan’s scale, draw a reference line and then input the reference length.  From within the Properties menu, you’re able to lock the image, change the image aspect, adjust opacity and much more.

Convert Your Floorplan into a 3D Render

Looking at a two-dimensional floor plan is great for working out the functionality of an office but it’s nothing compared to a 3D walkthrough of your virtual environment.  Once you’ve finished laying out all the elements in Office Designer, there are two render options at the top that can give your design a brand-new perspective.

Clicking on “3D Global” will render your design into an overhead 3D view than can be rotated, panned, and zoomed to see from every angle.

Clicking on “3D WALK” will convert your design into a walkable 3D map, similar to the mazes on old-school FPS games like Doom and Wolfenstein.

Export Your Floorplan into a Quote Request

Once you’re happy with the way your floor plan works, there are several options available if you want to share or export your design.

Start by saving your floor plan via the floppy disk icon and choosing a project name if you haven’t done so already.  From here, you can share the design via Facebook, Twitter, or email.

If you’re ready to move forward with your design and want to place an order, an order request will be generated if you click on the “BOM” link.  This creates an itemized list in email, PDF or CSV file format that can be sent to our sales team for processing.

What Additional Services do OLG Offer to Help You Win a Deal?

More than just a catalogue of wholesale furniture, at OLG, we’re focused on enabling and empowering our customers to manage and deliver large-scale deals as they become available.

Each of our project-specific services has been developed as a result of years of experience in the industry as well as knowing what excites your customers in the deal phase.

While we can’t guarantee that you’ll be closing every deal after using OLG’s Office Designer Platform, we do promise you’ll have a competitive advantage when partnering with us.

If you have a tender or sales opportunity and looking for ways to set yourself apart from the competition, our sales team is here to help. Get in touch here or give us a call on 02 8188 2732 and we’ll get to work.

Want to keep reading? Catch up what’s new with OLG or head over to the OLG Learning Centre to explore a curated archive full of educational articles and industry content, all completely free to use.