Overview
Building and Asset Groups in Virtual Facility allow users to organize multiple buildings, assets, or related spaces into a single reusable group.
Instead of manually selecting each building or asset every time, users can create a group once and then select the group wherever Virtual Facility supports grouped building or asset selection. For example, a campus area containing many buildings can be grouped as "Area 1", making it easier to apply that same set of buildings across multiple workflows.
When to Use Building or Asset Groups
Use Building and Asset Groups when you need to repeatedly work with the same set of buildings, assets, or spaces. This is especially helpful for large organizations, campuses, healthcare facilities, or multi-building sites where manually selecting individual entities would be time-consuming.
Common examples include:
- Creating a group for a campus area that includes several buildings.
- Creating a group for a department, such as a collection of rooms used by Radiology.
- Reusing the same building or asset group when creating lenses, assigning teams, running reports, creating work, or adding alarm sources.
Before You Begin
Before creating a Building or Asset Group, decide which buildings, assets, or spaces should belong together. Groups are intended to make repeated selection easier, so they should reflect how your organization naturally manages areas, departments, campuses, or operational responsibilities.
Important: Asset Groups must contain only assets from the same asset class. An Asset Group should consist entirely of Equipment, entirely of Spaces, or entirely of Systems. Mixing different asset classes within the same Asset Group is not permitted because it may result in inconsistent or erroneous behavior when using the group throughout Virtual Facility.
Recommended planning questions:
- Should the group represent a campus area, department, building set, or asset category?
- Will this group be reused for teams, lenses, reporting, work creation, or alarm source configuration?
- For Asset Groups, do all members belong to the same asset class (Equipment, Space, or System)?
Note: In Virtual Facility, buildings are technically a specialized asset type within the Space asset class. However, because buildings play a fundamental role in how alarm, work, reporting, and organizational data are structured throughout the platform, they are treated as a distinct concept in the user interface and documentation. For that reason, Building Groups are managed separately from Asset Groups, even though buildings are classified as Spaces within the underlying asset model.
Group Types
Building Groups
- Used to organize multiple buildings that need to be selected together.
- Ideal for campuses, districts, operational areas, regional portfolios, and other building-centric organizational structures.
Asset Groups
- Used to organize similar non-building assets that need to be selected and managed together.
- Although buildings are technically classified as a specialized asset type within the Space asset class, buildings should be organized using Building Groups rather than in other Asset Groups. This distinction reflects how buildings are used throughout Virtual Facility to structure alarm, work, reporting, and organizational data.
- Asset Groups must contain assets from a single asset class only:
- Equipment
- Space
- System
By planning groups around real operational workflows and maintaining consistent membership, you can simplify lens configuration, team assignments, reporting, work creation, and alarm source management.
Creating a Building or Asset Group
- Open Virtual Facility and navigate to the Settings page.
- Scroll to the bottom of the Config section of the left navigation panel and click on Asset Groups.
- Select Create Group.
Enter a meaningful group name.
Examples:
- Area 1 Buildings
- North Campus Buildings
- Radiology Rooms
- Chiller Plant Assets
- Area 3 Research Labs
- Add the buildings or assets that belong in the group.
- Review the group membership to ensure all intended entities are included.
- Save the group by clicking on Create at the bottom right of the Members table.
Use the group in supported Virtual Facility workflows.
If you need to remove an asset or building from the group, simply click on the Trash Can icon on the right end of the corresponding row.
Example: Creating a Campus Area Group
A customer has several numbered areas, and each area contains many buildings. Instead of selecting each building manually whenever the area needs to be used, the customer can create a group such as Area 1 and add the relevant buildings to that group. The group can then be selected later in supported workflows instead of manually selecting each building again.
Example: Creating a Department Asset Group
A department may want to group rooms, systems, or equipment that are managed together. By creating an Asset Group for those entities, the same collection can be reused across work, reporting, operational workflows, and administrative tasks.
Using Groups in Virtual Facility
Once a group has been created, it can be selected in supported Virtual Facility workflows to simplify configuration and ongoing administration.
Typical uses include:
- Selecting a Building Group when creating or updating a lens.
- Selecting a Building or Asset Group when assigning responsibility to a team.
- Using a group when creating or filtering reports.
- Applying a group when creating work or associating work with a defined set of buildings or assets.
- Adding a group when configuring alarm source relationships.
Best Practices
- Use clear, consistent naming conventions that clearly communicate the purpose and scope of the group to other users.
- Create groups that align with operational responsibilities and business workflows.
- Avoid creating duplicate groups that represent the same buildings or assets.
- Review group membership regularly and update groups as buildings, assets, or responsibilities change.
- Create Building Groups for buildings, even though buildings are technically classified within the Space asset class.
Troubleshooting
I Cannot Find the Group I Created
Confirm that the group was saved successfully and that you are using a workflow that supports group selection. Depending on the workflow, only certain group types may be available for selection.
The Group Does Not Include the Expected Buildings or Assets
Open the group and review its membership. Add any missing entities, remove incorrect ones, and save the changes.
I Still Have to Select Buildings or Assets Manually
Group availability may vary depending on the workflow being used. If a group is not available for selection, verify that the workflow supports Building or Asset Groups and that the correct group type was created.
I Am Unsure Whether to Create a Building Group or an Asset Group
Create a Building Group when the shared selection is primarily a set of buildings.
Create an Asset Group when the shared selection is primarily a set of assets, rooms, systems, or equipment that need to be managed together.
Tip: In Virtual Facility, buildings are technically a specialized asset type within the Space asset class. However, because buildings are a foundational part of how alarm, work, reporting, and organizational data are structured throughout the platform, they are treated as a distinct concept in the user interface and documentation. As a result, groups of buildings should always be created as Building Groups, not as Space Asset Groups.
Maintaining separate Building Groups and Asset Groups helps ensure consistent behavior across filters, reporting, team assignments, lenses, work creation, and alarm source configuration.