Directional Sign Configuration Settings

Owned by Justin Acuesta (Unlicensed)
Last updated: Nov 30, 2022
11 min read

The layout Directional Sign is used to display ‘directions to locations’ and ‘messages’ on a digital sign. The Directional Sign layout can be used for Vehicular and Pedestrian Directional Signs.

The information below consists of more details on directional signs, the sections have been divided for your convenience, if needed.

Before proceeding with this article, users are required to have added a Digital Sign to their Map and have created Dictionary Items

There are 4 ‘sign types’ of directional signs:

  • P 3.1 is a pole-mounted pedestrian directional sign

  • P 3.2 is a floor standing pedestrian directional sign

  • V 3.1 is a short floor standing vehicular directional sign

  • V 3.2 is a tall floor standing vehicular directional sign

All types of directional signs possess the same function, the only difference is the number of slots you can fit in the display.

Directional Sign Global Configuration Settings

Globally the Directional Sign layout has the following configuration settings:

It is beneficial to use the Global Configuration Settings when you have more than 1 Directional Sign.

Steps

1. In the PAM navigation menu, go to 360 Planner > Digital Signs

2. Select the SIGN CONFIGURATION tab

3. Select Directional Sign from the list and you will see the right hand side column appear with all the global settings

4. Force line break
An example of a force line break is if you have a copy Event Parking A on your directional sign, and you fill in Event Parking in the Force Line Break text box.
Event Parking A would become:
Event Parking
A

Banner slideshow

5. Seconds per slide: Adjusts how long you want each experience to be shown on your directional sign. For example, if there are multiple experiences and this speed is set to 6, an experience will be shown for 6 seconds before it moves to the next one

6. QR Code colour: This is setting the colour of your QR code when it is active inside Banner Slideshow.

After clicking the dropdown, you will see the following options:

Inherit colour - This makes the QR code become the same colour as the text of the Experience

Black: white border - This is a regular QR code with a white border around it

White: black border - This is a regular QR code with a black border around it

Explorer Digital Gateway

7. Call to action: This is a message that is placed on top of the QR code. The purpose of this message is to make the customer scan the QR code with their smartphone. The default message is: Scan for map
You are able to customise your message if you wish

8. Call to action text colour: This lets you customise the call to action message by changing the text colour. The default colour used is white

9. Sign display size: Set the display size of the directional sign screen. The default settings are on the photo.

10. Sign type concat group: When you have multiple words such as:  

Event Parking A, Event Parking B, Event Parking C. PAM will automatically group them together as Event Parking A-C on the Directional Sign display. You can choose 3 options to concatenate: dash, comma, or to

You will need to choose your preferred option for each sign type as there are four different sign types.
By default, all sign types will use dash

11. Parking status mapping: This option enables you to override the name of parking statuses. e.g. If you fill in the word “AVAILABLE” in the text box, the parking status ‘OPEN’ will switch to 'AVAILABLE' on the Directional Sign display

12. Save changes if required

Rules on how to use Directional Signs

Rules for Vehicular Directional Sign V 3.1 & V 3.2

Rules for Pedestrian Directional Sign P 3.1 & P 3.2

 

Vehicular Directional Sign Individual Configuration Settings - V 3.1/V 3.2

Selecting a Digital Sign & Content Slots Configuration

Steps

1. In the PAM navigation menu, go to 360 Planner > Digital Signs

2. Select DIGITAL SIGN MAP tab

3. Search or select your digital sign on the map

4. Select 'Directional Sign' on the Layout dropdown 

5. Select a 'Sign type'. We selected V3.2 for this example

Content Slots

6. This lets you reorder your content slots if you wish to move the slots around

7. Select and change the arrow direction of the content slot

8. Select the location/s you wish to display. When you have multiple locations with the same name, PAM will automatically group them together and display them as e.g. Parking Lot A-B

9. Select the settings icon for more configuration settings

10. Indentation is not allowed to be used when creating Vehicular Directional Signs because you need to use all the space to let the text be as big as possible. Better visibility to drivers. The indentation should be what is selected in blue in the photo

11. Only large text should be used when creating Vehicular Directional Signs because you want to give better visibility to drivers. The text size should be what is selected in blue in the photo

12. Select this to include a line to separate this content slot with the next one. Since Parking Lot A-B is positioned at the top, it is not needed but you will need to activate this for the other content slots below

13. Select this if you have two or more dictionary items in your content slot and it will put your other dictionary items into a new line to avoid any overlap issues

14. Text: The default colour is white

15. Background: The default is black

16. When you have 2 locations using the same direction, you can disable the direction on the second one (e.g. Sunday Farmers Market), and it will automatically go into the row right above it (e.g. RG Menzies Building)

17. Save changes

18. When you activate ‘Reactive’, this will automatically update all locations according to it’s real-life status

19. When ‘Reactive’ is activated, Parking Lot B will automatically disappear from the display, because the real-life status of Parking Lot B is ‘Closed’

20a. When ‘Reactive’ is activated, Sunday Farmers Market automatically disappears from the display, because Sunday Farmers Market is hidden in Map Editor. (continue to 18b to see how to activate hidden function and what this function can be used for)

20b. Activate 'Hidden(Disabled)' to hide Sunday Farmers Market from the Directional Sign.
This function is mainly used for weekly or monthly events, e.g. Sunday Farmers Market. On the event day, you can simply deactivate hidden and it will automatically display back on the Directional Sign

21. Use pixel design: Activating this will make all your directional sign content become a pixel font. This can be done regardless if reactive is activated or not. This option helps the wordings become more clear in terms of pixels used per inch. Customers who drive into your venue and look at these signs from a distance may notice a clearer difference but we suggest to test this out in real-life before making changes

Explorer Digital Gateway

We will use the same sign to show how to activate the Explorer QR Code.

First, we need to make some space to ensure the whole QR Code is visible inside the sign.
If you prefer to do this on a new sign, you can create a new one and just activate the toggle. If you feel there is currently enough space on your sign, activate the toggle directly.

Steps

1. We will remove some of the Content slot content. For this example, we will remove PAM Station and Sir Ronald Wilson Building. Click on the 'X' to remove

2. Scroll down to the Explorer Digital Gateway heading and activate Show on sign

3. You will now be able to see the QR Code appear on the Directional sign and the other content would have been removed

4. Save changes

Pedestrian Directional Sign Individual Configuration Settings - P 3.1/P 3.2

Selecting a Digital Sign & Content Slots Configuration

Steps

1. In the PAM navigation menu, go to 360 Planner > Digital Signs

2. Select DIGITAL SIGN MAP tab

3. Search or choose your digital sign on the map

4. Select Directional Sign on the Layout dropdown 

5. Select a Sign type. We selected P3.1 for this example

Content Slots

6. This lets you reorder your content slots if you wish to move the slots around

7. Select and change arrow direction of the slot

8. Select the location/s you wish to display. When you have multiple locations with the same name, PAM will automatically group them together and display them as e.g. Parking Lot A-B

9. Select the settings icon for more configuration settings

10. Smaller text is allowed to be used when creating Pedestrian Directional Signs because, unlike drivers, pedestrians have better visibility

11. Indentation is allowed to be used when creating Pedestrian Directional Signs. The current indentation should be what is selected in blue in the photo

12. Select this to include a line to separate this content slot with the next one. Since Parking Lot A-B is positioned at the top, it is not needed but you will need to activate this for the other content slots below

13. Select this if you have two or more dictionary items in your content slot and it will put your other dictionary items into a new line to avoid any overlap issues

14. Text: The default colour is white

15. Background: The default is black

16. Save changes

17. You may notice that SUNDAY FARMERS MARKET looks different than the rest of the other sign content.
This is because we have adjusted the indentation to make the text smaller

18. This change is possible as the text is now on the smaller letter ‘A' and the indentation button selected is now on the left side. Don’t forget that the blue highlighted colour is a confirmation of the choices you make.

19. When you activate ‘Reactive’, this will automatically update all the locations according to their real time status. (i.e. if they have been hidden / not currently happening in real time, they won’t be seen as demonstrated with Sunday Farmers Market)

20. Use pixel design: Activating this will make all your directional sign content transform into a pixel font. This can be done regardless if reactive is activated or not. This option helps the wordings become more clear in terms of pixels used per inch.

Customers who drive into your venue and see these signs from a distance may notice a clearer difference. However, we suggest to test this out and get feedback in real-life before making changes

Explorer Digital Gateway

We will use the same sign to show how to activate the Explorer QR Code.

First, we need to make some space to ensure the whole QR Code is visible inside the sign.
If you prefer to do this on a new sign, create a new one and just activate the toggle. If you feel there is currently enough space on your sign, activate the Explorer Digital Gateway toggle directly.

Steps

1. We will remove some of the Content slot content. For this example, we will remove PAM Station, Sir Ronald Wilson Building and Parking Lot C. Click on the 'X' to remove

2. Scroll down to the Explorer Digital Gateway heading and activate Show on sign

3. You will now be able to see the QR Code appear on the Directional sign and the other content would have been removed

4. Save changes