Implementing two methods in GIS software for indoor routing: an empirical study Xin Li 1 & Ihab Hijazi 2 & Mengchao Xu 3 & Haibin Lv 4 & Rani El Meouche 5 Received: 11 October 2015 /Revised: 20 November 2015 /Accepted: 9 December 2015 / Published online: 23 December 2015 # Springer Science+Business Media New York 2015 Abstract With increasing demands for indoor GIS, indoor routing and analysis attracts attention from both GIS and architecture worlds. This paper aimes to provide executable methods in GIS softwares eg ArcGIS for indoor path generation and to explore the possibilities for further analysis. In this paper, two methods are proposed and impletmented: Mesh and TIN. The Mesh method used a standard-sized grid graph as the referencing network for a floor and subsequently mapping the movement on a 2D plane to the movement along grid edges. On the other hand, TIN method utilized the TIN as the base, it generates a usable path network by appling two customized TIN. Considering the outputs, the result shows a value for both appling the methods in real use and research analysis of network in indoor environement. TIN provide a network suitable for indoor navigation but need less storage space compared to the Mesh method which provide more accurate network but required extra storage spaces. Multimed Tools Appl (2016) 75:17449–17464 DOI 10.1007/s11042-015-3156-6 * Ihab Hijazi eehab@najah.edu Xin Li li-xin@whu.edu.cn Mengchao Xu mxu6@masonlive.gmu.edu Haibin Lv bhfjlhb@sina.com Rani El Meouche relmeouche@estp-paris.eu 1 School of Urban Design, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China 2 Urban Planning Engineering Department, An-Najah National University, Nablus, Palestine 3 Department of Geography and Geo-Information Science, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, USA 4 Qingdao Huanhai Marine Engineering Prospecting Institute, State Oceanic Administration, Qingdao, China 5 Institut de Recherche en Constructibilité, ESTP, Université Paris-Est, F-94230 Cachan, France