Best Practice Question On Modeling?

I noticed in the Getting Started documents the Example Advanced Model has Indoor and Outdoor with no parent location.

My question is would there be a problem with having a top location of say my house address that has both Indoor and Outdoor as a child location?
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Another question I have about Modeling is should I create locations for things that I don’t have now but hope to have in the future?

For example I don’t have any smart devices in my bath room but one day I might want to add smart bulbs or switches.

So is it better to create a location from the start and not have any points under it, or just wait will the location is needed?

There is no problem with this at all, this is how I have my model setup. In general the model has been left fairly flexible so that you can make it match your scenario as closely as possible. It has its limitations but there’s not really any one “right” way. If it works for you and the way you see your home automation structured then go for it.

There will be no functional benefit to the creation of locations or equipment if there are no points associated with them. All of the functions that run off the model will ignore these empty groups. It may be that putting all your locations in place in advance helps you get a better understanding of exactly how you want to structure the entire model or item naming scheme etc. On the other hand, there are also no real downside to creating them now other than the time input and busier model screen. If you are more comfortable seeing everything laid out in advance then go ahead. If you’d rather not have the extra non-functional pieces cluttering up the model view right now, then wait until you need them.

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