Systems and methods for creating and using equipment definitions are provided. An archetypal device is selected and used to identify one or more data points associated with the archetypal device. A point definition is generated for each identified data point associated with the archetypal device. Each point definition includes an abstraction of the corresponding data point that is applicable to multiple different devices of the same type of building equipment. The generated point definitions are used to create an equipment definition for a type of building equipment. The equipment definition can be used to identify data points associated with other devices of the same type of building equipment and to automatically create equipment objects representing such devices.