manual
14
3.2 The Toolbox
The Toolbox provides all the tools you need to design a wireless LAN. When you select Floor,
Supp. Wall, or Wall, the drop-down list to the right in the Toolbox contains a list of the possible
material types for the corresponding building element. To draw in building elements on the
plan, select a material type in the list. The material types are stored in the program as librar-
ies, which can be easily expanded. For details, see Chapter 5, “Advanced Settings”.
As described in Chapter 4, it is a good idea to draw in the plan elements — floors, walls, ac-
cess points, etc. — in a certain order.
Floor1. : Select this tool to describe oors or ceilings. A oor element is a polygon with
any number of sides. If there is an opening in a floor, such as a courtyard surrounded
by the building, you must draw the floor accordingly. For detailed instructions , see
Chapter 5. To draw a floor, click with the left mouse button at the corners of the
desired area. At the last corner, click with the right mouse button to complete the
polygon.
Supp. Wall:2. Supporting walls are elements of the building structure that are continu-
ous through all floors. You should use the supporting wall tool wherever possible in
order to minimize the number of plan elements and make the program’s calculations
significantly faster.
Wall: 3. Use the Wall tool to draw partition walls that are present only in the selected
floor. A wide variety of material types is available for partition walls, and the more ex-
actly you draw all the walls that exist in your building, the better your planning will be.
To draw a wall, click with the left mouse button where the wall begins and at each
angle, then with the right mouse button where the wall ends.
Arrow symbol: 4. Use the arrow tool to select elements in the plan. You can also edit the
plan by dragging and dropping the drawing elements. To select several elements,
press and hold the Ctrl key while you click on them. Clicking on a wall selects only
one segment of it.
Access Point/Antenna:5. Use this tool to place an access point with its antenna in the
plan. To insert an access point without an external antenna, use the antenna type
“Generic Antenna a/b/g 7 dBi Omni.” For all other antennas, select the desired type
from the list. To add new antenna types to the library, see Chapter 5. You can also
download additional antenna libraries from www.rf3d.com.