Preparing A Drawing Before Importing It - Nortel 2350 Reference Manual

86 Planning the Nortel WLAN 2300 System

Preparing a Drawing Before Importing It

WLAN Management Software has a file cleanup feature that can help remove unwanted information from an imported
drawing. However, the more cleanup work you do before importing a file, the better the results will be. In addition,
cleaning up a file before importing it helps reduce the file size, which in turn enhances performance when handling the
file in WLAN Management Software.
To prepare a drawing before importing it into WMS:
• Make sure the scale of the paper space is 1" : 1" (full size). Also, ensure that the scale type is the same as that of the
model space.
• Verify that the origin point (0,0) aligns correctly for all floors.
• Delete all workspaces or paper layouts that are not required. If the drawing contains multiple paper layouts, delete
all but the last one (which cannot be deleted) and delete the contents of that layout.
• Check for externally referenced files. WMS requires the drawing file to be monolithic. If a floor plan uses
externally referenced files, significant portions of the floor plan might be missing, even with all layers unfrozen and
visible.
In AutoCAD, when you load the drawing file, you might see messages about the files not being found. To
check for external references, you can select Insert > Xref Manager. If you look at the layers, externally
referenced layers have a common prefix label with the $ delimiter between the label and the description
(for example, SC03$a-WALL-FULL). If you can see the layer itself, the layer either will be blank or will
be a single read-only object.
To include the information in externally referenced files, place the files in the same directory as the
master file. In AutoCAD, you also can bind the information to the master file by selecting
Insert > Xref Manager, selecting the file, then clicking Bind.
Adding information from referenced files can increase the file size. If the information you will need to
convert into RF obstacles is in the referenced file but not the master file, try just importing the referenced
file into WLAN Management Software. For information on the location of referenced files in AutoCAD,
see the AutoCAD documentation.
• Audit the drawing. An audit finds problems between objects in the file and fixes them automatically. To perform an
audit in AutoCAD, select File > Drawing Utilities > Audit.
• Check for grouped objects, especially groups that span multiple layers or include the entire drawing. If a grouped
object contains objects that you will to assign differing RF values to, or if some objects will not become RF
obstacles, ungroup the objects and delete the unneeded objects. If all the RF objects in the grouped object will have
the same RF value, you might want to leave the object grouped.
A grouped object can contain multiple layers, and can contain visible and invisible objects. (When you
select an object that spans multiple layers, the object is not selected normally when you click on it.
Instead, a selection square appears, offset to the side of the object.) If you decide to delete a grouped
object, ensure that the object does not contain objects to which you will need to assign RF values.
• Turn visible, unlock, and unfreeze all layers. Then delete unnecessary layers. (Locking a layer keeps the layer
visible but also prevents changes to the layer. Freezing a layer locks the layer and makes it invisible.)
In many cases, the information in invisible or frozen layers is not related to objects that will be RF
obstacles, and so is unnecessary in the floor plan. The information you need to keep is the structural
information to which you will assign RF values in WLAN Management Software.
NN47250-102 (320666-G Version 02.01)