Site Planner Guide: Design CCTV & Network Layouts

17. Build the floor plan by size

No floor plan drawing? Type the sizes and the planner draws them to scale. Open Tools or Objects and choose:

• Add room: name, width and length. The room is drawn to scale with its width and length marked and its area shown. It can also draw the four walls and leave an opening for you (see section 23).
• Add wall: length, thickness and angle.
• Add column (width, depth and rotation) and Add stairs (width, run and angle) are in the Objects group.
• Doors, windows and openings: use Door/Win in the Objects group. They go in at your building defaults, then you set width, height and sill in Properties (see section 31).
• Add text: the words and a real text height, so labels stay to scale.

Sizes use your plan’s units (feet or metres). To change one later, select it and choose Edit size….

18. Walls, doors, windows and blind spots

Choose Wall, then click the corners. Double-click or press Esc to finish. Ends snap to other walls and to 90° / 45°, and the length shows while you draw. Pick a type: Interior (drywall), Exterior (block / concrete), Fence (see-through) or Glass (see-through). Rectangle room drags four walls and a room label at once.

Door / window adds a single, double, sliding or overhead / garage door, an opening, a window or a glass storefront to a wall at your building default size. Drag it along the wall, and set width, height and sill in Properties. Widths stay inside the wall.

Objects such as trees, bushes, poles, columns, vehicles, shelving, dumpsters, signs, buildings, stairs and elevators, or your own rectangle, circle or polygon, sit in the camera’s way. Some are see-through.

Cameras see through glass, fences, openings and open doors. Solid walls and objects block the view. The area hidden behind a wall or solid object is left empty, so the gaps show where to add or move a camera (see section 28).

19. Site lights and night view

Add site lights from Light: pole / area light, wall pack, floodlight, bollard, street light or a custom light. Aim floodlights and wall packs with their handle.

Open Night view and pick a light level: bright daylight, overcast, dusk, street lighting, dim light, moonlight, dark, or a custom lux value. Set the Night light to Auto, IR on, White light on or Off. Each camera’s view then uses its IR / white-light range and minimum illumination from the product specs. Lux values are approximate.

If you set a camera’s range past its IR range, the planner warns you. If the product doesn’t list a night spec, type the range from the datasheet.

20. Layers and access control

The CCTV, Network and Access control buttons in the toolbar show or hide each layer, so you can print or review one system at a time.

The Access control palette has card, fingerprint and face readers, keypads, video intercom / door stations, locks, exit devices and turnstiles / barrier gates. Wire them with the Access wiring cable type. The Network tab flags powered readers and door stations that have no power source.

21. Share a plan and add comments (dealers)

Press Share to invite someone by email as an Editor, Commenter or Viewer. Editors can change the plan. Commenters and viewers can only look and comment. Prices are shown only to dealer accounts.

Copy link copies the plan’s view-only link and shows “Copied!”. If there is no link yet, Create view-only link and copy makes one. On phones, a Share… button opens the phone’s share sheet.

Press Comment and tap the plan to pin a note. While others have the plan open, their initials show in the toolbar.

22. Getting around the plan

• Pan: hold Space and drag, in any tool, even with a camera or several items selected and in Full screen. You can also drag with the middle mouse button. Space still types normally in text boxes. On touch screens, drag with one finger on empty canvas.
• Zoom: scroll, pinch, or press + / −. 0 and Fit show the whole plan.
• Show grid and Snap to grid are in the toolbar. Full screen gives you more room.
• Favorites keeps the devices you use most at hand.
• Shortcuts: Ctrl+Z / Ctrl+Y undo / redo, Ctrl+D duplicate, Ctrl+drag copy, R rotate, arrow keys nudge, Delete removes, Ctrl+S saves.

23. Room walls and openings

Add room can draw the room’s four walls for you. Type the width and length, leave Add walls automatically ticked and pick a wall type (Interior is the default). The walls block camera views like any other wall. You can select them, snap to them and edit them one at a time. When you move, resize (Edit size…) or delete the room, its walls go with it, and one Undo removes the room and its walls together.

Tick Add an opening to leave a doorless gap. Type its width and pick the wall (north, south, east or west). It is centred unless you type an offset from the left or top corner.

To add a doorless gap to any wall, use Door/Win in the Objects group and choose an opening. It goes in at your building default width and is drawn to scale with an “Opening” width label, and cameras see through it. Drag it along the wall, or change its width in Properties. Openings appear in print, PDF and share links.

24. Import a CAD floor plan (DXF)

1. In Properties, choose Add drawing and pick a .dxf file (ASCII DXF, any version).
2. The Import CAD floor plan dialog opens:
   • Drawing units are read from the file. If the file doesn’t say, the planner guesses from the drawing’s size and asks you to confirm.
   • Scale factor is for drawings that weren’t drawn 1:1.
   • Wall type is the type given to the imported walls.
   • Layers: tick the layers that hold walls. Dimension, text, hatch, grid, furniture and title-block layers start unticked.
   • Options: Doors and windows from blocks, Closed rectangles as rooms and Room names from text.
3. Check the preview and the summary (walls, rooms, doors / windows and size), then click Import.

Lines and polylines become walls, and arcs become short wall segments. Closed rectangles with one name inside become rooms, and door / window blocks become openings in the nearest wall. One Undo removes the whole import.

25. Select and move several items

• Box select: with the Select tool, drag on empty canvas. Hold Shift or Ctrl to add to the current selection.
• One by one: Ctrl + click (Cmd + click on Mac) adds an item to the selection or removes it.
• Move: drag any selected item and everything moves together. One Undo (Ctrl+Z) puts it all back.
• Arrow keys nudge the selection, and Delete removes it. Click empty canvas to clear the selection.
• When you move a room, its walls go with it. Doors and windows stay in their walls, and locked items don’t move.
• Holding Space always pans, never draws a selection box. On touch screens, a one-finger drag on empty canvas pans.

26. Move a room’s name label

Select a room and drag its name and area label anywhere inside the room. The position is saved with the room. It moves with the room, stays inside it when you resize it, and is kept in print / PDF, PNG, share links, copies and duplicates.

To pick a set spot, use Label position in Properties: Top left, Top centre, Top right, Middle left, Centre, Middle right, Bottom left, Bottom centre or Bottom right. To go back to the default (top left), double-click the label or press Reset label position. Older plans keep their labels where they were.

27. Lock a room to its walls

Select a room, and the panel finds the straight walls along its edges and links them, including walls you drew separately, walls from a DXF import and walls in older plans. Linked walls move, resize from the corner, copy, duplicate and delete together with the room, in one Undo step.

• Edges with no wall are listed. Press Add missing walls to draw them.
• Select a room and some walls, then choose Lock selected walls to the room.
• Unlock from walls (on the room) or Unlock from room (on a wall) removes the link.
• Dragging a locked wall moves the whole room. Its corner handles are blocked, and a message tells you why.

28. Walls block camera view

The plan option Walls block camera view is on by default, including for existing plans. Solid walls cut camera views and DORI bands. Doors (unless marked closed), windows, openings, glass walls and fences let the view through.

Only the area each camera can actually see is drawn. The space behind a wall or solid object is left empty on screen, in print, in PNG exports and in shared plans. Turn the option off to show full camera ranges again.

29. Copy with Ctrl + drag

Hold Ctrl (Cmd on a Mac) and drag any item to drop a copy where you let go. The original stays where it was. It works on a whole selection too. Copies get the next free label, and one Undo removes them. Cable runs are not copied.

30. Devices tab

The Devices tab lists every device on the plan. Search the list, or rename a device in place. Click a name and the map glides to that device, selects it and briefly highlights it. Duplicate names get a number so each one is easy to tell apart.

31. Building defaults for doors and windows

Plan settings have a Building defaults section with the standard sizes for doors, windows and openings (a door starts at 3 ft / 0.9 m). New doors, windows and openings go in at those sizes. Select one to change its width, height or sill in Properties. Widths stay inside the wall.

32. Security / Perimeter tools

The Security / Perimeter group has Fence line, Sliding gate, Swing gate, Double swing gate, Barrier arm, Vehicle barrier / wedge, Bollard, Security / safety post and Turnstile / barrier gate.

• Gates and barriers start at 12 ft, bollards at 1 ft and posts at 6 in. Change the size in Properties.
• They appear in the legend, in print and in PNG exports.
• They are drawing items only and are not added to the bill of materials.

33. Print options and PNG

• Leave out: sizes, wall measurements or DORI bands.
• Zoom: − / slider / + , Fit (the default) or Whole map, with a live preview.
• Device close-ups: small, medium or large, two or three per row.
• Map plans print with sharper map tiles, and overlapping labels are moved apart with leader lines.
• Save PNG saves the same layout as a 2x image. “Preparing your print…” shows while it builds.

34. Create estimate from a plan (dealers)

Select some items and choose Create estimate… from the right-click menu, or use it in the BOM tab’s Estimate section and pick Selected items or All devices. A new draft estimate is made at your normal selling prices. Nothing is sent to the customer, and the option is hidden from customer accounts. Your estimates key must be unlocked. Cable runs are counted only when both ends are selected.

From there: share the estimate for approval, then convert it to an invoice in one click and record payments (see the Dealer Estimates Guide).