Cable Paths

Cable Paths are the face of PCR-360's Cable function. Once a set of Cables has been defined, Conduits have been selected, and Access Points have been identified; the PCR-360 application produces a visual representation of the Cable's Path through an organization's infrastructure. This way, complex Cabling concerns are easily mapped and edited, making the overwhelming task of monitoring countless Cables and support Equipment simple.

Adding a Path

Navigate to the Cable Paths Grid by selecting the Cable icon in the 'Main' tab and scrolling down the Cable root to the node labeled 'Paths'.

To begin building a Path, click the 'Add' button on the Grid Toolbar above the Cable Paths Grid. This opens a Path data entry form.

In the Path data entry form, the User must first fulfill all required data fields. Note that, in this instance, the User is required to define the 'Service' that the Path is delivering, the 'Location' which it services, or both in order to save a new Path. To define the Service and/or Location, click the Search Icon in either data field and select the appropriate item from the Service and Location Catalogs that present themselves.

Note: If the selected service has a location, it will automatically be loaded into the 'Location' data field.

Users can also define the 'Path Status' from a drop-down list of default statuses. Currently only one exists: 'Left In'.

There are two new fields on the Cable Path form. The 'Header' and 'Footer' fields are informational fields that will appear in the report of the Cable path. Each field is limited to 100 characters.

At this point, the User can save the new Path. Without further definition, the Path can have no visual representation.

Multiple Locations on a Single Path

Cable Paths, by design, do not allow duplicate Path Leg numbers. They do however allow multiple Locations on a single path. Each Path Leg is part of a single Path regardless of the Path Legs Location and each Path Leg must have a unique instance number. The Cabling diagrams depend on this uniqueness to display multi-location paths in the correct order.

Viewing Paths

• Users can view a visual representation of any Path that consists of at least one Leg.

• To view a Path, select the desired path in the Grid and click the 'View Path' button on the Grid Toolbar above the Grid.

• The resulting form provides a visual representation of the selected Path.

If a User receives a Permissions Error when attempting to view the record, this problem can be easily corrected.

View Path Report Key

The following is a Key of the View Path and can be used to determine the meaning of any given part of the image that is generated when clicking View Path.

View Path Report Examples

This example 'View Path' report has data points that match all of those from the above key for reference.

Removing Paths

• When a PATH is to be disconnected via the PATH or SERVICE screens, the PATH LEGS will remain.

• Deleting a PATH will automatically delete all PATH LEGS. This functionality is intended.

• On removing all PATH LEGS (from the PATH LEGS Grid), the associated PATH will also be removed.

Wireless Cable Paths

The Cable Path, does not require having associated Cables or PPL, to create the Path. This allows Users to model a Wireless Network by first taking the Service that represents the network (such as the Internet), and have that associated with a piece of Equipment (such as a Modem), and then wiring that to the network hub (such as a Router). From there, a User can create new associations to the network hub without applying a Cable/PPL so that the wireless link can be recorded in the Path accurately.

In the Example Above the "Modem" is modeled as a Location, and the "Internet Line" is the backbone Internet Service to be wired into the "Router". It was done this way to more readily highlight that no other Cables or PPL were used for creating the Cable Path.