The CROME Site Mapping Geographic tool now utilizes right-mouse-click menus to provide quick access to nearly all Map functions, including two powerful new functions: Show Neighbor Cells and Airgen Worksheets
The new features are indexed and described below:
- Re-centering the Map
- Zooming the Map
- Re-center and Zooming at the same time
- Map Background Adjustments
- Turn on/off Variance or Off Air sites
- Address Lookup
- Site Finder
- Site Information Pop-up
- Neighbor Cells
- Airgen Worksheets
- Aerial Photos
- Variance Details
By clicking the right mouse button over any spot on the base map, you will now see a "pop-up" menu with a number of features.
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The "recenter" feature performs the same function as double-clicking on the map -- it recenters the map to the clicked location: |
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The "zoom" pop-up menu feature performs the same function as the
"zoom" choice at the bottom of the screen -- it zooms the map
in and out. Note that the current zoom level is marked as
"checked" in the pulldown menu, e.g., in this example the current
zoom level is "32x" but the user is changing it to "8x".
Note that when the zoom is changed via this pop-up menu, the zoom choice at the bottom of the screen updates automatically. |
Re-center and Zooming the Map at the same time
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The "Re-center and Zoom" features performs both re-centering and zoom-in at the same time, allowing you to quickly zoom in on a particular spot in the map (e.g., click on a site then, in one mouse click, recenter the map on that site and zoom in). |
The "Base Map" menu provides the same functionality as the pull-down choices on the control panel at the bottom of the screen, namely the ability to change the look of the street map, switch the background to black/white or color, and switch the contrast to normal, bright, or dim:
Note that when the map background is changed via this pop-up menu, the map choices at the bottom of the screen update automatically.
Turn on/off Variance and Off Air Sites
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The "check-boxes" at the bottom of the screen (for Out of Variance, Operating Normally, On Air, and Off Air sites) can also be controlled via the popup-menu. Selecting these choices causes sites to appear or disappear from the map accordingly. |
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The Address Lookup feature from the pop-up menu performs the same
function as the Address Lookup choice from the Tools Menu, namely
to launch the Address Lookup window to find any street address
on the map.
For full details on the Address Lookup capability, Click Here |
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The Site Finder feature from the pop-up menu performs the same
function as the Site Finder choice from the Tools Menu, namely
to launch the Site Finder window to find any EBTS by name.
For full details on the Site Finder capability, Click Here |
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If you click the right mouse button over a site on the map, you will see a Site Information pop-up menu. The Site Name is shown in bold at the top of the menu. The menu includes the ability to show neighbor cells, Airgen worksheets, and aerial photo. Details of each of these features described below. |
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Note that at the bottom of the Site Information pop-up menu,
there is a "Map" menu. This is the same Map menu that appears
if you click the right mouse button over the base map. This
way, you can click on a site and either view site information
or, for example, by moving down to the "Map" menu, re-center
on the site and zoom in.
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Clicking the right mouse button over any site on the map
and choosing "Show Neighbor Cells" launches a powerful feature
to analyze the "neighbors" of sectors within the site.
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A "Neighbor Cell Window" will appear, showing the site name and, for each sector in the site, a list of each site/sector that is configured as a "neighbor" for the sector:
Note in the picture above that purple lines appear on the map. These lines link the site (in the center) with all of its neighbor sites.
The Neighbor Cell Window contains, underneath the words SECTOR 1, SECTOR 2, and SECTOR 3, "check-boxes" labeled "Show links on map". If you un-check any of these boxes, the purple lines on the screen which represent links for that sector will disappear on the map (and of course re-appear when you check the box back "on").
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There are three ways to switch the Neighbor Cell Window to view a different site. One way, as shown on the left, is to double-click on any of the sites listed in the window. This will cause the Neighbor Cell Window to load and display the neighbors for the selected site, and consequently the "purple lines" will shift to the new site, resulting in the picture below: |
Note in the window above that the window only contains SECTOR 2 and SECTOR 3. This is because the site in question does not have a SECTOR 1.
The second way to view a different site, as shown below, is (as before) simply click the right-mouse button on a new site and choose "Show Neighbor Cells".
Which causes the Neighbor Cell Window to change and the purple lines to refocus on the new site, resulting in the picture below:
The Neighbor Cell Window contains a button labeled "Re-Center Map". Clicking this button will cause the map to recenter on the site shown in this window. There is also a check-box labeled "Re-center each time". When checked ON, the map will automatically re-center every time a new site is displayed in this window.
The Neighbor Cell Window also contains, as shown below, a pull-down choice of all previous sites that have been displayed in the Neighbor Cell Window since the map was first brought up. This is the third way to switch the window to a different site. You can always "jump back" to a previously displayed site by finding it in this list:
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The "Show Worksheet" menu choice launches a new web browse page which contains the current Airgen Worksheet for this site. The web page contains all parameters, plus a number of synthetic parameters created in CROME (these parameters all begin with "0_" and contains useful information like BSC name, Lat/Lon, etc.). |
A sample web page is shown below. This picture only shows the top of the scrolled page -- there is much more below on the actual page. Note that "EBTS" is highlighted, as are all sub "elements" further down the page (e.g., CELL, CARR, BR, NEIG, etc.) so that it is clear which parameters belong to which level.
Since the Airgen worksheets are quite long, custom Airgen "reports" can be very quickly created to show useful subsets of the data, making it easier to quickly get the desired information.
Three of these custom reports have already been created, which are listed under the menu item "Worksheet Reports":
The "RF Neighbor Report" isolates pertinent information about the CELLS and their neighbors. "RF BR Info Report" focuses on base radios, and "EBTS Identification Report" gives all of the CROME-created synthetic parameters, as well as some airgen parameters, that help identify this site.
Below is an example of the "RF Neighbor Report" that appears in the web page (note again that most of the report is scrolled off the screen):
By default, all Worksheet and Worksheet reports re-use the same browser window. So, if you display one worksheet in a web page, and then decide to display another, the first worksheet will disappear from the web page and be replaced by the new worksheet.
This functionality can be changed by using the "Worksheet Setup" menu off of the pop-up menu. If you check "Show Worksheets in new window each time", then a new browser "window" will appear every time a new Worksheet or Worksheet report is created. This is useful when you desire to compare Worksheets side-by-side:
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The Aerial Photo choice in the pop-up menu performs the same function as the Aerial Photo button on the bottom of the main window. It launches a photograph of the area where the site is located: |
The "Variance Detail" web page shows all the details about an out-of-variance site, including its values over the previous 48 hours. This feature has always been available by clicking on a site (with the left mouse button) and then double-clicking on the Variance in the bottom-right corner of the display.
This task has now been shortened to a single mouse click by clicking the right mouse button over a site that is "red" (i.e., is out of variance) and choosing "Show Variance Details". This will provide a list in the pop-up menu of the one or more variances being violated, and in which Sector or Carriers they are occuring. By selecting one of these, the Variance Detail web page will appear.
The Variance Detail web page can be configured such that every time "Show Variance Detail" is used the same web page updates with the new Variance, OR such that a new browser page is created each time. This configuration is done via the Variance Setup menu item:
