THE PROJECT

The Project is the working space of ICS-telecom.

GETTING STARTED
It contains the links toward files that will be used to run analysis in ICS-telecom.
Each file is a layer giving various information taken into account in the calculations: cartographic layers
for altimetric information, for the site locations (X,Y), for the building heights information, and for the
clutter information, a network layer for location and parameters of the network elements, a simulation
results layer, a vector layer.
The layers are organized in the project as follows:

The project is stored in a .pjt (or .prj) file that only contains files links.

This section will describe the basic steps to create a project, to display the layers, and to manage the
projects.

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 1. CREATION OF A PROJECT

The creation of a project is the very first step in using ICS-telecom.

GETTING STARTED

The project is composed of several layers: cartographic layers, field strength results layer, objects
layer.
Only one file is essential to create a project: the altimetric file or DEM (Digital Elevation Model) identified
with the extension .geo, or the Indoor file (.idr) used for Indoor study.
The other layers may be added progressively during the use of ICS-telecom.

ICS-telecom package is provided with some cartographic files gathered in the directory 'Samples'.
The following procedure will described the creation of a project using the Soton cartographic files. First
copy the soton.geo, soton.img, soton.pal and soton.sol files on your hard disk and change the attribute
of the files to an Archive status (instead of a Read only status). This operation can be done via the
MSTM Explorer.

Procedures
1/ Select function Files / Project Manager
2/ The Project manager box will appear on screen:

Click left on button New which will re-init the box

The user must now build the project and choose every files to be linked to it. For our example, Soton,
we will need the files that are stored in the directory Samples of the ICS-telecom CD-Rom.
3/ Click left on button of the line Digital Elevation Model
4/ In the Files box, designate the Soton.geo altimetric file and confirm by pressing OK
5/ Click left on button of the line Image
6/ In the Files box, designate the Soton.img file and confirm by pressing OK
7/ Click left on button of the line Palette
8/ In the Files box, designate the Soton.pal file and confirm by pressing OK
9/ Click left on button of the line Clutter
10/ In the Files box, designate the Soton.sol clutter file and confirm by pressing OK
11/ Select command SAVE or SAVE AS to save the project under a new project name (Soton for our
example)
12/ Load this project and confirm the choice by clicking left on LOAD button
The Soton project is loaded and saved under the Soton.pjt file.
Note 1:
If the cartographic file inserted in the project is too large to be contained in memory, the system will
offer to re-sample the file. The system will inform the user of the necessary reduction factor and will
prompt the user to confirm via a confirmation box. If no re-sampling of the file is chosen by the user, the
file being too large to be contained in memory is loaded onto disk only.
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Note 2:
The re-sampling of the file risks altering information contained in the original file. Calculation times are
however accelerated. A file that is too large to be stored in memory will be loaded onto disk. This will

GETTING STARTED
slow down calculation times considerably. See Section The files in Appendices.

2. PROJECT DISPLAY

The files contained in the project may be visualised independently in 2 dimensions, or 3 dimensions.
The Map menu regroups the display options.
The first file that will be displayed, is the Image file, or the DEM file if the project contains no Image file.
The file is displayed in its entirety in the central display area regardless of its size. The zoom ratio
necessary for this operation is automatically calculated by ICS-telecom.

Procedures

2 Dimensions display
• DEM layer
1/ Keep the Soton Project loaded. The Image file is displayed on screen
2/ Select option Map / 2D display / DEM layer
3/ The altimetric file of the project is displayed in 2 dimensions
• Clutter layer
1/ Select option Map / 2D display / Clutter layer
2/ The Clutter file of the project is displayed in 2 dimensions
• Image layer
1/ Select option Map / 2D display / Image layer
2/ The Image file of the project is re-displayed in 2 dimensions
Other options of the Map / 2D display function are only available after simulations, as they require the
presence of a result layer in memory.

Modify the zoom ratio

1/ Click left on the Zoom tool .
2/ Click left either on " + " or " - " button. The zoom ratio increases or decreases one point with each
click; the indicated zoom ratio is also modified
3/ Click left button over a point on the cartographic file. The file resolution of the display will be modified
with the mouse indicated point as the centre of the zoomed display.
OR
1/ Press <shift> key while clicking left on the terrain at one corner of the area to be zoomed, then move
the cursor at the opposite corner of the zone and click left again to complete the area selection. The
zoom ratio is increased and the selected area display takes the full screen place.
OR
1/ Hit <+> key to increase the zoom ratio of 1 point, or hit <-> key to decrease the zoom ratio of 1 point.

Increasing the zoom ratio will activate the scroll bar - To move in the file, just click left on the scroll bar.
For a panoramic moving, press <Shift> key and move the cursor to one side of the display area.

3 Dimensions display
If no 3 Dimensions options are available for the project, it means that no Input Projection System (or
Grid code) has been indicated for the cartographic files (1NUL code is indicated), as the cartographic
information has been saved under a backward file format. New formats of cartographic file now integrate
the Input Projection code.
The first step is to complete the cartographic information using the Cartographic conversion tool:
1/ Select function Tools / Cartographic conversions
2/ The Coordinates box is open; Click left on the valid Input Projection code; choose the same Projection
system in Output; click left on the No conversion button to confirm the choice; close the Coordinates
box via the OK button

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 3/ Back to the 2 dimensions display of the project, refresh and update information by clicking left on the
Redraw tool, or pressing the <F8> key
Warning: the <F8> key will re-init the file display at point (0,0); if the user has increased the zoom ratio
GETTING STARTED

and has used the scroll bar to move in the file, the <F8> key will return to the first page at the origin
point (0,0) of the file. The recommendation is to use the Redraw tool.

Two of the tree 3 Dimensions display options are now available:

• DEM or Image layer
1/ Select option Map / 3D display / DEM or Image layer
2/ The 3D view screen is drawn. The default setting will display the Image layer superimposed on the
DEM layer. By clicking left on one point of the 3D view, the user opens a popup offering various options.
One of these options concerns the 3D display:
- Redraw: to modify the basic options of the 3D display, and for example to display only the DEM layer
(de-select the option Image as texture) - this option opens the View box.
• Clutter on DEM
This option will display the clutter zones on the DEM. If the option Image as texture is selected, then
the clutter areas will be superimposed on the Image file displayed according to a grey palette.
1/ Select option Map / 3D display / Clutter on DEM
2/ The 3D view screen is drawn. The default setting will display the Image layer superimposed over the
DEM layer. By clicking left over one point of the 3D view, the user opens a popup menu offering the
same 3D display options encountered for the DEM or Image layer option

The two other options of the Map / 3D display function are only available if a result layer is present in
memory, or after the creation of a path trajectory on the terrain.

3. PROJECT MANAGEMENT

The user may create as many project as needed. As each project only stores file links, the .pjt files are
of small size and do not take much place on the disk.
Following are the procedures to load, to modify, or to delete projects.

Procedures

We will use our example, Soton project, for the following procedures.

To load an already existing project

1/ Select function Files / Project manager
2/ The Project manager box is open:
EITHER
3/ Click left on OPEN control and in the files browser that appears, designate the required Project file,
in our example choose the file Soton.pjt. Confirm the choice by clicking left on LOAD control.
OR
3/ Click left directly the Soton project in the latest projects list.
4/ The Image of Soton is displayed on screen.
Note 1:
If the cartographic file inserted in the project is too large to be contained in memory, the system will
offer to re-sample the file. The system will inform the user of the necessary reduction factor and will
prompt the user to confirm via a confirmation box. If no re-sampling of the file is chosen by the user, the
file being too large to be contained in memory is loaded onto disk only.
Note 2:
The re-sampling of the file risks altering information contained in the original file. Calculation times are
however accelerated. A file that is too large to be stored in memory will be loaded onto disk. This will
slow down calculation times considerably. See Section 'About the files' in the Appendices.

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To modify a project
1/ Select function Files / Project manager
2/ The Project manager box will appear on screen: click left on Load control

GETTING STARTED
3/ In the files browser that appears, designate the required Project file, for our example the Soton.pjt
file.
4/ Click left on button of the file to be modified, for example the clutter file (.sol)
5/ In the files browser that appears, indicate the new file to link to the project and confirm by OK,
OR choose CANCEL to delete the file link from the project; for our example, delete the clutter file link
6/ Click left on SAVE to save the modifications
OR on SAVE AS to save the modified project under a different name; for our example choose Save as
and indicate in the file box, a new project file name, Soton2.pjt ; confirm by OK
7/ Click on LOAD control from the Project manager box to load the project, Soton2.
8/ Soton2 project is loaded, the image of Soton is displayed on screen.

To delete a project
The Project is stored in a .pjt file (or in a .prj file). Then, the deletion of a project file (.pjt or .prj) will
delete the project. As the project file contains only the links to all cartographic and other files, the
deletion of the project file will not affect the other files.
1/ Open the WindowsTM Explorer and simply delete the .pjt file.

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