Duplicating Items in LINKPlanner

by Andy Haywood

Copy and Paste in LINKPlanner

 

LINKPlanner makes it easy to duplicate items in a project or to copy and paste items between projects. The following items can be copied:

  • Network Sites
  • Subscriber Sites
  • PTP Links
  • Hubs
  • Access Points
  • Subscriber Modules
  • Link Formatting Rules
  • Equipment Templates
  • Path Profiles

Copying

The basic method for copying an item, such as a site or link, is to select the appropriate node in the project tree and then either click on the Copy icon  or right-click on the item and select Copy from the context-sensitive menu (Figure 1 - Copy  context-sensitive menu).

Fig 1.jpg

 Figure 1 - Copy context-sensitive menu

If you want to copy items from a table, such as an equipment template, then you should select the item or items and then choose Copy from the right-click menu. You can select multiple items by holding down the Shift key during the selection or by holding the Ctrl or Command key (Figure 2 - Selecting multiple items in a table).

  • On Windows, hold the Ctrl key when selecting
  • On OSX, hold the Command key when selecting (on some Apple keyboards,
    this key also has an Apple logo)

 Figure 2 - Selecting multiple items in a table

What is copied?

When an item is copied, the clipboard will contain all of the information that is necessary to reproduce that item in a new project. For instance, if a link uses a custom antenna then the antenna definition will be copied. Table 1 describes the data that is stored in the clipboard when copying the different item types.

 Table 1

Pasting

When the clipboard contains data in a format that LINKPlanner recognises the Paste icon  and the Paste entry in the context sensitive menu are enabled (Figure 4 - Paste context-sensitive menu).

Fig 4.jpg

Figure 4 - Paste context-sensitive menu

If the data does not already exist in the project then it is created. When pasting Sites, Links, etc. LINKPlanner checks for existing items at the same location. If there are any similar items then the Smart Paste dialog is shown, see Figure 5 - Smart paste dialog. The layout of this dialog will change to reflect the conflicting data. The items shown in the left-hand lists have conflicts with existing items. Items that have been moved to the right-hand lists will result in new items being created.

In the example below, a new Subscriber Module (Empire Stadium) will be created. Since the Access Point, Subscriber Site and Hub are not being created then the new Subscriber Module will be associated with the existing items in the project.

Hubs do not appear in the Smart Paste dialog since it is not possible to create a duplicate Hub in a project. Any new Access Points will be attached to the equivalent Hub when there is a conflict.

Figure 5 - Smart paste dialog

Custom antennas will be automatically added to the destination project if they do not already exist. TDD Sync settings will only be applied if the destination project does not already have links that support TDD Sync. Always review the TDD Sync settings after pasting.

Pasting path profiles

When pasting a path profile into LINKPlanner the range and height units are taken from the column headings in the data if they are available (Figure 3 - Path profile data). If the headings do not exist or if they do not contain any recognised units then LINKPlanner will assume that the data is in the same units as the current preference settings.

If the range of the path profile data does not match the calculated range, LINKPlanner will:

  • Truncate the data if the profile is longer than the calculated path length
  • Duplicate the last terrain height and obstruction values if the profile is shorter than the calculated path length
  • If the profile range does not start with zero, then the first terrain height and obstruction values will be duplicated at the start of the profile

LINKPlanner will accept tab-separated, comma-separated or semicolon-separated data as valid path profiles. The data does not have to contain a header row, but it must contain 3 columns to represent the range along the path, the terrain height and the obstruction height.

1 Like