EDX software is built like most Windows software. The main application window contains all of the components of the tool. When you first open EDX software, the application window is gray, and most of the menu bar and button bar are grayed out. This indicates the Program is running, but no project has been opened and loaded into the software. Once you’ve opened a project, the menu bar and button bars become active, as well as the main display shows the last saved map state of your project.

The Menu Bar

The menu bar is used to set up and drill down into details of the program, such as setting up studies, propagation models and the like. Each menu item has its article.  Check out the related articles below to learn more.

The Button Bar

The button bar contains tools that cause an action to happen, or trigger a shortcut. If you hover your cursor over a button, you will get a short description of what that button does.

The Project Pane

The Project Pane (See the Show Project Pane article for more information) is an alternative navigation method for the program. For example, if you wanted to modify the frequency of a transmitter you could go to the RF Systems menu, choose Transmitter/Base/Hub/Router Sites, edit the Master Group, select your transmitter, Edit your transmitter and change the frequency. This is a large number of steps just to change a frequency. Instead, in the Project Pane you could expand the RF Systems entry, expand the Transmitter/Base/Hub/Router Sites entry, find your site in the list and double-click on it, then change the frequency, using quite a few less steps than the menus.

The Databases entry is a shortcut to the Databases menu. Double-clicking on each sub entry takes you directly to that dialog box. There is no right-click functionality for these entries.

RF Systems give you access to the main entries under the RF Systems menu. Choices include Transmitter/Base/Hub/Router Sites, Mobile/Remote Units, Link Systems, CPE’s, and the RF Equipment list.

Expanding the Transmitter/Base/Hub/Router Sites entry gives you a list of the transmitter sites in your project, and expanding a transmitter entry gives you access to the sectors mounted there. 

Right clicking on a transmitter site gives you a sub-menu for the site. You can go to the main site properties and make edits there. Other entries perform actions on all sectors at the site like turning sectors active or inactive. You can sort this site into various groups from this menu. From the main site sub-menu you can copy and delete this site, center the map on the site.

Roughly halfway down you will see a list of all sectors at the site. When you select a specific sector entry, you get an additional sub-menu with options that only affect that sector. Right-clicking directly on the sector entry under the site entry opens the sector specific sub-menu.

Map Views gives you control of, and shortcuts to, various display features. Expanding Map Views gives you Initial View. Think of this initial view as a container for all the display information shown in the main map window. If you look in the title bar for the EDX software, you see the application name, then the project name, followed by the current view name in brackets. This should show [initial view]. Right-clicking on initial view in the Project Pane gives you the ability to make a copy of it, delete it or rename it. The power of views is: all the map layers/area/route/multipoint studies are independent of other map views. They do share all the equipment, so changes to equipment in one view changes that equipment in all views.

Expanding initial view give you access to Map Layers, Area Studies definitions, Route Studies definitions and Multipoint Studies definitions.

• Map Layers – expanding Map Layers show existing map layers. Checking/unchecking a specific layer box toggles that layer on and off in the main map. Right- clicking a layer name allows you to drop that layer, edit that layer's parameters, or export the layer if supported for that layer type (i.e. area study to .kmz file).

• Area Studies – double-clicking on an entry takes you to the setup dialog box for that entry. Right clicking gives options for setting for status bar , showing, running, editing, and renaming that particular study.

• Route Studies

  • double-clicking on an entry takes you to the setup dialog box for that entry. Right clicking gives options for showing, running, editing, setting as current and renaming that particular study.

• Multipoint Studies

  • double-clicking on an entry takes you to the setup dialog box for that entry. Right clicking gives options for showing, running, editing, setting as current and renaming that particular study.

If there are more than one main map views, you can bring a main map view to the front and make it active by double-clicking on the view name, clicking in the view window you want to work with, or by going to the Window Menu and selecting the view from the list at the bottom.

The default window/map view setting is for one main map view fully expanded to take up all available space in the main application window. If you go to the Window menu, you can tile all active main map views, seeing more than one at a time. A caution: since the views are independent, you can set up a large number of study and map layers that the program needs to keep track of. Over time, if they are very large, you may notice the program slowing down when returning mouse control to you. If you find that you click OK to exit a dialog box and it takes longer and longer, you might consider reducing the number of views, or moving some views to a different project.

The Status Bar

The Status Bar displays specific numerical information not available in the graphic results. For example, a received power at remote study shows signal levels by coloring the study grid. Setting the status bar to show the results of a study allow you to see the actual signal level at the cursor point for that study.

From left to right there are 6 blocks or positions. The 7th position is used to display the name of the study currently set to be shown in the status bar. You can modify the positions and what they show by going to the View>Status Bar Properties, or by right-clicking on the status bar itself (except the 7th position). Each position has a drop-down list with choices of what it can display. A common setup would be:

• Position 1 – None

• Position 2 – Study Value 1

• Position 3 – Study Value 2

• Position 4 – Terrain elevation at cursor

• Position 5 – Land use at cursor

• Position 6 – Map coordinates at mouse

If you right-click on the 7th position you will get a sub-menu similar to what you saw earlier by right-clicking on the Area Studies selection in the project pane, with the only difference being in the 7th position, there is an additional option with the name(s) of the specific area studies listed under Area Studies. Hovering the mouse over an area study name brings up another sub-menu that is the same as right-clicking on an area study in the project pane.

The Map Marker

The Map Marker appears on the main map as a small square with cross-hairs:

It is visible at all times on the main map and can be moved to different locations by left-clicking the mouse button anywhere on the main map.  The Map Marker is used in conjunction with various application features which are discussed in other articles.