Define Study Grid

To display and control the file size of area-wide signal studies, terrain maps, land use (clutter) maps, demographic maps, and traffic maps, EDX software uses an arbitrary boundary called the Study Grid. The Study Grid is divided up into bins that can be adjusted by the user, although there are limitations on the total number of bins related to the boundary height and width. To define the Study Grid, click Studies>Define Study Grid and the following dialog box will display:

From this dialog box there are two ways to set the location of the Study Grid. The first uses the Grid center point coordinates of your current map. To change the center point location, type in the new coordinates. The second method is to click on the Locate button. You’ll get a dialog box where you can select a specific piece of equipment around which to center the grid.

You can manually set the Grid Width and Grid Height using the appropriate fields, as well as the study Grid point spacing, which sets the size of each bin in the Study Grid.

As mentioned before, there are a few limitations to bear in mind. The maximum Study Grid dimensions are 5000 x 5000 points, so the point spacing and overall grid size must be selected accordingly. To the right of the height and width fields, the Study Grid dialog box displays the number of grid height and width points that will be required, given the current study grid width, height and spacing values. If you are displaying the terrain of other maps without doing a signal study, these study grid parameters will also be used to extract and display the data. If you exceed the maximum number of grid dimension points, the point numbers will turn red, indicating the current combination of grid values are not allowed.

The Study Grid dialog box also lets you have control over showing the grid boundary on the map. Displaying the Study Grid boundary line makes it easier to see what area will be covered by your study and is especially useful if you display a terrain map without any signal study. You can also control the Study Grid boundary line as a separate map layer in the Map Layers dialog box. 

Another way to draw the Study Grid on the map is to use the Define the study grid button on the toolbar menu. Clicking on the button will change your cursor to a rectangular draw tool. Click once in the upper left corner of where you want your Study Grid to start, then drag down to the right opposite corner, then click to finish selecting the area to cover. A Set Study Grid Spacing dialog box will come up where you can set your grid spacing. If your grid spacing is too small for the area, then you will be redirected to the main Study Grid dialog box where you can view the total grid points and adjust the grid height, width or spacing so as not to exceed the maximum grid point dimensions.