Pathloss 5 - Where to begin

This step by step is intended to help a first time user get the program up and running. It is intentionally kept simple and is designed to familiarize the user with Pathloss 5's layout and tools.

Step 1 - Configure terrain data

Download some terrain data from NASA.

This tool may also be helpful http://www.pathloss.com/mapsearch.html.

Unzip the file(s) and make a note of where you have unzipped it to.

Click Configure - Set GIS configuration

Click the Primary DEM tab and select SRTM (World) from the Digital elevation model drop down list.

Click the File index button and a new window will appear. In the menu of the new window click Files ,Import index and SRTM hgt files.

Browse to locate the HGT files you have downloaded (You can select many HGT files at once by holding Ctrl or Shift while selecting fles). Click Open and the files will be added to the index list.

Note the edges of the data for the next step.

You have now configured Pathloss 5 for SRTM terrain data.

Step 2 - Enter site information

Click View - Site List To bring up the Site index.

We are going to manualy add two site to the project. Make sure that the cooridinates you use for the sites are within the bounds of the terrain data that was used in the last step.

Double click on the first cell in the Site Name Column. Enter a name for the site and press the Tab key to move the to next cell. Enter a Latitude for the site and press Tab. Enter a Longitude. This is the minimum required information for a site. Add a second site with the same method.

Close the Site list and the sites will be shown in the GIS window.

Sites can also me imported from a CSV file or any delimited text file. See Import Sites from text file.

Step 3 - Create the links

For this example we will manually link the sites.

You should see the 2 sites marked on the screen. The mouse wheel can be used to zoom the display in and out.

Select the Point to Point Link tool. This appears on the toolbar as an arrow above a single link. This tool is used to create and interact with links.

Left click on one of the sites and drag to the other site to create the link. You can now left click on the link to access the modules of the link design tool.

Right clicking on links or sites will allow you to adjust attributes (appearance) and access other options.