Getting started

Getting started

The main menu in NetDim is made of five sub-menus: Creation, Routing, Drawing, Display and View.

• The 'Creation' menu allows the user to switch between the two main modes: the object creation mode, and the selection mode. The panel at the top controls the selection process: clicking on the blue cross activates the "Selection mode", used for selecting and moving the nodes on the canvas. Whenever an object is selected, it is highlighted in red. On the right, three boxes controls which type of object can be selected: nodes, links, shapes, or any combination of those.

  The middle panel contains all subtypes of nodes and links. Clicking on any object in this panel activates the "Creation mode": for a node, a single left-click on the canvas creates a new object; for a link, pressing left-click allows the user to draw a line from the source node to the destination node of the link.

  The 'Creation' menu also includes the 'Graph generation' panel at the bottom. Four topologies are available: tree, star, full-mesh and ring. Upon clicking on a topology, a window pops up for the user to define the dimension of the topology, and the type of nodes to be created. For a tree, the dimension is the number of layers, while for any other topology, the dimension is the total number of nodes.

  Some mouse bindings are always available, whether in selection or creation mode:

  • The mouse scroll is used for zooming and unzooming the view
  • Upon clicking on the right-click button, a menu is generated (node menu if on a node, general menu otherwise)
  • The right-click button, if held down, allows the user to move the view in any direction

• The 'Drawing' menu contains:

  • A panel to execute a force-based drawing algorithm. A drawing algorithm aims at placing all nodes in a visually optimal fashion, for the user to better comprehend how the network is organized. Drawing algorithms can be applied a either all nodes displayed on the canvas, or a subset of nodes if a selection exists at the time the algorithm starts.

    The main idea behind graph drawing algorithm is to assign forces to nodes and links and try to minimize the energy of the resulting system:

    • Nodes are considered electrically charged particles and assigned to Coulomb force to repulse each other
    • Links are considered springs, and the two remote ends of the link are attracted, following the Hooke's law principle

    The parameters used by the algorithm can be modified by the user in the Drawing panel:

    • Coulomb factor: constant of the Coulomb law: it is the strength of the repulsion force.
    • Spring stiffness: constant of the Hooke's law (F = kX, where k is the spring stiffness). The higher it is, the more compressed the spring are.
    • Equilibrium length: length of the spring at the equilibrium state, when the spring is neither compressed nor stretched.

    When the algorithm is being executed, the display is updated in real-time for the user to see how the nodes' position evolve. Parameters can also be modified in real-time: the change will be instantly taken into consideration.

  • A panel to draw 'shapes'. A shape object can be an oval, a rectangle or a text label. Shapes can be drawn anywhere on the canvas.

• The 'Display' menu contains three panels:

  • The top panel controls the multi-layer display: the multi-layer button allows the user to switch between regular and multi-layer display. Next to this button, the 'L1/L2/L3/L4' defines whether a layer should or shouldn't be displayed. For instance, if the L2 button is unticked, all layer-4 objects will be removed from the canvas: that includes switches (both Ethernet and WDM switches), optical channel and LACP LAG.

  • The middle panel controls the per-subtype display. If a button is pressed (it is sunken), the corresponding objects are displayed. If it is raised, the objects are not displayed.

  • Finally, the bottom panel controls the per-type and per-subtype labelling: it allows the user to define which property is to be displayed as a label for a given type or subtype of object.

• The 'View' menu allows the user to switch between the different view and coordinates system.

  There are three types of view in NetDim:

  • The network view, where all network devices are displayed.
  • The site view, where all sites are displayed. A site can be either a location (like a building, or any geographical location)
  • The view inside a site, called the 'insite view', where all site objects are displayed.

  The top panel of the view menu contains two buttons, to display either the network view, or the geographic view. In site view, double-clicking on a site will open the 'insite view'.

  The second panel is used to switch between coordinates: each object has three sets of coordinates:

  • The geographical coordinates (longitude and latitude), to display the nodes on the map, where they are physically located
  • The logical coordinates, to display coordinates
  • The site coordinates: