The Physical Workspace: Cable Manipulation

In Physical Workspace, cables can be manipulated to provide a more realistic representation of a physical layout. Cables can be bent and grouped to allow for organization and easier manipulation. Since cables can be grouped, they now also can be color coded to allow the user to identify specific cables as they enter or leave the group. Individual cables can be ungrouped from cable GroupPoints as well as cable groups and BendPoints may also be deleted from cables without deleting the cables.

Creating BendPoints in Cables

To bend a cable, click on a cable, this will show the Create BendPoint / Color Cable menu. Select Create BendPoint and a red dot appears on the cable. Drag the red dot to a new location and the cable follows the BendPoint.

Cables actually can’t be directly deleted in Physical mode, you must return to Logical mode to delete a cable.

As many BendPoints as needed can be placed on a cable allowing a pseudo structured cabling look to the physical mode. Adding BendPoints and moving them also changes the length of the cable. The Cable Length is expressed as the distance between to points on the cable and the Total Cable Length is the distance between the two end devices on the cable.

Workaround: Sometimes it appears that you have accurately clicked on a cable and no Window appears. This is due to graphics representation of the cable. All that is necessary to do is move the device that the cable is connected to and try again or move to another spot on the cable. Once a BendPoint is created, it can be moved along the cable to where you want it located.

Creating GroupPoints in Cables

To create GroupPoints in cables, there must already be BendPoints located in the cables. The process to create a GroupPoint is drag one BendPoint over the top of a second BendPoint. When this is done the Red Dots turn into a single yellow square.

If you create two GroupPoints on a cable and then click between those two GroupPoints, you can create a new GroupPoint. When a GroupPoint is moved all of the cables in the group are moved as if they are a single cable.

Color Coding Cables

To change the color of a cable, click on the cable and then select Color Cable. When the Select Color dialog pops up, select the desired color and then click on the OK button.

Notice that the cable is colored at both ends of the GroupPoints. Cable groups color is always black, it can’t be changed. To reset a color you have selected, follow the same process as assigning a color but click the Cancel button instead of the OK button in the Select Color dialog.

Removing GroupPoints and BendPoints

Removing a GroupPoint is actually done as an ungroup. All of the BendPoints that were dragged together to create the group are still on the cables, they just return to the red dots and are now separate again.

To remove the GroupPoint, first click on the Delete tool in the Common Tools Bar or press the Delete key on your keyboard. The Delete tool will now be selected. Point the cursor directly over the GroupPoint that is to be removed (the little circle in the center of the cursor should show the color through it) and click on the GroupPoint. A menu will pop up allowing each individual cable or all cables to be removed from the group.

Selecting an individual cable shows the red dot over the yellow square but doesn't remove the square. Ungrouping all cables removes the yellow square and returns the red dots to each individual cable.

Ungrouping also allows a user to break cables out of a group between GroupPoints as is shown here in the circled area.

To remove a BendPoint, follow the same procedure as removing a GroupPoint. In the case of a BendPoint, the red dot is simply removed from the cable.