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Topology

Updated

The topology map draws a client's network from the internet down — every device beneath what it links to, with the runs between them — and can be narrowed, rearranged, saved as a named view, and downloaded.

Open the map

Press Topology map on a client's page to draw the whole client, or on a property's page to start with that property. The Show list at the top switches between Whole client and one property at a time.

Read the map

  • Each device is a box under the device it connects up to. Links are drawn in the colour of what they are made of, and the Legend under the map keys every colour in use.
  • Rest the pointer on a device, or focus it, to see its facts in a card.
  • Tap a device to open its details: beside the map on a desktop, or in a sheet on a phone. Open device in the details goes to the device's page.
  • The line under the map counts the devices and links drawn, and says how many were left out by filters or lead outside the rooms shown.
  • Fit (beside Hide panels on a desktop, at the head of the map's tools on a phone) draws the whole map inside the frame, both ways. It never shrinks the map below a size you can read (the frame scrolls instead, opening on the top of the hierarchy) and enlarges a small map only so far. Actual size draws it at its own size.
  • The devices of each room are boxed together, and the room's name sits at the box's head, or at its foot when lines cross the head.
  • Two devices joined by more than one link are drawn with one line, its words ending + 1 more (or however many run beside it).

Choose a view

View switches how the same devices are drawn:

  • Topology: the network as it is cabled, each link in the colour of its medium.
  • Wiring: each run coloured by its cable type — a wiring map.
  • Signal flow: each link drawn by the signal it carries (video, audio, control, network), as an AV diagram reads.
  • Layer 3: the subnets as lanes, each device in the one its address falls in.

Narrow the map

  • Rooms: draw only the devices in the rooms you tick.
  • Links: draw only the kinds of link you tick.
  • Runs: draw only active or spare runs.

Leave a filter empty to draw everything of its kind. Each filter in use shows as a chip with its own remove button, and Clear all removes them all.

Pass through patch panels hides the panels and draws each run behind them as one link, with the lengths added up.

Rearrange the map

Drag a device to move it where it reads best (every view but Layer 3, which places devices by subnet). Reset layout puts every device back where the automatic layout drew it. To keep your arrangement, save it as a view.

Save a view

  1. Set up the scope, filters, and layout you want.
  2. Press Save as view, type a View name, and press Save view.
  3. Later, choose it in Saved view to draw the map that way again. The view has its own address, so you can bookmark it.

With a saved view chosen, Update view saves your changes to it and Delete view removes it.

Download the map

Under the map:

  • Download SVG: a drawing you can edit.
  • Download PNG: a picture to share.
  • Download draw.io: a file to open and rework in draw.io.

The topology map is also drawn inside the client and property reports. See Reports and sharing.

On a phone

A map wider than the screen scrolls sideways. The filters and views sit above the map rather than beside it, and a tapped device's details open in a sheet. On a desktop, Hide panels (or Ctrl+H) gives the map the full width.

Related: Ports and links for what the lines are made from.