Concepts

Cable run

One row of an icon's cables — a cable type, how many, where they go and an optional note.

A cable run is one row of a device's cables: a cable type, how many of it, where they go and, if you want, a note. A TV's three Cat6 to its rack is one run.

Where a run goes is one of: its rack or panel — following wherever the icon is sent — a particular rack or panel, a Cable group (a keypad's link, a 70V line), another icon picked on the drawing (a speaker to its volume control), Off plan (a named place that is not on the drawing, listed without a length), or No cable.

Every icon starts with the runs your company's defaults give its type and setting. Once you change them, or only their order, they are the icon's own, marked Changed, until you reset them. A wire drop has no runs of its own: its quantity is its cables. A rack's or panel's own runs are its backbone cables to another rack or panel.

On the drawing, an icon's runs show in its cable card, grouped by where they go.

Only pre-wire in the walls is cabling. Patch leads behind equipment are never runs, and connecting icons into a zone adds none.

Each of its cables has a length, estimated from the drawing or measured, and never guessed.

Tasks: Change an icon's cables, put them in order, enter a measured length, apply cables to all icons of a type, add a company cable type.