CCTV & Security

Place the full security stack, tune ray-traced coverage cones, link devices to the building, and export a print-ready security plan.

The CCTV & Security engine places cameras and detectors and ray-traces each one’s coverage through your walls, doors and windows. See the feature overview; this is the how-to.

Add the engine

Add the CCTV & Security engine. The compliance region (UK, US, EU or AU) isn’t set per engine - it comes from the app’s Settings → Region, detected from your device’s locale, and drives the legend and the compliance statement.

Device catalogue

The catalogue holds 29 device types across five colour-coded categories, one rail bubble each:

To place a device: tap a category, tap the plan where the device goes, then pick the exact type from the grid that appears. The device lands selected with the tool back on the Pointer. Re-arming the same category keeps the type you last placed, so bulk-placing bullet cameras doesn’t snap back to the category default between drops.

Cameras and the area-detection sensors (PIR, dual-tech, ceiling 360°, curtain, glass-break, vibration/shock, driveway/beam and beam pair) render a coverage shape; door contacts, sirens, locks and head-end devices don’t.

Coverage cones

Cones are ray-traced in the editor from the moment you open the engine - the eye chip (also the Visualise coverage toggle in the settings) shows and hides them. Each cone:

• Stops at walls and at closed doors.
• Passes through open doors, open doorways and windows (cameras see through glass).
• Dies at the device’s range.
• 360° devices (fisheye, ceiling 360°, glass-break, vibration/shock) render a full disc.

The eye hides only the cones - device symbols stay visible either way. There’s nothing to “turn on”: coverage is drawn by default, the eye just hides it. Cones are re-computed only when devices or the room change, not on every pan or zoom, so the editor stays smooth. (The exported PDF always draws the cones, since a security plan without coverage isn’t useful.)

Coverage is an indicative 2D line-of-sight model, not a verified field of view - it doesn’t account for camera resolution (DORI), mount height or obstructions. Every exported PDF prints a short caveat saying exactly this, and that caveat can’t be switched off - confirm real coverage on site.

Tuning a device

Select a device to adjust:

A small tick on the plan shows each directional device’s aim (switch it off under Appearance → Azimuth ticks in the settings).

Linking to the building

Place a device within about 30 cm of a wall, door or window and it snaps on and links automatically - it then follows that element if the plan changes, and a wall-linked device remembers its position along the wall, sliding along it as you drag. Drag it more than ~30 cm off the host and the link drops; you can also select a device and use Attach (links to the nearest element within ~60 cm) or Unlink. If you delete the host element, the device doesn’t vanish - it floats free at its last position.

Layers & visibility

The Layers bubble opens the Visible layers sheet: Measurements, Doors, Windows, Room names and Furniture (off by default, for a clean device plan), plus a room-name text size stepper (8–48 pt). These choices apply to both the editor and the exported PDF, and hiding doors still leaves the doorway opening in the wall.

Everything the engine draws is a true plan-scale annotation, CAD-style: symbols, captions and azimuth ticks keep their size on the plan - they grow and shrink as you zoom, and print at exactly the same proportions.

Compliance guidance & export

The plan is an advisory aid, not a certified or guaranteed-compliant document - it names the standard it was prepared with reference to, it doesn’t assert conformance. The region sets the standard referenced in the footer:

Completeness warnings flag the obvious gaps (no devices, no cameras, missing site or installer details), including a plan that has devices but zero coverage, for example a siren-only layout that draws no field of view at all. The printed compliance statement is editable - the settings prefill the region’s advisory wording, Reset to default restores it, and Print compliance statement turns it off.

Export a single-page A4/Letter landscape PDF: a header with the title, site, standard, revision and date; the plan with the cones always drawn; and a footer with a device key (counts per category, plus a symbol-and-abbreviation row for every type you used), the always-on coverage caveat, the compliance statement, installer details, a north point and a scale bar. The page fits everything you placed - a device or cone reaching outside the building footprint isn’t clipped - and your layer choices carry through to the print. Add a company logo under Branding and it prints bottom-right.

On the free tier, an exported security plan carries a light watermark, so you can export a free watermarked sample or spend one export credit for a single clean copy. Full access exports clean every time. See Exporting & sharing for the detail.

Tips

• Increase Range for a longer throw across a large space (mount height is documentation only and doesn’t change the 2-D cone).
• Put a fisheye in a corner for whole-room cover.
• Overlap cones at doorways to avoid blind spots.

Fade the base plan

The engine settings open with a Canvas → Plan opacity slider. Drag it down to fade the static floor plan in the editor so your cameras, detectors and coverage cones stand out; it starts at 90%. It only changes how the plan looks while you work - the drawing itself and the exported PDF are unchanged - and the choice is shared across every overlay engine and remembered between sessions.

Next

• WiFi Coverage guide
• Network & IT guide