HDPath™ Command Line

Q:  How can I draw a path profile from a command line or from another program?

A:  With TAP6.0.2241 or later, the AutoPath module, and a Maintenance Subscription date of June 30, 2008, or later, you can launch HDPath using command line arguments.

Note that all values in this example are for demonstration purposes only.  You should determine appropriate settings for your application.

The AutoPath module in TAP enables you to draw and print path profiles, save an image of the profile, and compute and print field strength on the path, all based on parameters in an Excel .XLS or .CSV file.

The command line function in the AutoPath module enables you to draw the profile, and print and save the image of the profile.  The command line function can be invoked from the Windows Start menu with the Run command, or from inside another program, for example using a “Shell” command.

The syntax for the command line parameters is as follows (all parameters are required, and are separated by the ASCII 124 “|” symbol).

A sample command line is shown below (the commands are all on one line, but are broken up here for readability:

c:\swtap\swhdpath.exe /PATHBYCOORD= The path and name of the program file to launch for HDPath, and the flag recognized by HDPath for this function.  Be sure the flag is included exactly as shown, with no space before the “=” sign

Test A|39.1|-104.1|NAD27| The information about the Transmitter Site (the left side facility in the HDPath user interface):  Note the “|” separator between the fields
Site Description
Latitude in decimal degrees (negative for south latitude)
Longitude in decimal degrees (negative for west longitude)
Coordinate Datum (NAD27, NAD83, WGS84, etc.)

Test B|39.4|-104.4|NAD 27| The information about the Receiver Site (the right side facility in the HDPath user interface).  Note the “|” separator between the fields:
Site Description
Latitude in decimal degrees (negative for south latitude)
Longitude in decimal degrees (negative for west longitude)
Coordinate Datum (NAD27, NAD83, WGS84, etc.)

11|ft| The antenna height above ground level (AGL) for the transmitter facility.  Note the “|” separator between the value and the units.  Units can be ft or m.

13|m| The antenna height above ground level (AGL) for the receiver facility.  Note the “|” separator between the value and the units.  Units can be ft or m.

305| The operating frequency used to draw the Fresnel zone.  (A frequency of zero will cause the Fresnel zone to be left out.)

C:\SWTAP\TEMP\HDPathCmdLineBMP\MyBMPRun.BMP| The full path and file name, including the extent, of the image file you want to save the profile to.  If you do not want to save the image, leave this field blank.
With TAP 6.0.2243 and higher, and a Maintenance Subscription date of July 31, 2008, or later, you can specify a file name with a .JPG extent to write the image in that format.  JPG files written by TAP typically are about 5% the size of files written in the BMP format.

1| A flag to print the profile to the default printer, using the settings for HDPath the last time you printed a profile.  If you do not want to print the profile, set this value to zero.

0| A flag to automate the user interface for HDPath.  A value of zero will cause the profile to be plotted, the image file saved (if a file name is given) and the profile to be printed (if the print flag is set), all with no user interaction.  If you want to display the profile on the screen and wait for user interaction to print the profile each time, set this value to 1.

1.333 The effective earth curvature to use when drawing the path profile. Note there is not a “|” separator after this last field.

 

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