Aruba Airwave - Correctly Scaling Floor Plans for VisualRF

In a previous post about setting the origin correctly in an VisualRF floor plan I mentioned scaling the floor plan correctly and thought I should explain how I obtain this information. Now obviously the best practise is to take your measuring tape or laser range finder and measure the actual building (remembering to take a measurement across the longest possible distance to minimise errors), however, this is not always possible. For new builds and remote sites you can get the size information from a correctly scaled PDF file.

The following instructions are for Adobe Acrobat Reader DC but equivalent functions may be available with other tools.

1. Open the file in Acrobat Reader DC
2. Determine the scale of the drawing, in this case there is a information box shown in the lower right corner of the drawing stating that the scale is 1:100
   
3. Select Tools - Measure
4. Click on "Measuring Tool" in the menu bar - then right click on the image and select "Change Scale Ratio and Precision" to set the scale

5. In the window that appears set the scale according that of the drawing, in this case 1:100 i.e. 1cm on the drawing is 1m on the ground

6. Then click on two points diagonally opposite on the plan to measure the size

7. This length can then be used in VisualRF to set the size of a building floor plan

Aruba Airwave - Configuring Origin when adding Floorplan to VisualRF

Airwave is the network management platform from Aruba for managing their (and other vendors) wired and wireless equipment. One key part are the live floor plans accessed via the VisualRF menu. These show when APs are up or down, the clients connected to them and can also show heat maps and AP relationships.
When adding floor plans and setting up buildings in Aruba Airwave, there are several important factors to ensure are correct. One is that the scale of the plan is correctly set and the second is the location of the origin. The origin controls the alignment of floors so that VisualRF knows where floors above and below are located relative to one another. Without this the client location will not be correct and the heat maps inaccurate.

In these screen captures the origin is in the default location at the top left of the imported floor plans of the ground and first floors. However the amount of white space around each plan is different.

By enabling the heat map showing the signal from APs on the floor above the misalignment between floors is clear as the APs are offset to the left of their real locations.

To correct this unlock the floor plan by clicking on the padlock and then drag the origin marker to a point that is common to both floors, an elevator is ideal but a common corner of a building can also be used. Now looking at the same heat map the signal from the APs above are correctly located.