Program a property on the Program page – Support Center

The Program page shows every building, unit and piece of equipment programmed on a property in one table, with shortcuts for adding and changing them quickly. We recommend it for programming a new property or making large changes.

On the Program page you can:

add and remove buildings, units and utilities
add utilities to many units at once
fill in commonly used meters automatically, and build meter types with the Meter Builder
show, hide and sort columns
review every change before you save it

Program a new property

Start programming

Open the property in the NextCentury Web Portal and select Program. The table opens read-only. Select Start Programming.

The Program page for a property, still read-only. The Start Programming button is at the upper left of the table, next to History.

The cells are now editable, and the toolbar appears.

The Program page after selecting Start Programming. Save Programming (blue) and Cancel have replaced Start Programming, and the toolbar has appeared to their right: building, unit and utility buttons, each with + and minus, then the column menu and the sort menu. The table cells are now editable, and the first Building cell is selected.

Add buildings and units

Use the toolbar at the top of the table. From left to right, it adds and removes buildings, units and utilities, then shows or hides columns and sorts the table.

The Program page toolbar, from left to right: Save Programming, Cancel, the Building icon with + and minus buttons, the Unit icon (a house) with + and minus, the Utility icon with + and minus (grayed out here), the column menu (three lines) and the sort menu (up and down arrows).

To add a building, select + next to the Building icon. Enter the building name and the number of units. You can also add a description, such as the building's street address.

The New Building window. Name: 1149 (in this example). Description: Southern Building. # of Units: 5, with Auto Increment checked, so the units are named Unit 101 to Unit 105. Cancel and Save are at the bottom.

Unit names start at "Unit 101" and count up automatically. To name units yourself, clear Auto Increment and type each name. When the unit names are right, select Save.

The New Building window with Auto Increment cleared and the five unit names typed by hand: Unit 2, Unit 4, Unit 7, Unit 8 and Unit 10 (in this example). Name (1149) and Description (Southern Building) are filled in, and Save is at the bottom right.

Add utilities

Select the unit or units, select + next to the Utility icon, then choose the utility type.

The Program page in edit mode with Unit 1 of building 1149 selected (in this example); its Utility Type cell is empty. The + next to the Utility icon is selected, showing the tooltip Add a new meter to "Unit 1", and its menu is open: All Water, Cold Water, Hot Water, Commercial Water, Gas, Electric, Run Time and Thermal Usage.

Enter serial numbers

Enter the device serial number for each unit and utility.

The Program page in edit mode. Unit 1 of building 1149 (in this example) has All Water as its utility type, and the serial number BA000003 has been entered in its Device cell, which is selected. The Meter column has filled in with Generic (x1 Gallons). Units 2 to 5 have no utility yet.

Choose meters

The default meter type fills in for you. To change it, select the Meter icon in the cell to open the Meter Builder.

The Program page in edit mode, with the Meter cell for Unit 1 selected (Generic (x1 Gallons) in this example). The Meter icon, a small circle, shows at the right edge of the cell. In this image the serial number column is headed Serial Number.

Fill in the meter details and select Save.

The Meter Type Builder window. Manufacturer: NextCentury. Model: M201CH, with a + Request New Model link above the field. Multiplier: 10, Unit of Measure: Gallons, Size: 3/4. On the right, a drawing of a water meter reads 1 Pulse = 10 Gallons. Cancel and Save are at the bottom right.

To copy a meter type to other units, drag the fill handle in the corner of the cell down the column.

Animation of the Program page in edit mode. Units 1 to 5 of building 1149 (in this example) all have All Water, and the Meter cell for Unit 1 holds M201CH (x10 Gallons) 3/4. The pointer selects that cell, grabs the small square fill handle at its bottom-right corner and drags it down the Meter column to Unit 5. When it's released, all five units have the same meter type.

A meter only copies to units with a matching utility type. For example, if units alternate between All Water and Electric, a water meter copied down the column is only added to the All Water rows.

Add the Gateway and Repeaters

Select the Network tab to see and add the property's Gateway and Repeaters.

The Program page with the Network tab selected at the upper right, next to Meters. The toolbar has Save Programming, Cancel, a device icon with + and minus buttons, and the sort menu. The table has Type, Device and Description columns and lists a Cellular Gateway (DA100E2E in this example) and two Repeaters (CA0003C8 and CA00548D).

Use the Sort button to sort the list by device or description.

The Program page Network tab with the sort menu open under the up and down arrows button: Device (selected, with an up arrow) and Description. The Description column now has a note for each device: Leasing Office, Southern Building and Northern Building (in this example).

Review and save

When you're done, select Save Programming. A Changes window shows everything you changed:

green rows are new programming
red rows are deleted programming

The Changes window, on its Meters tab, with a table of every change. The nine units of building 1220 (in this example) are in red rows with their names struck through: they're being deleted. Below, Units 1 to 9 of building 1149 are in green rows with All Water and M201CH (x10 Gallons): they're new. Close and Save Changes are at the bottom right.

Check the changes, then select Save Changes. A green banner confirms that the programming is saved.

The Program page back in read-only mode, with Start Programming at the upper left and a green banner across the table reading Saved Property Info, with a check mark. The left menu shows the property's pages: Details, Charts, Equipment, Program (selected), Reports, Alerts, Live Feed, Users, Changes and Settings.

Change programming

Select Start Programming first, then:

Add or remove buildings

To add a building, select + next to the Building icon.

The Program page toolbar in edit mode. The pointer is on the + next to the Building icon, and its tooltip reads Add a new building.

Enter the building name and the number of units. You can also add a description.

To remove a building, select it, then select − next to the Building icon.

The Program page in edit mode with building 1149 selected in the Building column (in this example). The minus next to the Building icon shows the tooltip Delete building "1149".

Select Yes, Delete to confirm. Removing a building also removes its units.

The Are You Sure? window: You are about to delete building "1149". This will include deleting 9 units Are you sure you want to continue? The buttons are No, Cancel and Yes, Delete (red).

Add or remove units

To add units to an existing building, select + next to the Unit icon.

The Program page toolbar in edit mode. The pointer is on the + next to the Unit icon (a house), and its tooltip reads Add new units.

Choose the building the new units belong to.

Close-up of the New Units window. The Name field at the top is selected, and a list of the property's buildings is open under it: 1149 (highlighted), 1220, 1255, 1265 and 1279 (in this example). Behind the list are the Description field and Auto Increment, which is checked.

To remove units, select them, then select − next to the Unit icon.

The Program page in edit mode with Units 1 to 5 of building 1149 selected in the Unit column (in this example). The minus next to the Unit icon shows the tooltip Delete 5 selected units.

Select Yes, Delete to confirm.

The Are You Sure? window: You are about to delete 5 selected units. Are you sure you want to continue? The buttons are No, Cancel and Yes, Delete (red).

Add utilities to specific units

Select the units, select + next to the Utility icon, then choose the utility type.

The Program page in edit mode with Units 1 to 9 of building 1149 selected (in this example), each with All Water in the Utility Type column. The + next to the Utility icon shows the tooltip Add new meters to 9 selected units, and its menu is open: All Water, Cold Water, Hot Water, Commercial Water, Gas, Electric, Run Time and Thermal Usage.

The table adds a row for each new utility.

The Program page after adding Hot Water to the selected units: each unit of building 1149 (in this example) now has two rows, one All Water and one Hot Water. The utility menu is still open on the right, with Hot Water highlighted.

Show, hide and sort columns

Select the column button on the toolbar to choose which columns to show or hide.

The Program page in edit mode with the column menu open under the button with three lines; its tooltip reads Show or Hide Additional Columns. The menu lists Meter ID, IMR, Description, Accessory Device and Custom ID. Meter ID, Description, Accessory Device and Custom ID have a crossed-out eye icon next to them; IMR doesn't.

Select the Sort button to sort the table by any of its columns.

Animation of the Program page in edit mode. The pointer opens the sort menu (up and down arrows), which lists Reset Sorting, Building, Unit, Utility Type, Device, Signal Type, Meter and IMR. It selects one column after another, and each time the table reorders by that column and the chosen column gets an up arrow in the menu.