Specify system settings

You can add settings for memory usage, EMS and unit processing, and backward compatibility with older versions of FIREHOUSE Software.

  1. (If you selected Run as a Service during installation) Stop the FH CAD Monitor service.

    Information on stopping the FH CAD Monitor service is available in Stop a service.

  2. At the bottom of the FIREHOUSE Software CAD Monitor window, click Options.

    The FIREHOUSE Software CAD Monitor Options dialog box appears, displaying the General tab.

  3. Click the System1 tab.

    Note: Depending on the CAD system, different sections and options appear on this tab.

  4. Do the following for the fields that appear.

    Note: The name of the section and the options that appear in it vary, depending on the CAD system you selected during installation. Do the steps below only for the options that appear in the section for you.

    • For Buffer Memory Usage Percent, drag the slider along the percentage bar to the amount of memory you want to use when processing data from a CAD system.

      When set to maximum, FH CAD Monitor uses as much workstation memory as possible when it is needed, resulting in the fastest processing. When set to minimum, less memory is available to FH CAD Monitor, and processing will take longer, but other workstation processes are impacted less.

    1. Select or clear Log query submitted to database to indicate whether or not to record the query to the CAD system in the FH CAD Monitor log file.
    2. Select or clear Log query result to indicate whether or not to include the results of the query to the CAD system in the FH CAD Monitor log file.

    • Select one of the options to indicate the date and time format FH CAD Monitor should use when creating new records in the FIREHOUSE Software database.

      If you select Auto detect date time format, FH CAD Monitor detects the Windows system date and time format and uses it to create records .

      If you select Two digit year format, or Four digit year format, FH CAD Monitor creates records with the HH:MM:SS MM/DD/YY or HH:MM:SS MM/DD/YYYY formats.

    • For Amount of Time CAD Monitor poll time overlaps the previous poll time, specify the number of minutes before the poll interval that FH CAD Monitor should check for new records.

      The amount of time that elapses between each time FH CAD Monitor checks the CAD system for new records is the poll interval. A poll overlap is the amount of time before the end of the previous poll interval, during which FH CAD Monitor re-checks the CAD system for new data.

      Example: If you have a poll interval of six minutes, and a poll overlap of one minute, FH CAD Monitor "backtrack" one minute checks the CAD data for new records added one minute before the next poll.

      You can set the polling interval on the General tab, in the Check for CAD records to process every ___ min field.

    • Select or clear Process separate EMS files or link units to EMS incident if NFIRS and EMS incident number differs per file to indicate whether or not an EMS incident and unit should be processed when they are issued a different incident number.
    • Select the format you want FH CAD Monitor to use for incident numbers when creating records for the FIREHOUSE Software database.

    • Choose one of the following to calculate the last-cleared unit time.

      To do this Choose this
      Use the en route to destination times.
      • Select Calculation included unit’s cleared and unit’s enroute to destination times (FH7 default).
      Use the last-unit cleared time.

      • Select Calculation includes only unit's cleared times.

    1. Choose one of the following.

      To do this Choose this
      Pull personnel assignments to units from the CAD system.
      • Select From CAD Data.
      Pull personnel assignments to a unit from the FIREHOUSE Software Schedule module when creating new records.

      • Select Calculation included only unit’s cleared times.

        and

      • Choose any of the following.

        To do this Choose this
        Use the default schedule in FIREHOUSE Software to pull the current on-duty shift code from FIREHOUSE Software into new incidents.
        • Select Query Shift from Schedule Personnel.
        Pull personnel assignments to units from FIREHOUSE Software into new incidents.

        • Select Only Import Staff assigned to a Unit.

    1. Select or clear Delete or move unprocessed files to indicate whether or not unprocessed files should be removed or moved to a specification location.

      If you select this option, and if on the General tab you had selected Move to and specified a location for processed files, unprocessed files are moved to the same location as the processed files.

    2. (If you selected Delete or move unprocessed files) In Remove files from processing directory older than ___ days, specify the number of days that must elapse before an unprocessed file is removed or moved to another location.

  5. Click the System2 tab.

    Note: Depending on the CAD system, different sections and options appear on this tab.

  6. Do the following for the fields that appear.

    Note: The name of the section and the options that appear in it vary, depending on the CAD system you selected during installation. Do the steps below only for the options that appear in the section for you.

    • Select or clear CAD System supports resending unit to incident to indicate whether or not a unit can be sent to a same scene multiple times.

      FH CAD Monitor creates a second unit record for the same unit, in the same incident.

    • Select or clear Allow only incident file containing ‘inc_3’ to update narrative to indicate whether or not only the final closed-call files should update the incident narrative.

      If you select this option, only files that contain the file name inc_3 update the incident narrative.

    • Select or clear Log minimal events to indicate whether or not to write only error messages to the log file.

      This option is useful when you are importing a lot of incidents, and the size of the log file grows very quickly. By logging only the errors, the file size can be kept very small.

    • (Generic ASCII interface, if your CAD system does not provide an EMS record as part of the data file) Select or clear Force Creation of EMS Record to indicate whether or not FH CAD Monitor should create an incident report that contains a NEMSIS-coded reason for dispatch.

      Note: For this option to appear on the System2 tab, you need to perform the following steps.

      1. At the bottom of the FH CAD Monitor interface, click Options.

        The FIREHOUSE Software CAD Monitor Options dialog box appears, set to the General tab.

      2. On the Process tab (within the General tab), select EMS Incident Report.
      3. Click the Database tab.
      4. Specify values on the Database tab as appropriate for your implementation of FH CAD Monitor.

      5. Click the Filters & Data tab, and then click Field Mapping on the tab.

        The Field Mapping dialog box appears.

      6. For Show Field Mappings for Table, select EMS Incident Report.

        The fields listed in the dialog box update to list the Reason For Code (NEMSIS) row.

      7. In the Maps to CAD Data Element cell for the row, choose Specify literal value or expression.

        The Specify Literal Value or Expression dialog box appears.

      8. In the dialog box, type cad_incidents.INCI_FLD_30, and then click OK.

        The value you specified appears in the Maps to CAD Data Element cell.

        Caution: Your dispatch center must include data in this field that has a valid NEMSIS code/value for the field.

      9. Click OK.

      10. Click Save.

        The Force Creation of EMS Record now appears on the System2 tab.
    • Select either Force Upper Case of all Lookups (Legacy functionality) or Use CAD Capitalization for all Lookup Text to indicate whether or not FH CAD Monitor should automatically capitalize lookup codes during the import process.

    An ODBC lets you define information for connecting to databases in SQL Server, including the directory source name (DSN), directory, driver of the database, and the ID and password of the user. If you are using an ODBC driver, you would have configured it to worked with FH CAD Monitor during installation.

    • In Seconds, type the number of seconds the ODBC connection waits for a response from the database before generating a connection timeout error.

    • Select or clear Create default authorization records to indicate whether or not you can create incident authorizations.

      If you select Create default authorization records, and if the CAD data file does not supply an authorization type of MM or OC, two authorization records are created—one for an MM authorization record, and one for an OC authorization record. If the CAD data file does contain one of these authorization types, only one authorization record is created, using the type specified in the CAD data file.

      If you clear Create default authorization records, and if the CAD data file does not supply an authorization type of MM or OC, no authorization records are created. If the option is cleared and the CAD data file does contain one of these authorization types, the corresponding authorization record is created using the information in the CAD file.

      Note: This option does not appear on the System2 tab unless you are processing generic XML files.

    • Select or clear Reset incident complete flag to false, on reimported incidents which there were previously marked as complete to let FH CAD Monitor change the completion status of the incident in FIREHOUSE Software when it processes an incident update.

    Note: This option is no longer in use.

  7. Click Save.

    The FIREHOUSE Software CAD Monitor Options dialog box closes.

  8. (If you stopped the FH CAD Monitor service earlier) Restart the FH CAD Monitor service.

    Information on starting the FH CAD Monitor service is available in Start a service.