Using Explorer

Explorer is the built-in discovery and diagnostic tool for inspecting what’s on your building network. Use it to find devices, browse points, and verify connectivity before configuring sources.

Opening Explorer

Open Explorer from the Explorer tab in your project’s top navigation bar. Explorer requires at least one online node with a configured source to return results.

Scanning for Sources

The first step is scanning the network. Click Scan to discover sources (devices) on the network. The scan returns a list of discovered sources with their address and high-level information like vendor and model.

Learning Points

Once you’ve found a source, click Learn to discover the points it exposes. This reads the full point list from the device — including names, types, and current values. Learning is done per source, so you can focus on the devices you care about.

Creating a Source Map From Explorer

After learning points, you can create a source map directly from the results — no need to re-enter point details manually. From there, bind the source map to one or more sources to start collecting data. See Creating Source Maps and Binding Sources for details.

Splitting Sources

Some devices present multiple logical sources grouped under a single parent — for example, a gateway that fronts several downstream controllers, or a supervisor that exposes many pieces of equipment through one endpoint. When Explorer detects this, you can split the discovered source into its component sources in one step.

With the parent source selected in the scan results, click Split. The Split Sources dialog lists each logical source Explorer found. Review the list, then check the sources you want to add. Use Select All or Select None to toggle the full list at once.

When you click Add, Novant creates one new source per checked row, each with a matching source map and the correct subset of points already attached. Every new source is bound to the same node as the original discovered source, so data collection can begin immediately.