2 Adding data
By default a mesh-grid is loaded to the software. This can be used, but you may also load your floor plan to easily draw your sources, walls and defined ares on top of this.
The floor plan should be either a jpg or png image. Often you have a pdf for you floorplan, then take a print screen of the area of interest. If you know that you will need to change this image
later (as the room design plan changes), you should try to make notes on how you zoomed your pdf to have a matching image size (in number of pixels) next time. Rescaling and adjusting is currently not an option
of Shield_NM_CT.
To tell the software the scale of the image you will need to draw a line on the floor plan and tell the actual length of that line in meters. Use the Scale tab. Mouse-click and drag to draw the line and press Return or the button 'Get scale coordinates...' to register the line as the scale line. Set the length. If the scale and length is not set, dose calculations can not be performed.
By default the occupancy factor is 1 for the floor plan. You may define (named) areas to reduce the occupancy factors in specific areas. Activate the Areas tab and define rectangles by mouse-click and drag. Press return or the button 'Get area as marked...' to add the marked coordinates to the selected row in the table. Press + or the button '+' to add a new area to the table. Adjust the occupancy factors according to the type of room/area. To edit the area you may pick the area from the floor map and drag the squared handles to adjust the area.
For the floor above and below the occupancy factor cannot be changed from 1.
Add walls with specific shielding materials and thickess to the floor plan by mouse-click and drag lines while in the Walls tab. Press return or the button 'Get wall coordinates...' to add the wall coordinates to the selected row of the walls table. By default Lead and Concrete are available materials. You may add more materials and shielding properties in the Settings manager 
.
If the Rectify option is checked the wall will be forced to be horizontal or vertical. To edit the wall you may pick the wall from the floor map and drag the squared handles to adjust the wall.
Add radioactive sources at specific positions. Mouse-click while in the NM sources tab and press return or the button 'Get source coordinates...' to add the source coordinates to the selected row of the source table. If 'in patient' is checked the gamma ray constant specified for patient will be used. Edit and add sources in Settings - isotopes. All sources will be treated as point sources, but you may distribute the activity over more than one point to simulate the length of the patient within a scanner or in bed. Specify an initial activity, the time till the source/patient reaches this position and how long the source/patiens stays here.
Add CT sources at specific positions. Mouse-click while in the CT sources tab and press return or the button 'Get source coordinates...' to add the source coordinates to the selected row of the source table. kV-source properties define the shielding properties (Settings-Shield data) and the Scatter factors define the scatter properties (Settings-CT scatter maps). The scatter factors are defined as uGy per a specific workload unit. The workload unit is specified in the scatter properties and will show in the table. To combine scatter properties for different type of procedures (e.g. body or head) you may place more than one CT source at the same position and specify workload.
For kV sources with isotropic scatter factors defined (could be e.g. CBCTs) specify uGy/procedure at 1m. Mouse-click and press return or the button 'Get source coordinates...' to add the source coordinates to the selected row of the source table.
Dose and maximum doserate can be viewed by pointing the mouse over the map, but some might want to list the dose and maximum doserate at given positions. By defining points in the Calculation points tab this is possible.
After adding data, these can be saved as a project as files in a project folder. The folder will contain the tables of areas, walls and sources as .csv files together with the floorplan image and general values (number of workdays to sum, floor heights and materials between floors) saved as a .yaml file.
Later these files can be loaded as a project by selecting the project folder.
If you have used the IDL version of this software and saved project as .dat file, this .dat file can be imported from the File menu.