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Getting Started with PulseCAD

This guide takes you from a fresh account to a working CAD: create or join a community, set up departments, invite your team, go on duty, and run your first call.

Create your account

Go to cad.mypulsetech.com and Register (or Login).

Method Description
Discord Fastest — also links your account for in-game features (Recommended)
Email / Password Traditional account creation

Verify your email

Email / password sign-ups get a Confirm your email link (valid 24 hours). Until you confirm, a banner on your hub prompts you with a Resend button. Discord sign-ups are verified automatically, since Discord already confirmed the address. A verified email matters beyond security: it is what lets PulseRoster auto-link you to a roster member by email.

Forgot your password?

The login page has a Lost password? link. Enter your email and you get a reset link (valid 60 minutes, single-use). Setting a new password signs you out of every other session. Discord-only accounts have no password to reset.

Create or join a community

After logging in you land on the Portal, where you can create a new community, join one you were invited to, or browse the public directory. Creating a community is optional — many people only ever join one.

Create a community

Field Description Example
Name Your community's display name San Andreas Roleplay
Slug URL-friendly identifier san-andreas-rp

You become the owner of any community you create.

Join a community

Enter an invite code or permission key from a community owner, or browse the public directory for open-join communities. A community's join policy can be public, code-required, or invite-only.

Multiple communities

You can belong to several communities at once. Switch between them from the Portal or the profile menu — your role and characters are separate in each.

The community Hub

Once you're in a community you land on its Hub — the launchpad for every terminal. From here you pick the surface you want (Dispatch, Law Enforcement, Fire & EMS, Tow, Civilian, Court, Records, or Admin) based on what your role allows. The Hub also holds your account menu, community switcher, and a light/dark theme toggle.

Set up your departments

A new community starts blank

Creating a community does not pre-create departments, capabilities, or a penal code. You build those yourself: Departments here, and the Penal Code under Admin (which supports CSV import). What is seeded for you so live dispatch works out of the box: a starter set of status codes and call types, plus one default server.

Open Admin → Departments and create your agencies. Each department has a type that unlocks the matching surface:

Type Surface it unlocks Examples
LEO Law Enforcement MDT LSPD, BCSO, SAHP
FIRE_EMS Fire & EMS SAFR, EMS
TOW_DOT Tow & DOT DOT / Tow
DISPATCH Dispatch console Dispatch
COURT Court / DOJ DOJ

For each department set an abbreviation, color, and ranks. See Community Administration for penal codes, call types, status codes, and more.

Invite your team

In Admin → Members, click + Invite Member to generate a no-role shareable join link (/join/{code}). Anyone who opens it joins your community as a read-only civilian; the link grants no department access on its own.

Roles and capabilities come from Permission Keys (Admin → Community → Permissions). A member redeems a key to receive the department roles it carries. Keys grant department roles only, never admin or owner access. Admin and owner are assigned by hand on the Members table.

Which terminals a member can actually open is controlled by their per-member Terminal Access grants plus their Department Roles, not purely by their community role. See Permission Keys for the full model.

Choose a terminal and go on duty

From the Hub, pick your surface (e.g. Law Enforcement) and Go On Duty:

  1. Pick your server (if your community runs more than one)
  2. Choose your department
  3. Enter your callsign (e.g. 5323) and optional badge / phone
  4. Select your capabilities (K9, SWAT, FTO, …)
  5. Go On Duty — you now appear on the dispatch board and map

Unit designations

Many communities number units by department series — e.g. 5400 LSPD, 1200 BCSO, 2500 PBPD, 3200 SSPD, 400 SAHP. Configure callsign presets per department in Admin.

Your first call

A quick end-to-end flow so everyone knows the loop:

  1. Dispatch creates a call (or a 911 comes in from a civilian / in-game): set the call type, priority, and location.
  2. Dispatch attaches units to the call. Attached units get a tone and the call appears in their queue.
  3. An officer marks Enroute (10-76), then On Scene (10-97). Statuses update live for everyone.
  4. The officer works the call — running plates and people, filing a citation or arrest from Records, adding comments.
  5. When finished, the call is cleared with a disposition (Arrest, Citation, Warning, Gone on Arrival) and units go back to Available.

Keyboard shortcuts

On the MDT: F1 map, F5 plate lookup, F8 display current call, F10 traffic stop, F12 clear with disposition, ESC close modal. (Panic is triggered in-game, not from the terminal.)

Where admins configure things

Everything below lives in the Admin Console:

  • Departments & ranks, status codes, call types, dispositions
  • Penal code (import from CSV) and DL / license classes
  • Members & roles, permission keys, and per-member terminal access — under Community → Permissions
  • Join policy (public / code-required / invite-only) — under Community → Settings
  • Community branding — logo, state seal, ID-card designer, website link
  • Design & Theme — each terminal can be themed independently (Admin → Design & Theme)
  • Integrations — FiveM, Discord, roster sync, data sharing
  • Court / DOJ settings and modules (on Professional plans and up)

In Admin → FiveM, click Download to get a resource that's already configured for your community (no API key to paste). It brings live unit tracking, plate readers, in-game ID cards, and more. Full walkthrough: FiveM Integration.

Next steps