Softwire Door Simulation & Testing Tool
DoorSim is a Windows desktop training, testing, and demonstration tool for interacting with simulated Genetec Softwire access control doors.
It provides a visual way to work with simulated doors, cardholders, readers, REX inputs, breakglass/manual station inputs, interlocking scenarios, and automated busy-site event generation without requiring physical access control hardware.
Author: James Savage.
DoorSim is an independent training, testing, and demonstration tool designed to interact with simulated Genetec Softwire environments.
DoorSim is not an official Genetec Inc. product and is not endorsed, supported, maintained, or warranted by Genetec Inc.
This tool is intended for local training, lab testing, and demonstration use only. It should not be used with production systems or live customer environments.
DoorSim sends simulated access control actions to Softwire and can activate simulated inputs such as door sensors, REX inputs, breakglass/manual station inputs, and interlocking inputs. Use it only in environments where you understand the configuration and have permission to test.
DoorSim is released under a source-available, non-commercial licence.
You may view, download, and use, copy, and modify the software for personal, educational, internal training, lab testing, and demonstration purposes.
Commercial sale, resale, paid redistribution, sublicensing, hosted-service use, or monetisation of DoorSim or modified versions is not permitted without prior written permission.
See the LICENSE file for details.
DoorSim was created to support technical training, demos, testing, and troubleshooting in lab environments where access control behaviour needs to be demonstrated and tested clearly without relying on physical door hardware.
It connects to a local Genetec Softwire simulation environment and allows trainers or technical users to interact with simulated access control hardware through a visual interface.
DoorSim is intended for:
- Training sessions
- Lab testing
- Demo environments
- Access control behaviour demonstrations and testing
- Softwire simulation exercises
- Learning and troubleshooting scenarios
✅It should only be used in local, controlled training or lab environments where the user understands the configuration and has permission to perform simulated access control actions.
DoorSim includes two main operating modes:
- Manual Mode, for direct trainer-led interaction with one or two simulated doors.
- Auto Mode, for generating automated access control activity during demos, training, and busy-site simulation.
Manual Mode supports:
- Connecting to a local Softwire environment and loading doors with live polling
- Loading cardholders from the local Genetec™ Security Center Directory database
- Single Door View
- Two Door View with Interlocking override and lockdown controls
- Cardholder drag-and-drop onto readers
- Card, PIN, and Card + PIN testing
- Auto-enrol credential generation
- Reader feedback text and audio
- Door sensor open/close interaction
- Request to Exit (REX) press/release interaction
- Breakglass/manual station activation and reset
Auto Mode supports:
- Configurable event count and delay between events
- Event profiles with weighted Normal, Forced Door, and Held Open event generation
- Live event log and running summary counters
- Normal reader/cardholder events
- Normal Card + PIN events
- Normal REX events
- Door Forced Open and Door Held Open event generation
- Held-door reservation to prevent overlapping events on the same door
- Cleanup when Auto Mode is stopped
- Retry guard to prevent infinite loops when valid events cannot be generated
- Safe handling if Softwire becomes unavailable during simulation
DoorSim is designed for Windows lab environments using Genetec Security Center and Softwire.
Required:
- Windows 11 Pro/Enterprise or Windows Server 2016 or newer
- Genetec Security Center installed (version 5.13 and above)
- A Security Center licence that includes "Softwire on SV"
- Softwire (version 11.6 and above) downloaded and installed on the same server
- Genetec Security Center SQL database on the same server
- Softwire simulation enabled
- Local/training/demo environment
DoorSim is built with:
- C#
- WPF
- .NET 8
The release installer packages the required .NET runtime, so users do not need to install .NET manually.
A full user guide is provided with the application and can be opened from the Help menu inside DoorSim, this can also be accessed here in this project: DoorSim/Help/DoorSim_User_Guide
The bundled guide covers many topics, including:
- DoorSim Overview
- DoorSim Requirments
- Preparing Softwire for DoorSim
- Installing/Uninstalling DoorSim
- How to use DoorSim
- Known Limitations
-
Download and install Genetec Security Center (version 5.13 or newer) on a server/VM, ensuring that local SQL is used for the Directory database.
-
License Genetec Security Center, ensuring the licence supports Softwire.
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Complete the Softwire setup:
- Download and install Softwire (version 11.6 or newer), ensuring Softwire simulation is enabled after installation. Note: If you unsure how to do this, at this point install DoorSim which does it for you and then continue.
- Log into Softwire and change the default password.
- In the Softwire portal, go to Configuration > Hardware and add a simulated bus and interfaces with relays, inputs, and readers.
- Add Softwire to the local Access Manager.
- Create doors in Config Tool using the simulated interfaces.
-
Download and install, or launch DoorSim on the lab server.
-
Open DoorSim.
-
Click Connect.
-
Enter the Softwire host and password.
-
Select a door in Manual Mode, or switch to Mode > Auto Mode for automated simulation.
Help/
DoorSim_UserGuide.pdf
DoorSim_Project_Map.txt
Images/
Application and hardware UI images
Models/
Data models used by the application
Services/
Softwire, SQL, credential, and sound services
Sounds/
Reader and feedback audio files
ViewModels/
MVVM application logic
Views/
WPF windows and user controls
For a more detailed developer-focused file map, see Help/DoorSim_Project_Map.txt.
- DoorSim is designed for simulation and training environments only.
- DoorSim expects Softwire, Security Center, and the Security Center SQL database to be available on the same server.
- DoorSim is not designed for production access control systems.
- If Softwire is stopped or restarted during use, DoorSim will safely return to a reconnect state where possible.
- Some Softwire/Security Center states may persist after deleting and recreating doors. For example, REX or breakglass inputs may remain reported as shunted until maintenance mode is toggled in Security Desk.
- Auto Mode relies on the current door, cardholder, and Softwire configuration. If no suitable doors or cardholders exist, Auto Mode will retry and eventually stop using its retry guard.
Please report bugs, problems, or improvement ideas using GitHub Issues:
When reporting an issue, please include:
- DoorSim version
- Security Center / Softwire version if known
- What you were trying to do
- What happened
- What you expected to happen
- Screenshots or log output if available
- Whether the issue occurred in Manual Mode or Auto Mode
The source code is available here:
https://github.com/S8V8GE/DoorSim
DoorSim is currently intended for lab, training, and demonstration use. Feedback, bug reports, and improvement ideas are welcome through GitHub Issues.