The choice of the access method and plasma crossectional shape for the Next European Torus are assessed from the point of view of the engineering design of the magnet configurations. The toroidal field coils in particular are critical components whose design is strongly influenced by the plasma shape and the resulting poloidal field coil configurations. The method of vertical stability control can also have a large impact, since it can restrict the choice of plasma shape and influence the design of both toroidal and poloidal field coils. These effects are quantified using some of the NET designs.