Building on the port updates from v1.20, we are pleased to announce several features and improvements in this release, with the highlight feature being grouped expansion ports!
Grouped expansion ports
A new option has been added to General Settings: Group Expansion Ports for your gear. When enabled on new gear items, all ports belonging to the same expansion card will automatically be grouped together, represented by a new rounded rectangle for each expansion card.
As with all our features, GearConnect aims to automate the process as much as possible. These groups will update dynamically without requiring manual adjustments. When you hide ports, the groups will adjust their height accordingly. They will also expand in width as port labels become longer and resize with your gear item within the drawing, eliminating the need for manual re-drawing and maintenance.
This works with the previous release’s Fixed Port Spacing feature as well! Either expansion card groups can stretch the height of the gear or be confined to the fixed port spacing. When used with the Fixed Port Spacing feature, they will receive additional spacing around the groups to help distinguish them easily.
To utilize this feature with existing projects, you will need to re-add the gear item to your drawing for it to update with the new expansion card data. Further details can be found in our documentation here.
Improved port expansion card support
Previously, ports on gear items recognized only that they were part of an expansion card but not the specific card. In this release however, all new gear added to the drawing now identifies both the originating expansion card and its index.
For instance, if you have four HDMI out expansion cards on a media server, the app will now recognize which port belongs to card 1, card 2, etc. This information is displayed in various areas, including:
- Gear Config: Tables now include an additional orange title displaying the name and index of the expansion card (when Grouped Expansion Ports is enabled)
- When Grouped Expansion Ports is disabled, these ports are sorted with regular, non-expansion ports
- Hover Cards: When hovering over a port in the drawing, the top right corner card will display the expansion card and index
- Port Reports: Will now display the manufacturer, brand, and model of the expansion card as new fields, including the index within the model field
Consistent sorting between drawing and Gear Config tables
The new port sorting algorithm used in the drawing is now applied to the order of port tables in Gear Config. This ensures consistency, making it easier to locate the desired port across the drawing and tables.
This new sorting method will be applied to your gear upon opening your project for the first time in v1.21 or later so you may notice some ports shift around to accommodate the new sorting.
Gear resizing improvements
We have implemented several updates to gear resizing to create a smoother experience. Using the currently visible ports, gear resizing minimum sizes are now more accurate. Additionally, port labels update their truncation in real-time during resizing, rather than after mouse release. And finally, resizing a gear item now brings it to the front for improved visibility.
Improvements
- Drawing exports are now 4x higher in image quality, allowing greater zoom without losing clarity
- Truncation of long port labels in the drawing is now more accurate and consistent
- Port group titles in Gear Config tables will no longer repeat if the connector is identical to the signal type (e.g., "HDMI HDMI In" will now be "HDMI In")
- Upgraded colour calculations for smoother gradients and better text readability against certain colours
- Various performance enhancements, particularly for gear updates and preventing redundant updates
- Improved memory usage for label length calculations
Bug Fixes
- Fixed a race condition when opening an old project; now the project fully opens before upgrades are applied
- Fixed an issue preventing projects from opening if port data was missing from the file
- Fixed occasional sorting and placement issues when updating port options