Quick Guide

Here are some core concepts to get you started creating projects. This guide will cover the basics of the app and how to use it, please refer to the reference sections for more details.

We have also prepared a video guide that covers the same topics as this written guide. You can watch it below or on our YouTube channel.

Library

Everyone has access to the default library which includes a variety of gear. We currently have over 800 library items and we will continue to add more gear to the library over time. If there is something you would like added, please let us know!

In addition, every Pro user has their own user library where you can copy items from the default library, customize them, and save them for yourself. Library items are agnostic to projects, meaning you can use them across all your projects (Pro feature).

Each piece of gear in the library belongs to a brand, and each brand belongs to a manufacturer. In addition, each piece of gear has a type (lighting console, speaker, media server, etc.).

While all categories have access to the full range of ports, some categories have additional features such as switches (IP address), or a lighting fixture (DMX mode). These are features that will continue to be expanded upon.

From the Library Browser Pane, you can either click the Add button or drag and drop gear into your project to start using it.

Tip

If you need to get going quickly, search for ‘generic’ devices in the library. There are several generic devices and some include generic ports. These are great for quickly building a project without needing port validation, as generic ports can connect to anything else in the drawing, but you lose the benefits of real-time connection validation.

Gear

When you insert gear into the drawing, you can customize it to fit your needs. Different categories have different options, but all gear has Detail Mode and Reverse Port Placement.

By default, GearConnect will auto select Detail Mode if the gear item has more than four ports on it. The difference between detail and normal modes is that in Detail Mode, all the ports are on the left and right and the ports have labels. In Standard Mode, the ports are on the top and bottom without labels.

• Detail Mode: Great for switches or consoles that have a lot of different connectors.
• Standard Mode: Great for simple devices like lighting fixtures or speakers that only have a couple of ports.

When in Detail Mode, Default mode will spread the ports evenly left and right, based on port groupings (for example, all DMX out on one side, all DMX in on the other). But you can choose to place all the ports on either the Left or Right side.

Reverse Port Placement will simply flip the ports that would have been on the left to the right and vice versa. Available for Detail Mode using the Default port placement or Standard Mode.

Making Connections

To create a connection, simply click on a port and drag to another port. The app will then validate if the connection is a valid connection and reject it if not (with an explanation as to why). The end of the line will either be a circle for bidirectional connections or an arrow for unidirectional connections.

Ports are colour-coded based on their type. By default, the connection will be the same colour. You can change the colour of the connection to either be the layer colour or a custom colour by right-clicking or changing it on the Report Page. Colors of ports usually mean other ports of the same colour can be connected together.

Note

This may not always mean the connection can be made. Two HDMI ports will both be red, but if both are inputs signals, the connection will be rejected.

Each port has several different data points, some of which help determine compatible connections:

• Connected Gear: The gear item that is connected to this port via a connection.
• Label: The name of the port.
• Category: The category of the port (Network, Audio, Lighting, etc.). These are used mostly for labeling purposes and don’t affect connection validation.
• Connector: The physical connector on the device (RJ45, XLR5, BNC, etc.). These determine the colour that appears in the drawing for the port. This is used for validation.
• Fiber Type: When the Connector is set to fiber, then this is used to determine the type of fiber connection (OpticalCon Duo Single Mode, HMA-J 2-Channel Multi Mode, etc.). This is used for validation when the Connector is set to fiber.
• Direction: This refers to the physical direction of the port, determining how the cable is plugged in, based on pin orientation. For most ports, the direction is bidirectional since most ports, like RJ45 or BNC, have the same male or female port on the device. However, for ports like XLR, which can have different male and female pin directions for inputs and outputs, we use Direction to specify. (Input, Output, Bidirectional). This is used for validation.
• Signal Type: This is the type of signal that will be sent or received from this port (SDI, sACN, MIDI, etc.). This is used for validation.
• Signal Flow: This is the direction of the signal flow. (Input, Output, Bidirectional). This is the not the physical direction of the pins on the port, just the flow of data. For example, an SDI BNC port will physically both be the same port direction on the two connecting devices, but the signal flow usually only goes one way. This is used for validation.
• Speed: For some ports, a speed is also provided. For network ports, this may be 1Gbps, 10Gbps, etc. For SDI ports, this may be HD-SDI, 3G-SDI, etc. This is not used for validation.
• Sort Order: The sort within the port’s grouping. For example, all DMX Outs might be numbered from 1-8 while DMX Ins could be numbered from 1-4. Renumbering DMX In 1 to DMX In 5 would change DMX Ins to be 2-5, while maintaining 1-8 for DMX Outs.

These properties’ initial data come from the related properties from the library item the gear was generated from (where applicable). For this initial data these options are customizable in the Library Editor (Pro feature). Once inserted into the drawing you can also activate Full Edit Mode (Pro feature) to fully edit all port options as well.

My Gear

As you add gear to your project, it will show up in the My Gear pane. This is a list of all the gear you have added to the project and is a great way to see all the gear in one place.

The checkmarks on the gear indicate if the gear is in the drawing or not. When you select a piece of gear in the drawing, it will be selected in the My Gear pane and vice versa.

By default when you remove gear from the drawing it will simply be marked as not used in the drawing. You can also remove gear from the project entirely by selecting the gear you would like to delete and clicking the Delete button.

Deleting gear will remove all ports and connections, including any ports you have customized. This is a good way to reset the gear back to its default state based on its library item. Properties that will persist are gear-specific settings you configured, like label, IP address, and Detail Mode.

Editing Gear

You can access all port options for a given piece of gear by selecting it, and clicking on View all details in the Device Config pane, or by using the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+D (or Cmd+D on Mac). From here you can relabel ports, change their sort order, and even hide ports you aren’t using.

If a port has configurable options (like different signal types) then they will appear here as well for you to select. Otherwise, you can enable Full Edit Mode (Pro feature) from the toolbar which allows you to edit all the port options, even if they are not normally visible. From here, you can change any of the port options listed above, so you have full control over the gear in your project.

Tip

If you change the Connector of any port to Generic, then it will bypass all validation checks. This is useful for creating custom connections that are not part of the default library or if you just want to quickly connect two ports without validation.

All of these settings are available in the Report Page as well, in a ports report where you also have additional bulk editing capabilities.

Reports

The Report Page offers a way to not only generate custom reports for your project (Pro feature), but also allows you to create custom layouts and views for how to work with your project data (Pro feature). It supports all the expected features of a typical spreadsheet editor such as sorting, filtering, and toggling columns on and off.

All reports are dynamic and will update in real-time as you make changes. If you make changes in the report, they will be reflected back in the drawing as well.

There are three types of reports:

• Gear
• Ports
• Connections

Each report type has different columns and options available to them, along with auto grouping based on gear category or specific gear item. You can save custom reports from the Save Report As button in the toolbar to save any custom filtering, sorting, or column visibility you have set up (Pro feature).

All reports can be exported by printing to a PDF or by exporting to a CSV. Additionally, Pro users can export to Excel.

You can learn more about reports here.

Library Editor (Pro feature)

And finally, the Library Editor (accessible from the top right button or the View Menu) is where you can create your own custom library items.

You start by browsing and selecting a library item from the default library and copying it to your user library using the Copy to User Library button. From there, you can customize the gear, either by adding or removing ports, changing their types, signals, quantity and more.

By default, a label will be auto-generated for you based on the Connector, Direction, Signal Flow, and Quantity. These auto-generated labels can be viewed in the row itself but also in the live preview of the gear for the Detail Mode version. You can set a custom label if you want to specify it yourself (for example, you want to label it based on signal type instead of the connector).

The live preview will show you what the gear will look like in the drawing in both Detail Mode and Standard Mode. This will auto-update a couple of seconds after you stop making changes. You can disable this auto-updating by toggling the Disable Auto-Regenerate Preview button at the top right.

All gear in the library is versioned and independent of specific projects, allowing you to use any item across multiple projects. If you update an item in the library, projects using that item will continue to reference the previous version until you manually update the item within each project.

If you share your project with someone else, when they open the project, your custom library items will be loaded with the project, but they will not be able to edit them.