Gear Config

The Gear Config Pane will display the selected gear’s port details and has a button to view all details at the top right.

Port Groups

GearConnect will automatically create port group labels based on all the port data, as defined in Gear Port Options. These port groups are then used to organize the ports in the Gear Config Pane and the full details table.

Ports are grouped by combining their properties:

• Category
• Connector
• Fiber type
• Direction
• Signal type
• Signal flow
• Speed
• Expansion port

These attributes are merged to create group names using this structure:

<Category> (<Connector><Signal Type><Direction>) – <Speed>

Any ports that do not have a value for a specific attribute will simply be omitted from the group name.

For example:

• Network (etherCON) – 1 Gbps
• Video (Mini BNC SDI Out)

If you change any of the port options using something like Full Edit Mode (Pro feature), then the ports will be re-generated based on their new configuration. Because of this, you will see ports move around and change groups.

Compact Mode

When the port groups are shown in the Gear Config Pane, they are in compact mode. This just shows:

• Sort Order
• Connected Gear

You can edit the sort order by clicking on the number. This will sort the port within the port group so that all ports of the same type are together in the drawing. This is also why you will see each port group usually defaults to starting from 1 each time.

View All Details

By clicking on the View All Details button at the top right of the pane, a dialog will open showing all of the port details for the selected gear item, with further information about each port.

Information shown by default:

• Sort Order
• Visibility
• Label
• IP Address (network ports only, applicable to all gear except for Switches)
• Subnet (network ports only, applicable to all gear except for Switches)
• Connected Gear

Sort order and connected gear are the same as in when the tables are in compact mode.

Visibility is a toggle to show or hide the port in the drawing. This is useful for when you are done adding connections to a gear item and no longer need to see the rest of the ports.

Tip

You can’t hide a port if it has a connection to another port on it. You can use this to your advantage by using the select all checkbox on the left, and clicking Hide selected ports in the toolbar. Only the ports that are not connected will be hidden. This is a great way to quickly clean up your drawing.

Toolbar

There is a toolbar at the top of the dialog with the following options:

• Show selected ports: Will show all the ports that are currently selected in the table.
• Hide selected ports: Will hide all the ports that are currently selected in the table.
• Full Edit Mode: Will enable Full Edit Mode (Pro feature) to allow full editing abilities of all port options.

Full Edit Mode (Pro feature)

You can toggle Full Edit Mode by clicking on the Full Edit Mode button in the toolbar. This will allow you to edit all the port options for the selected gear item. When this mode is disabled, you will only see options that have configuration options, as defined in the library item, using Multi-Mode. You can learn more about Multi-Mode at Library Port Options and you can learn more about the various port options at Gear Port Options.

If you edit any of the port options with an active connection, you will be prompted to remove the connection before you can save the changes. This is to ensure that you don’t accidentally change the port configuration to a connection that would not validate correctly.