Accessible from the right click menu and General Settings, you can now toggle gear between Detail Mode and Standard Mode without removing and re-adding it. Detail Mode displays ports along the left and right sides, which is great for switches or consoles with many different connectors. Standard Mode places ports along the top and bottom, better suited for simple devices like speakers or lighting fixtures.
This feature requires Local Mode to be enabled.
Replace Library Items
You can now swap out a piece of gear in your drawing for a different library item without having to remove and re-add it manually. Right-click any gear on the drawing and select Change Library Item to open the Library Browser, pick a replacement, and GearConnect will handle the rest. This feature requires Local Mode to be enabled.
Change Expansion Cards
Along with replacing library items, you can now change the expansion card configuration of gear directly in the drawing. Right-click any gear that supports expansion cards and select Change Expansion Cards. The expansion card picker opens pre-populated with the current configuration, make your changes, and the gear is rebuilt with the updated cards.
This feature also requires Local Mode.
Real Time Connection Re-Mapping
When you use one of these features, GearConnect automatically remaps your existing connections to matching ports on the updated gear by trying to find the best match between the old and new ports. A notification summarizes how many connections were remapped, and any connections that couldn't find a match are removed.
Using GearConnect's real time port validation, it will attempt to match ports maintaining the old ports as close as possible; across expansion cards, connectors, signal types, and more. If it can't find a clean match, it will attempt to find a compatible port you can use with an adapter. And of course, if the result is not what you expected, you can always undo the replacement or move connections as needed.
Note that customizations to the ports themselves will be reset when using these features as it uses the library item to determine the updated port configuration.
Default Library Updates
Thank you to everyone who has submitted library items!
Allen & Heath
CC-10
GPIO
Behringer
MX882
ChamSys
Compact Connect
Compact Mini Connect
Compact Wing
DIN
MQ50
MQ70
Rack
Chauvet DJ
SlimPAR Pro Q USB
Chauvet Pro
Net X-II
D&B Audiotechnik
DS10
GearConnect Generic Items
Audio Combiner Active/Passive
Audio Splitter
Audio Switcher 40K
Glensound
AoIP22
Key Digital
KD-CX800
Penn Elcom
1U Rack Panels 16 x BNC
Shure
SLXD24D-G58
Improvements
Tightened up spacing in menu items, for a more compact design.
Added a Gear submenu to the Edit menu with Swap Detail/Standard Mode, Change Library Item, and Change Expansion Cards actions.
Project validation improvements:
It now runs automatically after every save.
Validation can attempt to repair items rather than just removing them by replacing gear with fresh library items and remapping their connections. In cases where the original gear cannot be resolved, a generic item with a matching port count may be used as a fallback.
You can no longer cancel validation.
Significant improvements to the validation pipeline, catching and handling dozens of additional cases for further reliability.
Local Mode syncing improvements:
Reduced network traffic during Local Mode syncing for better performance and faster syncing.
Gear Groups are now more reliably tracked during syncing.
Connections and ports now wait to clean up old items until all connections and ports have been updated on the server to prevent the sync from getting stuck in rare edges cases where it tries to update a previously deleted item.
You can now bulk edit cable inventory SKUs, with automatic suffixing for duplicates.
Duplicate VLAN Ids and duplicate cable inventory SKUs are now automatically relabeled to avoid conflicts.
Improved resilience when upgrading older project data and importing projects.
Importing projects now continue by default instead of aborting, as any import errors are now handled via the improved project validation.
As such, the checkbox has been renamed to "Abort import on errors" and is off by default
Importing a new project or copying an existing project now has a preprocessing step, to preemptively prevent any possible import conflicts.
Bug Fixes
Fixed being able to connect a connection to the gap between expansion card ports.
Fixed a crash that could occur when gear was being resized and port data could not be loaded.
Fixed connections sometimes getting stuck in the wrong gear group.
Fixed duplicate VLAN IDs sometimes not updating correctly.
Fixed the Undo Stack not working after importing a file.
Fixed an issue where syncing could fail if a switch port was missing a VLAN, such as when opening an older file where the VLAN had since been removed.
Fixed importing files offline and then syncing to the server causing sync to fail in some situations.
Fixed ports no longer being created if the gear itself failed to be added to the drawing.
Fixed archived expansion cards showing up in the dropdown when selecting cards.
All features from the recent Beta release are now available to everyone! This release focuses on giving you more control over how ports are displayed and managed on your gear, along with quality of life improvements across the app.
This beta release brings significant updates to ports across the app, with numerous improvements to make working with ports easier and faster!
Port Sorting and Reordering
You now have full control over how ports are arranged on your gear. Ports are automatically organized into groups based on their shared properties (category, connector, signal, etc.), and sorted using a default algorithm that puts bidirectional ports first, then inputs, then outputs, grouped by connector and category.
While the defaults work for most gear, several of you have expressed wanting full control over port layout, and now you can customize it in several ways! You can now move port groups to specific sides of the gear, split them evenly across both sides, or leave them on auto. You can reorder port groups and set their position from the Port Table dialog, the Port Report, or directly on the drawing. For full details, see the Port Sorting & Reordering section in our docs.Side overrides and custom ordering can also be set on library items in the Library Item Port Config, so your preferred layout is applied every time you add that gear to a project. To reset customizations, use the Reset Side Overrides or Reset Port Group Ordering buttons in the Port Table toolbar.
Redesigned Port Table Dialog
The Port Table has been redesigned to make working with ports faster and more intuitive. You can now search across all ports, filter by category, or show only connected ports to quickly find what you're looking for. Port group headers now use connector colours so you can instantly identify groups at a glance too.
A live gear preview is now built into the dialog, updating in real-time as you make changes, including showing which ports are connected or not. For Detail Mode gear, the preview appears as a panel on the left side. For Standard Mode gear, it appears as a strip across the top. As you toggle port visibility, reorder groups, or change side overrides, the preview reflects your changes immediately so you no longer need to jump back and forth between the dialog and the drawing.
Bulk Editing in Port Tables and Managers
Bulk editing is now available in the Port Table and all managers for even faster editing! Select rows using the checkbox column, and editing a field on one selected row applies the change to all selected rows. Most fields are bulk editable, and any that aren't applicable to a selected row will be skipped with a notification letting you know how many were skipped (for example trying set the same SKU to several cables at once, as SKUs are unique per cable).
Redesigned Hover Cards
The hover cards that appear when you hover over a port or connection have been completely redesigned with a new organized layout to make it much easier to read, while providing even more information. Each card features a coloured strip at the top matching the port's connector colour, and the connected section heading turns green when the port has an active connection, making it trivial to quickly check connection status.
Information is now organized into clearly labeled sections. For ports: General, Placement, Signal, Expansion Card, and Connected. For connections: General, Gear, Signal, and Cable.
New fields include:
Ports: Block, group order, side override, connected gear and port labels
Connections: Connector details, adapter info, signal warnings, and full cable details
Fields with no value appear greyed out so you can quickly focus on the information that matters.
Improvements
The Port Table dialog now opens at near full-screen size, giving you much more room to work with port tables and the new gear preview panel.
The toolbar at the top of the Port Table dialog now includes:
Search
Category filter
Connected Only filter
Side override controls to quickly move all ports left, right, top, bottom, or split
Reset buttons
Help button explaining port sorting and layout behaviour
The toggle all visibility buttons have been removed from the Port Table toolbar. You can now toggle visibility directly from the port table rows using the checkbox selection and bulk editing instead, which gives you further control over which ports to toggle visibility for.
Each port group header in the Port Table now includes a drag handle for reordering, a cycling button for change gear sides, and an ordering badge showing the current custom group order value.
Moved the View All Details button to the bottom of Gear Config so it is now always visible instead of hiding when you scroll down.
Improved performance when resizing gear, especially on gear with many ports.
Ports in the Library Editor are now sorted by the order ports appear in the preview and drawing.
Note this means that ports may re-order themselves if you change port options and you don't have a custom sort order set.
Renamed "ordering" to "start" in the Library Editor for clarity.
Search boxes are now more forgiving with special characters, such as in the Library Browser search.
New keyboard shortcut (Ctrl+Alt+S) for syncing Local Mode.
Removed the fiber note in the Cable Inventory Manager help menu.
Changelogs now support images (like this one!).
Bug Fixes
Fixed ports not returning to their correct side when changing between inputs and outputs.
Fixed expansion card ports not ordering consistently within the drawing.
Fixed auto port re-labeling sometimes relabeling the wrong number for ports with names like "Port 1 Number 1".
Fixed ghost labels appearing around expansion cards in the drawing. Any existing gear that still has ghost labels will be fixed next time you make an edit to the gear's ports.
Fixed labels not truncating correctly when port option changes would cause gear to shrink or resize.
Fixed sorting not consistently being applied to the gear preview in the Library Editor after adding ports.
Fixed animation bugs in the Port Table dialog.
Fixed a rare edge case preventing port tables from auto-sorting by port number when ports first appear in the Port Table dialog.
Fixed the updating notification flashing too many times during rapid changes.
Fixed bulk changes not always applying when quickly switching between Draw and Report mode.
Fixed a rare edge case where Report Mode cells could get stuck being uneditable until the report was reloaded.
Fixed undo stack item labels not displaying correctly for port operations.
Fixed undo and redo not re-assigning marker connectors (input/outputs) correctly in all cases.
Fixed hover cards flashing in and out when hovering over a port or connection positioned under the card.
Fixed connections using stale routing when first opening a project, leading to connections occasionally taking different paths upon re-opening the project.
Fixed connection labels re-loading off centre (when this happens due to the system fonts still loading, the app will re-centre them on next save).
Fixed referring to connections as "links" in Pro messaging in the bulk connection warning.
You can now see the direction of signal flow on your connections as an animated overlay! When enabled, small animated dashes travel along directional connections showing you exactly which way the signal is moving, matching the direction indicated by the connection markers (arrows and circles).
The animation only appears on directional connections where one end resolves to an input and the other to an output. Connections where both ends are bidirectional do not display the animation. You can enable this from Project Settings in the Drawing section, where you will find three quality modes: Off, Low, and High.
Low mode shows the animated dashes without a glow effect and is better for performance, while High mode adds a glow effect that looks great but may be more demanding on larger drawings. The animation also respects your system's Reduce Motion accessibility setting and automatically pauses during item selection to keep interactions snappy.
Port Blocks
Ports now support an optional Block identifier, giving you a way to group ports into distinct blocks on the same piece of gear. Each block can hold up to four alphanumeric characters, and ports with the same block value are sorted together in both the drawing and the Gear Config table.
This is especially useful for gear with repeating groups of identical port configurations. For example, a video switcher with three separate groups of HDMI outputs could use Block 1, 2, and 3 to keep each group visually organized, and get around the dreaded duplicate port warning in the Library Editor. You can set the Block field on ports in the Library Editor and in the Gear Config pane.
New Port Options
New Connectors
Phoenix 16-Pin
New Signal Types
DCP
Default Library Updates
Thank you to everyone who has submitted gear to the Default Library!
Blackmagic Design
40x40 12G
LYNX-Technik
SPG 1708
Netgear
GS108LP
GS316
StarTech
DKT30CHSDPD1
Yamaha
DME7
TF-RACK
Improvements
Gear in Detail Mode now automatically adjusts its width based on port label sizes, preventing labels from being truncated. This means you no longer need to manually widen gear to see long port names.
Made the port category selectors wider when in Multi Mode to prevent truncation.
Bug Fixes
Fixed invalid IP address fields accepting values with leading zeros (such as 192.168.001.010), which could cause issues during Local Mode sync. Leading zeros are now automatically stripped.
Fixed incompatible ports not graying out when moving existing connections, which previously made it harder to see which ports were valid targets.
Fixed duplicating gear with expansion cards grouped and fixed port spacing enabled not correctly clearing active port status after duplicating the gear in the drawing, until the next save.
Fixed Local Mode auto-sync endlessly re-syncing in certain conditions.
Fixed performance issues when resizing large gear with many ports, such as the Quantum 7.
Change Your Connector Colours in the Port Manager!
You can now customize the colours used for different connectors in your drawings! The new Port Manager, accessible from the Manager Menu at the top right of the app, lets you override the default colour for any connector with a custom colour that better suits your workflow or project requirements.
With nearly 150 connectors available, the Port Manager includes search and category filtering to quickly find what you need. Colours update across your drawing immediately, and you can copy and paste colours between connectors, filter to show only customized connectors, or reset everything back to defaults.
Improved Colour Picker
The colour picker has received several updates to make it more useful too! It now has three modes: Spectrum for picking any colour from a gradient, Tune for fine-tuning via RGB sliders, and Palette for quickly selecting from a curated set of common colours. You can also double-click a colour to apply it immediately.
New Port Options
FireWire connectors have been split into specific variants to better represent real-world cabling. The single "FireWire" connector has been replaced with FireWire 400 4-Pin, FireWire 400 6-Pin, and FireWire 800.
New FireWire 400 and FireWire 800 signal types have also been added, and the app will automatically assign the correct signal type based on the connector you select in the Library Editor. All FireWire connectors are adapter compatible with each other, so you can still draw connections between different FireWire types.
Any existing drawings using the old FireWire connector will be updated to be FireWire 400 6-Pin.
New Connectors
RJ10
FireWire 400 4-Pin
FireWire 400 6-Pin
FireWire 800
New Signal Types
SPI
USB4
FireWire 400
FireWire 800
New Connector Category
FireWire
Default Library Updates
Thank you to everyone who has submitted gear to the Default Library!
Akai Professional
APC Mini mk2
Apple
AirPort Extreme (6th Gen)
Behringer
SD8
SD16
X32 COMPACT
X32 RACK
Chauvet DJ
Intimidator Spot 360
Intimidator Spot 360X
D-Link
DGS-108
Elation Lighting
ZW19
ENTTEC
DIN PIXIE
Extron
XTP II CrossPoint 3200
Obsidian Control Systems
NX K
RF Venue
CP Beam
Rosendahl
nanosyncs HD
Sennheiser
A 5000-CP
EM 100 G4
Shure
BLX4
Sony
ILME-FR7
PXW-FX9
Soundtrack
Soundtrack Player 3.0
Starlink
Performance (Gen 1)
Theatrixx
HDMI to Fiber
Ubiquiti
AC HD
CloudKey+
Dream Machine Special Edition
G4 Instant
G5 Bullet
Lite 8 PoE
U6 Lite
U7 Outdoor
UDB Pro
USW Ultra 60W
Ultratec Special Effects
Radiance Hazer
ViewSonic
TD2211
Improvements
Video switchers now support IP addresses, just like switches, computers, and other networking gear.
The Port Report now includes a Connection Label column, giving you a way to see the label assigned to each connection without having to check a Connection Report.
Connections are no longer removed when changing port options if the new settings are still compatible, making it much easier to update ports without otherwise compatible connections being lost.
Bulk port option changes no longer flood the screen with repeated compatibility warnings, and you can approve them all with a new do not ask again checkbox.
Port sorting on gear no longer uses connector colour as a factor in the sort order. This gives more consistent and predictable ordering, especially now that connector colours can be customized through the Port Manager.
Shift-click range selection now works in manager tables, including the Port Manager, Cable Inventory Manager, and VLAN Manager. Hold Shift and click the row checkbox to select a range.
Gear with default Expansion Cards now automatically enables Group Expansion Ports. Most users already use this mode, and now it's on by default for ease of access.
Detail Mode now accounts for Expansion Card and default card ports when calculating the total port count, so it correctly kicks in for gear that act like frames - having no ports of their own as they only house Expansion Cards.
The Library Editor now shows a message when a gear item includes default Expansion Cards, to avoid confusion why ports appear in the preview that are not defined in the Library Item Port Config.
Sizing has been tightened up around several inputs, and spacing has been made more consistent across various tables and input boxes throughout the app.
Expansion Card cards in the selected section has been updated to better fit all content for each Expansion Card.
Bug Fixes
Fixed the drawing not unlocking itself when returning from the Library Editor.
Fixed gear border colours not updating when changing its layer and the layer was a different colour.
Fixed Expansion Card dropdown extending beyond the window for gear items with long lists of compatible cards, such as on PIXERA servers.
Fixed multi-selection selecting items on hidden layers.
Various stability and reliability improvements across the app.
