You can now change the visual appearance of any connection line on your drawing. Choose from seven styles: Solid, Short Dash, Medium Dash, Long Dash, Short Dotted, Medium Dotted, and Long Dotted. Whether you want to visually distinguish signal paths, indicate temporary connections, or simply match the conventions your team uses on paper, line styles give you full control over how your connections look.
The default setting is Auto, which works the same way as before - connections render as solid lines unless they require an adapter or have a signal warning, in which case they are automatically dashed. When you manually set a line style, your choice always takes precedence over the automatic dashing.
There are several ways to change line styles. Such as right-clicking any connection and selecting Edit Line Style, or using the Selection Toolbar when one or more connections are selected.
Improvements
Hover cards now reposition dynamically based on your mouse location. If your cursor is on the right side of the drawing, the hover card appears to the left, and vice versa. This prevents hover cards from overlapping your cursor position, making it difficult to see the drawing.
Swap gear modes, replace library items, and update expansion cards
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.
