PatchCAD https://www.patchcad.com/ Patchbay Design and Labelling Software Wed, 08 Apr 2020 16:35:08 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 https://www.patchcad.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/cropped-PatchCAD-Icon-1-32x32.png PatchCAD https://www.patchcad.com/ 32 32 118016526 New Export Wiring Schedule Feature https://www.patchcad.com/new-export-wiring-schedule-feature/ https://www.patchcad.com/new-export-wiring-schedule-feature/#respond Wed, 08 Apr 2020 16:34:27 +0000 https://www.patchcad.com/?p=19176 PatchCAD v2.3 was just released and it includes a major new feature for PRO users – Export Wiring Schedule to Excel. The new export window allows generating a full wiring schedule list from the patchbays and terminations panels in the project including all the relevant details automatically thus saving a great deal of time and […]

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]]> PatchCAD v2.3 was just released and it includes a major new feature for PRO users – Export Wiring Schedule to Excel.

The new export window allows generating a full wiring schedule list from the patchbays and terminations panels in the project including all the relevant details automatically thus saving a great deal of time and preventing mistakes in what usually is a cumbersome and a error prone job.

With any project open, pressing the Export Wiring Schedule to Excel button in the toolbar or pressing F7 on the keyboard will bring up the export window which features four tabs of options in its upper half and a preview in the lower half. The options in the four tabs allow you to customise the wiring schedule to your liking but even without changing any setting, the default exported file will include all the relevant information require.

General Tab

The General tab includes global settings like the layout, title and selection of the patchbays to export.

Two layout options are available – listing all the patchbays on a single long list in a single Excel worksheet, or list each patchbay in a separate Excel worksheet.

The Heading section includes the title and the project information. By default, these are pre-filled with the project’s properties but can be changed to anything else required. A tick box next to each element of the heading section controls whether to include that element in the export.

Any patchbay in the project can be included or excluded from the report by ticking/unticking the relevant line in the list of patchbays.

Details Tab

PatchCADv2.3 - Export Wiring Schedule - Details

The Details tab focuses on the information to include about each patchbay – anything from the patchbay order number in the project to its rack position, make and model, through to normalling and even the notes associated with that socket.

The information is separated into logical groups in the wiring schedule for easy reading.

Each detail can be included or excluded from the wiring schedule as required.

Extra Labels Tab

PatchCAD v2.3 - Export Wiring Schedule - Extra Labels

The Extra Labels tab includes additional columns which don’t have data for in PatchCAD but are usually used in a Wiring Schedule. Things like details about the cabling used, connector information, etc. PatchCAD will create the relevant categories/groups and columns for this information in order to save time when working with the exported file later.

Although PatchCAD includes a predefined list of these labels, new groups and labels can be added at will by typing the new label name in the Add Item box and clicking on Add Group or Add Column to add a category and a column name respectfully.

The labels can be reordered by dragging the items in the list around.

Style Tab

The Style tab allows for the customisation of the look of the Excel file. Here you can change the font, its size and alignment of different elements of the Wiring Schedule (i.e. Title, column names, etc…) as well as choosing the border style for the header and columns.

To update to the new version of PatchCAD, simply launch your copy of PatchCAD and you will be prompted to download the new version. You can also do so from the Downloads section in My Account.

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]]> https://www.patchcad.com/new-export-wiring-schedule-feature/feed/ 0 19176 PatchCAD v2 – PatchCAD and PatchCAD Pro Out Now! https://www.patchcad.com/patchcad-v2-out-now-patchcad-pro/ https://www.patchcad.com/patchcad-v2-out-now-patchcad-pro/#respond Sat, 01 Sep 2018 19:01:24 +0000 https://www.patchcad.com/?p=1869 The post PatchCAD v2 – PatchCAD and PatchCAD Pro Out Now! appeared first on PatchCAD.

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In a continuing effort to improve and deliver a more powerful tool and a more efficient and streamline user experience, we are proud to announce the immediate release of the next major version of PatchCAD which is now available as two versions – PatchCAD and PatchCAD Pro!

Launched just over 18 months ago, PatchCAD has become the industry’s leading tool for designing and labelling patchbays, termination and patch panels. Although still a young product, PatchCAD has already been adopted by private individuals, artists, producers, studio owners and the biggest professional organisations around the world. PatchCAD is used by the most established household names in the recording studio, installation, broadcast, communications and media sectors.

Featuring an intuitive user interface, PatchCAD enables powerful fast design and labelling of patchbays. No measuring required due to  the included and constantly updating 1,800+ strong collection of templates for industry standard audio and video patchbays, termination panels, Ethernet and fibre optic patchbays. The smart algorithm allows printing on any connected printer and and kind of paper size hassle free.

Always evolving, PatchCAD users receive regular free updates. At the heart of PatchCAD and PatchCAD Pro is a collection of templates like no other. From the very beginning, we have been growing this massive database of templates which are available for free to all users. From the simplest panel to complicated patchbays, from the common to the very rare, this is the most comprehensive body of work of this kind assembled. Furthermore, and perhaps most importantly, from the very beginning, we have been speaking to users, collating ideas, and constantly improving features and workflow.

Why two versions?

Having worked closely with our users, we are aware that not everybody requires all the powerful editing features that PatchCAD has to offer. Furthermore, it would not be fair to ask you to pay for parts of the software you don’t necessarily use. The new functionality took time to develop. However, rather than make everybody pay more for a richer version, the functionality of PatchCAD has been logically divided. A Standard version which includes the features that a semi-professional user would require for occasional labelling of their patchbay or termination panel; and a Pro version with addition tools that a professional would need to do their day-to-day work more efficiently.

PatchCAD Pro empowers professional users with tools that improve workflow beyond the labelling of a designation strip. With new collaborative features like annotations and note making, sockets configuration; additional styling options, images and more, your work will never be the same.

Existing users of the standard version will enjoy the new improvements of the standard PatchCAD for free. And should their work require it, users can also upgrade to the Pro version at any time via the Manage Activation section of My Account.

Key PatchCAD features include:

  • Powerful editing tools.
  • Accurate real-time patchbay preview.
  • Precision printing of any printer or paper.
  • Create custom templates.
  • Export as image, to Excel or as PDF.
  • Perpetual free updates of templates.
  • Perpetual software updates.
  • Comprehensive templates list.
  • 3 Concurrent activations.
  • PRO Sockets configuration, design and previews for termination panels.
  • PRO Add notes above and below the patchbay.
  • PRO Change border style and thickness.
  • PRO Add images to patchbay cells.

For more information please go to www.patchcad.com

Buy PatchCAD

£15

Upgrade to Pro

£50

Buy PatchCAD Pro

£65

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]]> https://www.patchcad.com/patchcad-v2-out-now-patchcad-pro/feed/ 0 1869 PatchCAD v1.5.9 – Support for Label Printers and More https://www.patchcad.com/v1-5-9-label-printers-support/ https://www.patchcad.com/v1-5-9-label-printers-support/#comments Tue, 17 Oct 2017 19:52:16 +0000 http://www.patchcad.com/?p=1195 The post PatchCAD v1.5.9 – Support for Label Printers and More appeared first on PatchCAD.

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We are delighted to announce the release of v1.5.9 of PatchCAD which introduces an improved Print window with support for label printers with the brand new Single Row printing mode. Additional features include an improved sorting of the Templates Manager list and a new socket numbering mode.

Label Printers

The big addition is the support for label printers which usually print out onto a single long line of adhesive paper that can be used with patchbays without a label holder. The improved Print window features more logically organised tool with the Mode section controlling the main behaviour of the printout. Like before, a Single Patchbay mode will print the current patchbay the use was focused on when the Print window was launched; All Patchbays will print all the patchbays in the project one after another in the same order as they are arranged in the editor; and the new Single Row mode will print only one single row at a time of the patchbay the user was focused on like so:

PatchCAD v1.5.9 - Print Window - Single Row

The example above shows a Brother label printer with a 9mm tall tape printing the top row of a Signex CPT96D25 patchbay. Please note that settings between printers vary greatly. Many require you to set beforehand the length (width) of the label you would like to print so that the driver can report to the software (any software for that matter) what is the size of the “page” it can print on. In the example above, the printer’s preferences were set to 450mm length which is just over a common full width of a typical 1U designation strip. In the example above, the second page of the preview will print the second (bottom) label strip of the Signex patchbay.

Socket Numbering

The Settings window now includes a new option for two different way to number the sockets in the preview and printouts – Per Row and Per Patchbay.

PatchCAD - Settings Window - Sockets Numbering

When numbered Per Row (the default option), each row’s sockets will begin from 1 and count incrementally until the end of the row like so:

PatchCAD - Number Per Row

In Per Patchbay mode, the sockets will be numbered from the first top left socket as number 1 incrementally until the bottom right socket. The counter will not reset every row. For example, this is a 96-way Signex CPT96D25 patchbay with two rows of 48 sockets:

PatchCAD - Number Per Patchbay

As always, this update is FREE to all customers. Simply launch PatchCAD and you will be prompted to download the new version, or log in to you account and follow the download link.

Also, check out the label printing solutions from Brother, Epson and of course Dymo.

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]]> https://www.patchcad.com/v1-5-9-label-printers-support/feed/ 1 1195 Templates for BES Patchbays Added to PatchCAD https://www.patchcad.com/bes-patchbays/ https://www.patchcad.com/bes-patchbays/#respond Mon, 02 Oct 2017 11:53:55 +0000 http://www.patchcad.com/?p=1148 The post Templates for BES Patchbays Added to PatchCAD appeared first on PatchCAD.

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Manufacturing broadcast patchbays since 1982, BES is a well known British brand. Their patchbays and mains distribution units are widely used in both broadcast and audio industries all over Europe.

As part of a continuing effort to add more and more templates to the PatchCAD database, we are pleased to add BES patchbays to the already comprehensive list of templates that comes included with PatchCAD.

As always, the update is FREE to all customers. Simply launch PatchCAD and you will be prompted that an update is available. PatchCAD will download it for you and the new additions will appear in the Templates Manager list. The list of models includes:

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For more information, please check out their website

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]]> https://www.patchcad.com/bes-patchbays/feed/ 0 1148 PatchCAD Mentioned by Sonic State on Website and Podcast https://www.patchcad.com/patchcad-mentioned-sonic-state/ https://www.patchcad.com/patchcad-mentioned-sonic-state/#respond Sun, 10 Sep 2017 13:28:50 +0000 http://www.patchcad.com/?p=1104 The post PatchCAD Mentioned by Sonic State on Website and Podcast appeared first on PatchCAD.

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Many thanks to Nick Batt and the team at Sonic State for the kind feature of PatchCAD on the news feed but also the wonderful mention on the Sonic TALK podcast!

“We’ve all been there, trying to create neat labels for a patchbay, you can never quite get the spacing right, cutting the label to the right size is fiddly. All a bit of a faff.”

We couldn’t agree more! This is exactly why PatchCAD was created. Whether you have a small setup or it’s the heart of your daily work, PatchCAD is designed to help and make the process of designing and labelling a patchbay is simple as possible with efficient workflow and no nonsense user interface.

“PatchCAD solves that problem, with a template driven approach, its a bit like using a simple spreadsheet, with font size, style and colour options you can create your own custom patchbay labels. With loads of templates covering TT (bantam type), XLR, Jacks, BNC spacings and more, you should be able to find the template to suit your needs, or create your own.”

For over two decades, the Sonic State network of websites has been delivering news, reviews and priceless content about synthesisers, electronic music and the studio world in general – by musicians, for musicians. We are proud to be mentioned by this fantastic group of people.

Read the review here

Watch the podcast

Click here for more reviews of PatchCAD

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]]> https://www.patchcad.com/patchcad-mentioned-sonic-state/feed/ 0 1104 Music Production Blog – Bobby Owsinski Features PatchCAD https://www.patchcad.com/music-production-blog-bobby-owsinski/ https://www.patchcad.com/music-production-blog-bobby-owsinski/#respond Tue, 23 May 2017 19:20:53 +0000 http://www.patchcad.com/?p=843 The post Music Production Blog – Bobby Owsinski Features PatchCAD appeared first on PatchCAD.

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Following the generous review from Pro Tools Expert’s James Ivy last week, comes a very kind mention of PatchCAD on Bobby Owsinski’s Music Production Blog as part of his New Music Gear Monday corner! It is a great honour indeed! Bobby is a music industry multidisciplinary giant to say the least with major production and engineering credits under his belt. Respected educator and author (industry staple 23 books!), as well as a pioneer of surround sound, Bobby’s experience and admirable thrust for the latest in technology makes him one of the most in-demand professionals out there.

“It doesn’t matter how large or small your studio is,” writes Owsinski, “you have a mix of both analog and digital gear, and if you want to be able to access everything quickly and efficiently, then you need some sort of patchbay. Designing the signal flow and wiring of a patchbay takes some thought for sure, but something that’s almost always overlooked is how to properly label the jacks on the bay after the wiring is completed. That’s where a brilliant piece of software called PatchCAD becomes a great resource.”

The post continues… “The fact that it’s only £9.99 (about $13USD) makes it almost a no-brainer, since you know that once you’ve added one patchbay, it’s only a matter of time until you add more. Plus, it’s so much easier than trying to measure things up to print out on your word processor (trust me on that).”

Big big thanks Bobby for the kind support and feature!

Links

Bobby Owsinski

Bobby Owsinski is a producer/engineer, author and coach. He has authored 23 books on recording, music, the music business and social media. The Music Production Blog features a new post every weekday.

Buy PatchCAD Now

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]]> https://www.patchcad.com/music-production-blog-bobby-owsinski/feed/ 0 843 Behringer PX3000 Template Available Now! https://www.patchcad.com/behringer-px3000-template-available-now/ https://www.patchcad.com/behringer-px3000-template-available-now/#comments Sun, 21 May 2017 19:39:10 +0000 http://www.patchcad.com/?p=815 The post Behringer PX3000 Template Available Now! appeared first on PatchCAD.

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In a continued quest to add as many patchbay templates as humanly possible, we are very thrilled to announce that a template for the Behringer PX3000 patchbay is now available on PatchCAD!

The Behringer PX3000 is the second most requested template and its addition would not be possible without the support of two PatchCAD community members – Nigel P. and Bryan N. Big big thanks to both of you! Most of the requests came from users in the UK and the USA where the PX3000 seems to be very popular.

One of the most important features of PatchCAD is the ability to create a custom template from scratch quickly and easily, and then share it with the rest of the community by pressing the Share Template button.

 

The submitted templates are reviewed, confirmed and added to the pool of templates. Every single update is FREE and pushed automatically to every user when PatchCAD is launched.

Click here for a full list of available templates

The Behringer PX3000 is very cost effective and offers convenient normalling configuration using little switches on the top plate of the chassis. For more information including specs and manual, click here.

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]]> https://www.patchcad.com/behringer-px3000-template-available-now/feed/ 4 815 Pro Tools Expert Video Review of PatchCAD https://www.patchcad.com/pro-tools-expert-video-review-patchcad/ https://www.patchcad.com/pro-tools-expert-video-review-patchcad/#respond Mon, 15 May 2017 20:51:27 +0000 http://www.patchcad.com/?p=760 The post Pro Tools Expert Video Review of PatchCAD appeared first on PatchCAD.

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Following up on the kind mention in the Pro Tools Expert podcast, James Ivey has kindly given his time to make a little video review and demonstration of PatchCAD. In this seven minutes strong video James shows how simple it is to work with PatchCAD and how he used it to make labels for his Canford 45-3304 XLR termination panel.

We are immensely grateful to James for his kind words, support and his time! And of course, big thank you to Pro Tools Expert for the superb work they do.

Click here to read the full post on the Pro Tools Expert website

Pro Tools Expert is a successful online publication of all things Pro Tools and recording studio featuring copious amounts of tutorials, guides, tips, tricks, interviews, discussions, reviews, news and blog posts with a strong worldwide following and community participation. The editors and writers at Pro Tools Expert are considered the authority on Pro Tools and digital recording with reputation for honest reviews and powerful pro-user educational videos.

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]]> https://www.patchcad.com/pro-tools-expert-video-review-patchcad/feed/ 0 760 PatchCAD Version 1.5 – New Template Editor https://www.patchcad.com/patchcad-version-1-5-new-template-editor/ https://www.patchcad.com/patchcad-version-1-5-new-template-editor/#respond Sat, 13 May 2017 11:58:24 +0000 http://www.patchcad.com/?p=723 The post PatchCAD Version 1.5 – New Template Editor appeared first on PatchCAD.

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We are proud to announce the release of version 1.5 of PatchCAD which introduces a major new template designer with a powerful new editor and support for stereo-spaced and custom-spaced patchbay layouts.

The Editor

In the heart of the update is a big redesign of the Custom Patchbay Template window which features a new editor that supports three types of patchbay layouts: Mono Spaced, Stereo Spaced and Custom. Based on the layout type selection, the behaviour of the layout editor at the bottom of the window will change:

  • Mono Spaced – Since the distance between each socket is the same, you will only be enter to enter the width of the first cell and it will be copied automatically to all the cells in the patchbay.
  • Stereo Spaced – The sockets will be grouped as pairs and the distance between each pair will be required.
  • Custom – You can freely enter any width for any socket for patchbays and panels with a combination of different connectors.

For each of these layouts, any number of gaps can be added to the design. Previously, PatchCAD only supported a single gap in the middle for the patchbay for what is knows as a divided layout, but now a gap can be added in the middle or anywhere else for patchbays that group sets of sockets like found on the Ghielmetti ASF 2×34:

Hovering with the mouse or entering into one of the fields at the top of the window will highlight the relevant area on the editor at the bottom to clearly show what the numbers are referring to. For example, hovering with the mouse above the “Designation strip left padding” text box will highlight the area of the editor marked as “Left Padding”.

A step by step guide to creating a custom patchbay template can be found here.

A list of all updates, bug fixes and changes includes:

 

Version 1.5.0.0
  • ADD: New custom template editor!
  • ADD: Support for stereo-spaced patchbay layout.
  • ADD: Support for multiple gaps in a patchbay layout.
  • CHANGE: PatchCAD now checks for new patchbay templates at lauch.
  • CHANGE: Improved check for updates.
  • FIX: User tamplates unavailble if main templates are not present.
  • FIX: Check for valid input when prompted for how many rows to divide the patchbay to when adding a patchbay.
  • FIX: In a project with patchbays of different heights, when removing a patchbay from the project, the patchbay heights would be incorrect.
Version 1.4.3.0
  • CHANGE: Improved check for PatchCAD and temapltes updates.
  • FIX: Error when clicking on Create before patchbays database was loaded.
  • FIX: Incorrectly drawing cells on patchbays with one line per row.
  • FIX: Right maing cutting guide incorrectly positioned when a patchbay fits on a single page.
Version 1.4.2.0
  • ADD: Ability to write inside the divider column on patchbays that have a dividing gap.
  • ADD: Hint label when a project isn’t open to click on New Project to add patchbays.
  • CHANGE: Allow auto number/letter/complete functions across more than one row and cells that span more than one row.
  • CHANGE: Toolbar icons rearranged to show auto number, letter and complete buttons together.
  • CHANGE: Updated shortcuts toolbar.
Version 1.4.1.0
  • FIX: Error on launch under certain conditions.
Version 1.4.0.0
  • ADD: New templates manager panel.
  • FIX: Automatically redownload templates database file if PatchCAD detects that it is corrupted.
  • FIX: Going back to the main window without choosing a colour on the text and background colour pickers leaves the picker form open in the background.
Version 1.3.0.0
  • ADD: Support for more than two lines per designation strip.
  • ADD: Filter patchbays by type
  • CHANGE: List of patchbays doesn’t show the numbers of rows a label strip is split into. Instead PatchCAD will ask how many lines to split the strip into when adding a patchbay.
  • FIX: Potential error when using auto-complete on an empty cell.
Buy PatchCAD Now

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]]> https://www.patchcad.com/patchcad-version-1-5-new-template-editor/feed/ 0 723 PatchCAD is Mentioned on the Pro Tools Expert Podcast https://www.patchcad.com/pro-tools-expert-podcast/ https://www.patchcad.com/pro-tools-expert-podcast/#respond Thu, 27 Apr 2017 19:23:28 +0000 http://www.patchcad.com/?p=707 The post PatchCAD is Mentioned on the Pro Tools Expert Podcast appeared first on PatchCAD.

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A big thank you goes to James Ivey for the kind mention on the Pro Tools Expert podcast in the Find of The Week section! James used PatchCAD to print labels for all his patchbays and patch panels in just 30 minutes, calling PatchCAD “amazing”, “easy to use”, “just genius” and saying “everyone should get this!”

Coincidentally, the Managing Editor of Pro Tools Expert, Russ Hughes’ Find of The Week is also very much related and it is the Kodak Magnetic Inkjet Photo Paper. It is a normal paper that you can print on but it has a magnetic coating on the back side which makes it perfect for labelling patchbays and patch panels that don’t have a dedicated designation strip holder like the Behringer PX3000 and similar.

Thank you Pro Tools Experts!

Listen to the excellent podcast here: http://www.pro-tools-expert.com/home-page/2017/4/14/pro-tools-expert-podcast-episode-265

Pro Tools Expert is a successful online publication of all things Pro Tools and recording studio featuring copious amounts of tutorials, guides, tips, tricks, interviews, discussions, reviews, news and blog posts with a strong worldwide following and community participation. The editors and writers at Pro Tools Expert are considered the authority on Pro Tools and digital recording with reputation for honest reviews and powerful pro-user educational videos.

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