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.