Getting started

Open a show

Go to app.patchmap.show. Nothing to install, and nothing is uploaded unless you save a show to the cloud.

• Try the sample show opens a made-up festival rig with 3,000 fixtures to explore.
• Drop a show file on the open screen, or use Choose a file: a Vectorworks data exchange file (.xml), a worksheet exported as tab or comma delimited text (.txt, .csv, .tsv), an MVR (.mvr) or a saved patchmap show (.patchmap).
• New blank show starts empty.

If an import finds rows that are really workarounds (a spare pin typed as a fixture, a cable typed as a device), a banner offers to convert them. Review shows each conversion with a count and a preview.

The screens sit along the top: Worksheet, Power, Cables, Paperwork, Notes, Focus, Video, netmap, Console and Sync. File saves the show as a .patchmap file.

The worksheet keys

The worksheet and every table in the app share one set of spreadsheet keys. On a Mac use Cmd; on Windows use Ctrl.

Each fill, paste or delete is one undo step. The toolbar has the rest: Unit, Chan and Addr views, presets, Fill (range fill with a step, addressing by footprint, +N shifts), Views, Library, Filters, Columns, Format, Checks and the DMX table.

Power

1. On the Power screen, Add a service for each company switch or generator, then Add a distro and pick its type. The starter types are examples; make your own under Distro types (ways, volts, rotation, poles, leg names, breaker overrides).
2. Put loads on breakers: click Put them on breakers on the "loads are on no breaker" line, pick the fixtures, the distro and the first breaker. Or type Distro and Breaker on the worksheet; both ways keep each other in step.
3. For a whole position, pick the fixtures and use Auto circuits. Choose a method (one per circuit, daisy chain, pack by watts, by type, or by leg balance), check the plan, then apply it as one step.
4. Watch the leg totals. Overloads and unbalanced legs are flagged; tick the 80% continuous rule if your shop works to it.

Cables

• The Plan view shows each position as a column with its mults and snakes as runs of pin tiles. Pin numbers are in their phase colors, spares are yellow, empty pins are dashed.
• Build a mult, then click fixtures in order to fill its pins. Start a power chain, Add a home run and Add a snake sit beside it. Set pins on a new mult and how a mult and pin are written (ML1-3).
• Looms and tape sets tape colors per position; Jumpers lists each fixture's jumpers; the Cable list counts against your stock; Cases holds the road cases.

Paperwork

1. On Paperwork, pick a report. The page preview updates as you change its title, sort, grouping, positions and patch notation.
2. Edit the layout for columns, the header and footer, and style. Layouts are saved per report.
3. Show info fills the header on every page: show name, venue, details, contacts by role, logo and company.
4. Packets print several layouts as one PDF with a contents page.
5. Export as PDF or Excel. Labels sends label tables from the show to labels.uplink.show.

Vectorworks sync

1. In Vectorworks, have Spotlight write its data exchange file beside the drawing.
2. In patchmap, open the Sync screen and Pick the exchange file. The first time, the show's rows are paired with the drawing's fixtures.
3. Fields is the field map: which drawing field feeds which column. Set it once.
4. Changes lists what the drawing changed. Where both sides changed a field, choose ours or the drawing's per field, per row or per column.
5. Reply writes our changes back. patchmap warns first about fields the drawing doesn't export. Vectorworks picks the reply up when it becomes the active app.

The grandMA3 link

The Console screen links patchmap to grandMA3 (console or onPC, software 2.x). There are two routes.

Files: any browser, no network needed

• To the console: the patch as MVR (Patch menu, Import MVR), a macro that sets each fixture's address and name, and a macro that stores and labels groups. Import a macro with Import Macro Library "<file>.xml" from gma3_library/datapools/macros or a USB stick's grandMA3 folder.
• From the console: the plugin's export (Plugin "patchmap Link" "export" writes patchmap_link.json), or a patch exported as CSV, XML or MVR. Load it on the Files tab to fill the same tabs.

The live link: set up the console

1. Download the plugin files from the Console screen's Files tab and copy patchmap_link.xml and patchmap_link.lua to gma3_library/datapools/plugins (onPC on a Mac: ~/MALightingTechnology/gma3_library/datapools/plugins; a console: a USB stick's grandMA3/gma3_library/...).
2. In the Plugins pool, edit an empty slot, Import, and pick patchmap Link. Or type Import Plugin Library "patchmap_link.xml".
3. Run it: tap it, or type Plugin "patchmap Link". The command line history shows patchmap Link: listening on port 9330. Pairing code: 123456.
4. In patchmap: Console, Add console, the console's IP address and that code, Link.
5. Optional, so patchmap can start the plugin itself: Menu, In and Out, OSC: Enable Input on, a line with port 8000 and Receive Command Yes (and the prefix, if you use one, in patchmap's console form).

Once linked: Patch compares the console's patch with the show and pushes or takes per row; Cue lists, Groups and Palettes read from the console; the worksheet's Focus call panel turns picked rows on, off or solo and walks next and previous; cue control runs Go, Go back and Go to cue. To pair again, Plugin "patchmap Link" "newcode" makes a new code; Plugin "patchmap Link" "stop" stops the plugin listening. Five wrong codes stop it too.

Crew mode

• On a phone or a touch screen, patchmap opens in crew mode by itself. Anyone can switch it on or off, and the choice is kept in that browser.
• Focus: pick a position and walk it unit by unit, with type, channel, address, purpose, notes, a photo and a sketch. Mark each one and move on with next and previous.
• Notes: a quick note on the unit in hand or a channel, with a priority and who it is for.
• Lookup: type a channel, an address or a unit to find its row.
• More, at the bottom, has the full screens and preferences.

Saving and working together

• File saves a .patchmap file to your computer. That is all you need to work alone.
• Sign in with your Uplink account to Save to cloud: the show opens on any computer, with its version history.
• Share invites people by email with a role. Open a cloud show live and everyone sees each other's changes as they happen; changes made offline are kept on the computer and sent when you reconnect.

Something not working, or missing? Get in touch.