Functional Blocks and Ports

A functional block stands for one piece of equipment in a block diagram. Its ports are the equipment’s inputs and outputs, and the cables you draw between ports become your cable list. This page covers placing and naming blocks, working with ports, and arranging blocks on the page.

Anatomy of a functional block

• Manufacturer, Model and SysName sit above the block, and Alias and Location below it. Drag a label to move it.
• Inputs are on the left side and outputs on the right. Each port has a port name, shown inside the block, and a connector, shown outside it next to a short colored stub. The stub’s color comes from the port’s signal type.
• Hover over a block to see its manufacturer, model and input and output counts.

Each kind of label has its own Text Kind (for example SysName or Left Ports), so you can style them separately on the Text tab. See Text.

Placing a block

1. Open the drawing and expand Functional Block Prototypes in the library pane.
2. Drag the prototype closest to what you need onto the canvas.
3. Name the block and its ports (see below), and add or remove ports to match the equipment.

Prototypes are generic blocks with a few ports and placeholder names. New blocks use the stroke, fill and text style set under Settings (Active Stroke, Active Fill and Active Text Style); see Page Setup and Drawing Settings.

You can also place a block that already has the right ports from the Master Library, or reuse one you saved in a warehouse. See Master Library and Warehouses.

To resize a block, select it and drag a square handle. The ports spread out evenly along the block’s height. To rotate it, drag the round handle.

Naming blocks

Click a label to edit it. A small card opens beside the label, naming the field you’re editing and showing the text at a readable size however far you’ve zoomed out. The label itself stays outlined on the drawing.

• Type the new text, then press Enter, press Tab or click elsewhere to save it.
• Press Esc to leave the label as it was.
• On a label that can hold several lines, press Shift+Enter to start a new line.

These names are carried into the cables connected to the block, and appear in the Equipment and Cables grids. See Project Data Grids.

Giving a block a SysName of your own also gives it a device code. If the same equipment is drawn elsewhere in the project, assign the other objects to its device and they share these names: change one and the others follow. See Devices.

To hide or show labels, select one or more blocks and right-click one. Under Labels, a tick shows which labels the block you clicked is showing: Manufacturer, Model, SysName, Alias and Location. Click one to switch it. Every selected block follows the one you clicked, so a mixed selection ends up the same. Show all labels and Hide all labels switch every label at once.

How to name things

Choose names that will still be right after the next revision of the design. Equipment gets back-ordered, fails in the field and gets swapped for a different model, so avoid names that depend on details that can change.

• SysName is the unit’s identity. Build it from a short, abstract type prefix and a number: SPK-10 survives a change of speaker model, ATLAS12INCH70V-10 does not. Keep every SysName unique in the project, so each unit can be found.
• Alias holds the name people outside engineering use. Engineering may know twenty video servers as SRVR-01 to SRVR-20, while operations knows SRVR-01 as “Ingest Server”. Think of Alias as the friendly, operational, functional or logical name. It is also a handy place to note the source that feeds a downstream device, such as naming a distribution amplifier after the source it feeds.
• Projects and drawings deserve names that stay true over time. “My New Project” won’t be new next year; “Summer 2026 Studio Modifications” still makes sense. Use readable drawing names rather than bare numbers.

Ports and connectors

Right-click the body of a block, or one of its port names, for the block menu. Its commands are grouped under headings, and settings you can switch on and off show a tick when they’re on.

• Under Ports:
  • Add left port and Add right port add one port to that side, named PORTn with connector CONNn and the Default signal type.
  • Add ports… opens the Add Ports dialog; see Adding ports.
  • Show all ports brings back hidden ports.
  • Signal types for editing swaps connectors for signal types; see Port signal types.
  • Ports spread out, Ports at the top, Ports in the middle and Ports at the bottom say where the ports sit in the body, both sides at once; see Where the ports sit.
  • Clear port gaps removes every gap from both sides of the selected blocks; see Gaps between ports.
• Under Labels, the label ticks and Show all labels / Hide all labels; see Naming blocks.
• Under Device, Assign… and Unassign… add the block to a device or take it out of one, and Show Me lists the device’s other members; see Devices. Show Me only appears on a block that has a device code.
• Under Master Library, Upload this block adds the block to the shared Master Library; see Master Library.

Right-click a connector label or port stub for the port menu:

• Under This port:
  • Move port up and Move port down change the port’s order on its side.
  • Gap above this port starts a new run of ports here; see Gaps between ports.
  • Hide port hides the port.
  • Remove port deletes it.
  • Place terminals… puts a terminal or off sheet pointer past this port and cables it; see Place terminals.
  • Add adapter… puts an adapter on the port; see Adapters.
• Under This side:
  • Spread out, At the top, In the middle and At the bottom say where this side’s ports sit in the body; see Where the ports sit.
  • Clear gaps on this side removes this side’s gaps; see Gaps between ports.
• Under Ports:
  • Show all ports shows hidden ports again.
  • Remove side ports deletes every port on that side.
  • Signal types for editing, as above.
• Under Connectors, Show all connectors and Hide all connectors show or hide the connector labels on the selected blocks.

Commands that change a block’s ports are hidden while the block’s position is locked.

Adding ports

The Add Ports dialog adds one or many named ports at once. It works on every functional block in the selection.

1. Select the block, or several blocks.
2. Right-click the body of a block or one of its port names and choose Add Ports ….
3. Under Add to Which Side, pick Left, Right or Both.
4. Under Port Data, enter the Port Name, the Port Connector and the Port Signal Type. The signal type list comes from the project’s signal types.
5. To add a numbered series of ports, check Add Multiples under Add Multiple Ports and fill in:
   • Count: how many ports to add.
   • Starting At: the first number in the series.
   • Leading Zero Count: the minimum number of digits in the number. With 2, port 1 becomes 01; with 3 it becomes 001. The most is 4.
   • Finally Append Characters: text added after the number.
6. Click Do It!.

Without Add Multiples, the dialog adds one port with exactly the name you typed to each chosen side.

With Add Multiples, each port is named Port Name + number + appended characters, with nothing added in between. For example, Port Name SDI IN , Count 4, Starting At 1, Leading Zero Count 2 and Finally Append Characters A give SDI IN 01 A to SDI IN 04 A. Include a trailing space in the port name if you want a space before the number. Every port in the series gets the same connector and signal type.

New ports go below any existing ports on that side, and copy the text style of the first port already on that side. On an empty side they use Settings > Active Text Style.

Where the ports sit

A block’s ports are spread out over the height of its body, so they always fill it however tall the block is. That suits a block whose ports are its whole story, but on a tall block with two or three ports it leaves them far apart.

There are four choices:

• Spread out shares the body’s height between the ports, as blocks have always done. This is how every block starts.
• At the top, In the middle and At the bottom give every port the same spacing, set by the port text size, and put the stack of ports at that end of the body. The rest of the body is left empty, so making the block taller adds empty space rather than pushing the ports apart.

Each side of the block has its own setting, so a block’s inputs can sit at the top while its outputs spread down the whole body:

• To set one side, right-click a port on that side and choose one of the four under This side.
• To set both sides at once, right-click the block body and choose Ports spread out, Ports at the top, Ports in the middle or Ports at the bottom under Ports. These show a tick only while both sides agree, so a block with different sides shows none of them ticked; choosing one puts both sides back together.

Either way it applies to every selected block, so you can set a row of blocks in one go, and it is saved with the block.

If a block is too short to hold a side’s ports at their natural spacing, that side is spread out instead, so ports never spill outside the body.

Gaps between ports

Equipment rarely reads as one long run of ports: a frame has banks of four, or a line of inputs and then a pair of outputs far below. Mark where a run starts and the ports group themselves to match.

1. Right-click the port that should start the new run.
2. Tick Gap above this port.

What the gap does depends on where that side’s ports sit:

• Spread out: every port takes its natural height and the space the block has spare goes into the gaps instead of between every port. One gap takes it all; several gaps share it equally. The ports still fill the body, so a taller block means wider gaps.
• At the top, in the middle or at the bottom: a gap is one blank port’s worth of space, or as much of it as the block can spare, and the whole stack stays where the alignment puts it.

Each side has its own gaps: marking a port on the left leaves the right side where it is. A side can have as many gaps as you like, and a gap on the first port pushes that whole side down.

Ticking Gap above this port again removes that one gap. To remove several, use Clear gaps on this side in the port menu, or Clear port gaps under Ports in the block menu for both sides; both work on every selected block at once.

If a side’s ports and gaps won’t fit in the body, the gaps give way first, and a side too short even for its ports goes back to spreading them.

Renaming ports and connectors

1. Click the port name or connector label you want to change. The editing card opens beside it.
2. Type the new name.
3. Press Enter or click outside the card.

Cables already connected to the port pick up the new port name and connector.

Port signal types

Every port has a signal type, such as SDI, AES or Default, chosen from the project’s Signal Types. The signal type sets the color of the port stub and, when you connect a cable, the cable’s color, width and cable type. Signal types are normally hidden.

To change the signal type of ports:

1. Show the signal types in place of the connector labels. Either:
   • select the blocks, right-click one and tick Signal types for editing, or
   • choose View > Show/Hide Signal Types for Editing to show them on every block in the drawing.
2. Click a port’s signal type. A list of the project’s signal types opens beside it, sorted A to Z. Each row shows the type’s color, its cable type and the number the next cable of that type will get when cables are numbered.
3. Type a few letters to narrow the list; it matches names, cable types and number prefixes. Click a type, or move to it with the arrow keys and press Enter. Press Esc, or click away, to leave the signal type as it was.
4. Untick Signal types for editing, or repeat the View command, to put the connector labels back.

When you change the signal type of a port that has a cable, the port is recolored and the cable follows the new signal type, the same way it does when you apply the Signal Types grid:

• It takes the new color, width and line type, unless you set its color by hand.
• It takes the new cable manufacturer and cable type, unless you set them by hand.
• Its cable number stays as it is.
• The port at the other end of the cable takes the same signal type.

Undo reverses the whole change.

Lock Position and Count in BOM

The top of the General tab has two checkboxes that apply to the selected items.

• Lock Position keeps an item where it is. You can still select it and edit its text, but you can’t move, resize or rotate it, and the commands that add or remove ports are hidden. Locking a cable also locks the blocks at both of its ends; see Cable properties.
• Count in BOM decides whether the item is counted in the Bill of Materials. Turn it off for equipment you aren’t supplying. It is on for new functional blocks and racks, and off for rack panels. On a member of a device it changes every member, and the device is counted once however many drawings show it. See Bill of Materials.

Grouping, aligning and stacking

Grouping, aligning, distributing, sizing and stacking work on any items, not just blocks, and are covered in Arranging Items.