Master Library

The Master Library is a shared catalog of equipment you can drop into a drawing with its ports already named. For items you build yourself and want to reuse, see Warehouses.

The Master Library

Each piece of equipment in the Master Library has a manufacturer and model, a description, inputs and outputs with their port names, connectors and signal types, and, where known, a picture and a rack height.

To open it, click Master Library in the library pane of a drawing. The Master Library dialog opens over the editor.

Team members with the POWER VIEWER or VIEWER role can’t open the Master Library. See Teams.

Finding equipment

1. Click in Search Library… at the top of the dialog and type at least three characters. The results update as you type.
2. Scroll the results. Each shows the manufacturer and model, the description, the number of inputs and outputs, and a picture when the library has one.
3. The results come eight at a time, sorted by manufacturer and then model. Use the arrow buttons at the bottom left of the dialog for the previous and next page.

The search matches words that begin with what you type. If you type several words, each one must match, so blackmagic router narrows the list more than blackmagic.

Previewing and display options

Click a result to select it. The Preview panel on the right shows the item as it will be placed.

Under Place Item As, choose what to create:

• Functional Block: a block with the equipment’s inputs on the left and outputs on the right.
• Rack Panel: a panel sized to the equipment’s height in rack units.
• Rack: a resizable rack.
• Terminals: the equipment’s ports as a column of terminals, in the look you pick from the list that appears.

Under Display, clear any of Manufacturer Name, Model, SysName, Alias, Location, Image, Inputs and Outputs to leave them off the placed item. Clearing Inputs or Outputs hides those ports; you can show them later with Show all ports on the block’s context menu (see Ports and connectors). The preview updates as you change these options.

On the Free plan the Display options are disabled and the panel reads Display - disabled in FREE mode. See Billing and Plans.

Placing equipment in the drawing

Click Place in Drawing. The dialog closes, the item is added to the drawing, and the canvas scrolls to it and selects it. Drag it to where you want it. Click Close to leave without placing anything.

What you get depends on Place Item As:

• Functional Block: the inputs and outputs from the library, in name order, with their connectors and signal types. The block is tall enough for its ports and wide enough for their names. SysName is set to the equipment type followed by -##; replace ## with the unit number. Alias is set to the equipment’s description, or to the Alias placeholder if the library has none (equipment added by contributing automatically never has one).
• Rack Panel: a panel as tall as the equipment’s rack units. If the library doesn’t know the height, the panel is one rack unit tall, drawn with a red outline, and its Location reads Dimension Undefined, so you can spot it and resize it. Count in BOM is off.
• Rack: an 11 RU rack you can resize. See Racks and Rack Panels.
• Terminals: one terminal per port, a grid row apart in the middle of the view, all in one new device, so naming one names them all. Only the first is counted in the Bill of Materials, so the equipment is counted once.

If the equipment uses signal types that your project doesn’t have yet, they are added to the project’s signal types, with ? for the cable manufacturer and cable type. Fill those in on the Signal Types grid; see Signal Types.

Uploading equipment to the Master Library

If you build a block for equipment the Master Library doesn’t have, you can add it so it’s there next time.

1. Place a functional block (for example from Functional Block Prototypes) and give it the real Manufacturer and Model.
2. Add and name its ports, connectors and signal types to match the equipment. See Functional Blocks and Ports.
3. Optionally set an Alias, which becomes the equipment description, a SysName such as SPK-10, whose prefix before the first hyphen becomes the equipment type, and an image.
4. Right-click the block and, under Master Library, choose Upload this block.

When the upload works, the message Successfully uploaded to Master Library appears.

If the Master Library already has that manufacturer and model, your block can still fill in what the library item is missing. The message says how many ports and details were added. See What a contribution can change.

The upload is refused, with a message saying why, when:

• Manufacturer is empty or still reads Manufacturer,
• Model is empty or still reads Model, or
• the Master Library already has that manufacturer and model, and your block has nothing to add to it.

Uploading isn’t available on the Free plan. Only functional blocks can be uploaded.

Contributing automatically

On a paid plan, the devices in your drawings are added to the Master Library when you deliver the drawing, so the library grows without anyone uploading blocks by hand.

It happens when you:

• print a drawing,
• export it to PDF, or
• export it to DWG.

Saving, exporting to PNG or SVG, and exporting lists to Excel don’t contribute anything.

What is sent

For each functional block in the drawing:

• Manufacturer and Model,
• the equipment type: the part of SysName before the first hyphen (SPK from SPK-10), and
• each port’s name, connector and signal type.

Nothing else leaves the drawing. Alias, Location, extended data (tags), pictures, cables, other blocks and the drawing itself are never sent, and contributions don’t record who made them or which project they came from.

Port names are sent as you typed them. If you name a port for what it connects to, such as Lobby camera 3 rather than SDI In 1, that name can end up in the library.

Blocks whose Manufacturer or Model still read Manufacturer or Model, or that have no named ports, are skipped.

What a contribution can change

• New equipment: if the library doesn’t have that manufacturer and model, it’s added with its ports.
• Equipment already in the library: the library item only gains what it’s missing. Nothing in the library is ever deleted or overwritten.
  • A port with no signal type or connector takes yours.
  • If the item has no inputs (or no outputs) at all, yours are added.
  • Extra ports are added only when your block still has every port the library item has on that side. If one is missing, you’ve probably renamed it, so the extras are left out.
  • The equipment type is filled in if the item doesn’t have one.

Turning it off

Contributing is on unless you turn it off.

1. On the Projects Dashboard, click Config.
2. Under Master Library, clear Contribute devices from my drawings.
3. Click Save settings.

On a team, the team owner’s setting applies to every member. Members see it on their Config page but can’t change it. See Teams.

Turning it off stops future contributions. Earlier contributions stay in the library: they carry no link to you, so they can’t be found and withdrawn.

The terms of use (section 5) and the privacy policy describe contributions in full.

Keeping your own items

Items you build yourself live in a warehouse, not the Master Library: your own warehouse, or one shared with everyone on the project. See Warehouses.