Coming from spreadsheets or another app
You already have a way of doing this. Maybe it is a workbook you have refined for ten years, maybe it is another paperwork app. patchmap is built to take what you have, keep what works, and print a book your crew already knows how to read.
From spreadsheets
SHT LX-810Your columns, matched
Open a CSV or Excel file and a matching screen pairs your headers with patchmap's fields. Columns it doesn't know become your own columns, not lost data.
Your notation
Patch written 1/62, 1.062, 1-62, or universe and address apart: all read. Print it back in slash or dot, whichever your crew uses.
Your sheets, still sheets
Patch by type, by unit and by universe, fixture circuit, leg balance and cable counts come out as a styled workbook: frozen headers, bold subtotals, numbers that still add up.
No more formulas to babysit
Amps per leg, footprints, overlaps and cable totals are worked out from the show, live, instead of living in a cell that someone overwrote at 2am.
From another paperwork app
SHT LX-820Worksheet exports
Export your worksheet as tab or comma text and drop it in. patchmap tells you which columns it recognised and keeps the rest as your own columns.
The same Vectorworks drawing
If your drawing already exchanges data with another app, patchmap reads the same Spotlight data exchange file. On a show that uses patchmap, patchmap is the one in charge of the sync.
Workarounds become real objects
Spare pins typed as fixtures, data lines typed as circuits, voltage typed into a note. The cleanup screen finds them and offers each conversion with a count and a preview. Nothing changes silently.
Matched on a redrafted plot After launch
When the drawing was redrafted and its IDs changed, the first sync matches by channel, or by position and unit, instead of doubling every fixture.
How a move goes
SHT LX-830Export
Save your workbook as Excel or CSV, or export the worksheet from the app you use now.
Drop it in
Open it in patchmap, or point patchmap at the Vectorworks file.
Check the matches
Confirm the column matches and the cleanup offers. You see every change before it happens.
Print side by side
Print the old book and the new one and compare. The demo opens shows of any size read-only, so you can do this before you pay.
What comes across
SHT LX-840| From | What patchmap reads | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Vectorworks (Spotlight) | Type, position, unit, channel, patch, circuit, color, gobos, wattage, user fields, the drawing's own IDs | User fields named for mode, distro, breaker or leg land in those columns |
| MVR | Fixtures with positions, rotations and GDTF profiles | Real modes, so footprints and overlaps are exact |
| Excel or CSV | Any columns, matched on a screen you confirm | Merge by channel into an existing show |
| Other paperwork apps | Worksheet exports as tab or comma text | Recognised headers listed; unknown columns kept |
Try it on your own show.
Leave an address and you get one email when the beta opens. Bring your hardest workbook.