Panel Configuration

Panels are the individual LED modules that make up a screen. While the screen settings apply defaults to all panels, you can also configure panels individually.

Panel Types

Each panel type in the equipment library defines:

• Pixel Pitch — The distance between LED pixels (e.g., 2.5mm, 3.9mm)
• Pixel Resolution — The pixel dimensions of the panel (e.g., 128x128, 192x192)
• Physical Width / Height — The cabinet dimensions in millimeters. Decimals are supported (e.g., 487.5 × 487.5 mm for half-mm panel specs).
• Physical Depth (optional) — The cabinet thickness in millimeters. Drives panel thickness in the 3D View; falls back to 80 mm when left blank.
• Max Wattage — Nameplate peak power draw at full white
• Average Wattage (optional) — Typical (running) power draw at standard content. Captured for future heat-load / BTU surfacing; not currently used in BOM totals.
• Weight — Panel weight for structural calculations

When submitting a custom panel via the Library page, the optional fields can be left blank — defaults will apply at read time.

Custom Panel Defaults

When a screen uses a panel type from the equipment library, the panel's pixel size and physical size are read from the library and the inputs are locked. For projects without a library panel type selected (custom panels), the Screens sidebar panel exposes editable defaults for both pixel size (width × height in pixels) and physical size (width × height × depth in millimeters). These defaults apply to every panel on the screen unless an individual panel has its own size override.

Half Panels

For screens that don't perfectly divide into full panels, you can use half panels:

• Half-height rows — A row of panels at half the standard height, applied to either the top or bottom row of the screen
• Half-width columns — A column of panels at half the standard width, applied to either the left or right column

Only one edge row (top or bottom) and one edge column (left or right) can be active at a time. Half panel variants are automatically detected from the equipment library based on the screen's selected panel type — if no half-size variant exists for a panel type, the edge row/column option won't appear for that orientation.

When a half edge is set, all panels in that row or column are overridden to the half variant type. These panels are protected from bulk panel type changes applied to the rest of the screen.

Custom (manual) panels also support half-height edge rows. For screens with no library panel type selected, a Half Panel Edges section still appears in the Screens sidebar, limited to the Row Edge (top / bottom) option. The half-row pixel and physical heights are taken as half of the typed-in screen defaults, weight is left unknown (no library data), and each half panel's wattage is set to half of the Watts per Panel input (defaulting to 100 W). Changing any of those inputs re-derives the half-row values automatically.

See Adding Screens — Half-Panel Edge Rows for configuration details.

Panel Shapes

Most panels are rectangular, but the system supports various shapes:

• Rectangle — Standard panel shape
• Rounded corners — Panels with radius corners for curved installations

The shape type is set at the panel type level and applies to all panels using that type.

Individual Panel Settings

Select a panel in any view to see its properties in the right panel:

• Pixel Size — Width and height in pixels
• Physical Size — Width, height, and depth in millimeters
• Position — Location within the screen grid
• Wiring Info — Which string and port the panel is assigned to
• Power — Wattage and circuit assignment
• Data Path Order — The panel's position in the data path sequence

Disabled Panels

Individual panels can be disabled (removed from the active configuration) without deleting them from the grid. Disabled panels:

• Appear with a red X on black background in visualization
• Are excluded from string assignment and pixel calculations
• Are excluded from BOM calculations
• Remain in the grid so you can re-enable them later

This is useful for L-shaped or irregular screen configurations where some grid positions don't have physical panels.

Power Configuration

Power settings are configured per-screen in the Screens sidebar panel, under each screen's Power Configuration section:

• Working Voltage — AC voltage at the venue (for example, 120V or 240V)
• Max Amps per Circuit — Circuit breaker rating
• Watts per Panel — When a panel type is selected, this is read from the equipment library and the input is locked. Toggle Override to type a custom value — useful when running panels at reduced brightness or otherwise derating below the spec-sheet maximum. The override is used everywhere the spec wattage would have been: max-panels-per-circuit calculation, circuit packing, BOM totals, and the PDF Circuit Schedule. A safety note appears below the input as a reminder that under-sizing the value will under-size your power circuits.

The system calculates:

• How many panels can share a single power circuit
• Total power consumption per screen
• Power path routing through the panel grid

See the Power Distribution sidebar panel for detailed circuit planning and visualization.

Max Panels Per Circuit (User Override)

The calculated maximum panels per circuit is based on voltage × amperage divided by panel wattage. Like the data-side override, you can set a stricter cap than the calculated maximum — useful when install standards require breaker headroom, cable runs limit circuit length, or you want to spread load more conservatively.

The control appears in the Screens panel Power Configuration section, directly below the Max per circuit summary, and has two modes depending on the panels on the screen:

Uniform wattage (panel count cap) — When all panels on the screen have the same wattage, the control shows as Max Panels Per Circuit with the calculated maximum displayed alongside (for example, calc max: 15). Enter any value from 1 up to the calculated max, and the power path will force a new circuit once that many panels have been added — even if the wattage limit hasn't been reached.

Mixed wattages (watts cap) — When the screen contains panels with different wattages (half panels, per-panel wattage overrides, or mixed panel types), a panel count cap is ambiguous. The control falls back to Max Watts Per Circuit (user cap), where you enter a watt budget below the hard limit. A note explains that the fallback was forced by the mixed wattages.

The override flows through automatic circuit recalculation and the validation check when you drag a manual power-wire connection. Manual connections that would exceed the override are rejected with a message. Clear the field or click the Clear button to remove the override and return to the full calculated maximum.

Re-assigning Circuit Labels

By default, power circuits are labeled sequentially (C1, C2, C3, etc.) following the power path order. You can manually reassign which label applies to which circuit — for example, if the physical distro layout requires C1 and C3 to swap.

To reassign a label, go to the LED Mapping view with power path visibility enabled, then right-click on the first panel in the circuit you want to relabel. The context menu shows data and power info for the panel, and a Re-assign Circuit Label option with a sub-menu:

• Search/filter — Type to filter the label list
• Available labels — Click to assign that label to this circuit
• Assigned labels — Labels manually claimed by other circuits are greyed out
• Current label — Shown with a checkmark; click to remove the manual override and return to auto-assignment
• Reset All Circuit Labels — Clears all manual label overrides on the screen, restoring sequential auto-assignment

Manually assigned labels are excluded from the auto-assignment pool. Remaining circuits fill in from whatever labels are unclaimed, so there are never duplicate labels. The reassignment is stored per-screen and flows through to PDF exports, cable label CSV exports, and all views that display circuit labels.

Combining Strings into Physical Circuits

A power string is the daisy chain of panels that share a single power input — the physical wiring topology computed from the power path. A physical circuit is the plug that feeds power into the venue side of that chain. By default, one string equals one circuit, but multiple low-draw strings can share a single high-amperage plug. The Combine Strings control in the Power Distribution sidebar panel governs how strings group into circuits across the whole project.

Off (default) — One string equals one physical circuit. Circuit labels and string labels are identical, and the String segment of the label format is hidden.

Auto — The calculator walks the strings in path order and packs adjacent strings into one circuit until the next string would push the combined wattage past the global amp limit. Then it opens a new circuit and continues. This keeps the most-frequent placement of plugs without the user having to plan groupings by hand.

Manual — Strings stay separate until you opt them into a circuit. In the LED Mapping view (or 2D Layout view), right-click the first panel of any string and choose Combine with adjacent string from the context menu. The submenu shows each candidate's combined wattage so you can confirm it stays under the amp limit before merging.

When combining is enabled, a Circuit Amperage Limit (A) input appears below the toggle. This is the global ceiling used for the auto-pack decision and for the fits / over-limit hint shown in the manual context menu. Per-screen voltage (set in the screen's Power Configuration) is multiplied by this amperage to get the watt budget for each combined circuit.

Label format. Combining is reflected in circuit labels. The format legend in the sidebar shows the active layout:

• Single Breaker distribution, off — Y = circuit number (e.g. C1, C2).
• Single Breaker distribution, auto / manual — Y.Z = Circuit.String (e.g. C1.1, C1.2, C2.1). Strings sharing one circuit share the same Y and increment Z.
• Multi-Cable distribution, off — X.Y = Cable.Circuit.
• Multi-Cable distribution, auto / manual — X.Y.Z = Cable.Circuit.String.

Mapping, 2D Layout, the BOM, and all PDF exports use the same labels, so wiring documents always match what the installer sees on the cables.