Version Version 1.7.14 · v51.28.0

StageGrid User Manual

Stage layout, channel & bus patching, the rack system, power, cabling, and production-ready exports.

Updated 2026-08-10

1 · Introduction

StageGrid turns a drag-and-drop stage plan into a complete, accurate audio package: an input list, a stagebox/rack patch, a cable schedule and pull list, a power plan, and printable PDFs — all kept in sync as you move gear around the stage.

You place objects (mics, DIs, amps, stageboxes, racks, power) on a scaled stage. Each input-bearing object emits one or more channels; each output-bearing object (a wedge, an IEM pack) emits one or more buses. The engine continuously routes every channel to the nearest stagebox by real cable path, allocates sockets, plans cable runs, and totals the power — so the paperwork is always a true reflection of the plan on screen.

Who this is forMonitor & FOH engineers, system techs, and production managers building input lists and stage plans. It assumes you know the audio terms (stagebox, split, aux, IEM); the Glossary defines the StageGrid-specific ones.

2 · The interface

The workspace has four regions:

Region	What it does
Stage canvas (centre)	The scaled stage. Drag objects from the library, move/rotate them, draw marquee selections, and see live cable lines.
Library (left)	Every placeable object, grouped by category (Audio, Hardware, Backline, Power, AV/Streaming…). Drag onto the stage. Your saved custom objects live here too.
Inspector (right)	Properties of the selected object — its type-specific fields, power, routing overrides, and (for racks) the View rack… button. With 2+ objects selected it becomes a group inspector.
Channels / Buses tabs (bottom)	The live channel list and bus list. Rename, reorder (drag or ↑/↓), re-patch via the picker, and see each channel's stagebox·socket and cable run.

The top toolbar holds New/Open/Save, the export menu, undo/redo, the Fit objects to area tool (F), Settings, the About dialog, and the ? help search.

3 · Core concepts

Stage dimensions & the off-stage zone

Set the stage width × depth in metres (the canvas is to scale). Below the stage edge is the off-stage / audience zone where FOH and monitor racks live — objects flagged placeOffStage (FOH Mixer Rack, Monitor Desk) drop there by default. Cable runs to those racks trace through the audience aisle, not across the stage.

Objects, channels & buses

An object is anything on the plan. Input-bearing objects (a vocal mic, a 5-piece drum kit, a stereo keys rig) emit one or more channels. Output-bearing objects (a wedge, an IEM pack, an FX unit) emit buses (auxes). A single object can do both.

Grid snap & precision

Objects snap to a grid; hold to nudge by the fine step, or type exact X/Y in the inspector. Use Marquee (drag on empty canvas) to select many, then align/distribute/duplicate as a group.

Realism mode

Realism mode applies real-world constraints (cable-length rounding to stock lengths, service loops, extra allowance for overhead and vocal mics) so the pull list matches what you'd actually load.

4 · Adding & editing objects

Drag any library item onto the stage, or double-click it to drop at centre. Select an object to edit it in the inspector. Common controls:

Label — the name shown on the plan, the input list, and the cable schedule.
Type-specific properties — e.g. a drum kit's piece count, a DI's mono/stereo mode, an amp's Use as monitor / Backline only flags.
Power — wattage, phase, startup (inrush) factor, and an optional pinned power source.
Routes from — for output gear (IEM/wedge), override which rack carries the bus on stage.
Backline detail — brand/model/spec fields that feed the backline rider page.

Disconnecting vs deletingUse the channel patch picker to disconnect an input (gear stays on stage, produces no channel) instead of deleting the object. Disconnected inputs are listed separately with a Reconnect button.

5 · The rack system

Racks are the heart of StageGrid. This section explains every rack type, how channels are routed and socketed, and how to configure the connector layout — including gender-swap, AES, and the broadcast split.

There are two families:

Family	Members	Role
Stageboxes (routing)	Digital Stagebox, Sub-stagebox / Sub-snake, Split Rack, Monitor Console	Channels physically patch to them. They get an ID (A, B, C… / SB1… / FS1… / MON1…) and own a pool of input/output sockets.
Downstream racks	FOH Mixer Rack, Monitor Desk, record/IO rack	Fed by a split. They mirror the split's connectors (read-only) unless you flip one into a stagebox (§5.6).

5.1 Digital Stagebox

The on-stage input panel. Drag Digital Stagebox from the library; it's auto-assigned the next free ID (A, B, C… — or SB1, SB2… under numeric numbering). Mics and DIs near it route to it automatically; the box sends one digital snake back to the console.

Set its size in View rack… (§5.5): Inputs, Outputs, and the row layout. The diagram below is a real StageGrid render — 16 inputs over 2 rows, 4 outputs, with one gender-swap marker GS and two AES inputs AES.

A Digital Stagebox (A) — channel names sit above each XLR; the socket number and channel number sit below. Red = gender-swap, blue = AES.

5.2 Sub-stageboxes & sub-snakes

A sub-stagebox (a.k.a. sub-snake or loom) is a small breakout box that lives near a cluster of instruments and feeds back to a parent stagebox over a single multicore loom. Instead of long individual XLRs across the stage, the local gear runs short cables into the sub-box, and one loom carries everything home.

How a sub-box claims parent sockets

Each sub-box is assigned a parent stagebox — either the one you pin in its inspector, or the closest by cable path. It then claims a block of the parent's input sockets, one per used jack. On the parent's rack diagram each of those sockets is tagged with the sub-box's loom colour and a short·jack reference such as A·1 — read as "this socket carries jack 1 of the A sub-box". The loom also gets an L# tag (L1, L2…) for black-and-white printouts.

A splitter (FS1) fed by two sub-snakes. Each parent socket carries a coloured loom tag — A·1, A·2 … then B·1, B·2 … — and the loom legend names each box.

v51.28 No gaps between sub-boxes If a sub-box has more jacks than you actually use (say an NC-14 box with only 11 inputs patched), the spare jacks no longer reserve splitter sockets. Used jacks pack contiguously, so the next sub-box starts on the very next socket — e.g. an 11-of-14 A-box takes splitter 1–11 and the B-box's first input becomes splitter 12, not 15. The physical jack number is preserved (B·1 is still jack 1); only the splitter socket compacts. Fully-used rigs and any manually-pinned jacks are untouched.

Per-jack patching

A sub-snake connected to a digital box can be repatched jack-by-jack: any channel can be pinned to a specific sub-box jack via the patch picker, and that jack maps to a parent socket. Two channels pinned to the same jack auto-bump so they never share one parent socket.

Loom modes

A sub-box runs in one of three modes: passive box (short individual mic cables to a jack panel plus the loom), or drum loom / direct loom (the multicore is the cables — no individual mic lines are laid). Loom-mode boxes are documented by a single loom record in the cable schedule rather than per-channel mic lines.

5.3 Split Rack

A Split Rack is a passive splitter: every input is electrically duplicated onto multiple outputs so FOH and Monitor engineers work from independent signal chains. Channels patch to it exactly like a stagebox (IDs FS1, FS2…). In the inspector you pin its two main outputs:

FOH side feeds → an on-stage FOH Mixer Rack
Monitor side feeds → an on-stage Monitor Mixer Rack

The per-slot map in the inspector lists every socket with a destination chip that cycles FOH → MON → F+M, so individual channels can be excluded from one console.

v51.28 3rd output — Transformer-Isolated Broadcast split

Tick Transformer-Isolated Broadcast split to add a third output tap for an OB truck, broadcast position, or recording feed. It's galvanically isolated through a transformer so the broadcast ground stays separate from the stage — the classic fix for ground-loop hum between a truck and the stage rig. The destination is usually off the stage plan, so it's a rack-level option with an optional free-text label; it's noted on the View Rack diagram and the printed PDF (see the blue note on the OUTPUTS strip below).

A Split Rack (FS1) with two AES inputs and the transformer-isolated broadcast split enabled — note "+ Broadcast split · transformer-isolated → OB Truck 1" on the OUTPUTS header.

5.4 Monitor Console & downstream racks

The Monitor Console (Monitor Mixer Rack, IDs MON1, MON2…) is a stagebox in its own right: a channel can patch directly to it, bypassing the split — for a vocalist's hot-shot B-side straight to monitors, a click that only the drummer needs, or a talkback mic that never reaches FOH. It won't win auto-routing (channels only land there when you pin them), so nothing accidentally routes to monitor world.

FOH Mixer Rack, Monitor Desk, and record/IO racks are downstream racks fed by a split. When the show has a single split they offer a read-only View rack… that mirrors the split's connectors 1:1, and you can set each rack's own local I/O count (e.g. a console with 8 local inputs) — see §5.6 to make one a full stagebox instead.

5.5 The View Rack

Select any stagebox (or a flipped rack) and click View rack…. This single panel is where you configure the whole rack:

Control	Effect
Inputs / Outputs	Socket counts. Changing a count rebuilds routing and prunes any markers past the new end.
Input rows / Output rows	The faceplate layout — columns are computed (e.g. 4 rows × 8 = a 32-way grid; 2 × 16 = a slim wall unit).
Click mode	What a connector click does: Gender-Swap or Mark AES.

Gender-swap GS

In Gender-Swap mode, click a connector to mark a passive M/F adapter (the connector's role is reversed). GS'd slots draw a red border and a GS tag, and each one adds an adapter to the case bill-of-materials. You can annotate a GS slot with what it's used for as extra I/O (e.g. "Mon 9 send"), which prints on the rack diagram.

AES AES

In Mark AES mode, click any connector to flag it as a digital AES/EBU connector. AES sockets draw a deep-blue housing and a blue AES badge — on screen and on the printed PDF rack page. The designation is saved with the show. Clear markers wipes both GS and AES.

Worked example — a 32-way stage rack with 4 AES returns Place a Digital Stagebox → View rack… → set Inputs 32, Outputs 8, Input rows 4 → switch Click mode to Mark AES → click the four output sockets that carry your AES returns. Done — the rack diagram and PDF now show them in blue.

5.6 Turning any rack into a stagebox

Sometimes a placed rack — a Mixer Rack, a Monitor Desk, a custom rack — needs to act as a real stagebox (channels patch directly to it). Select it and tick I/O rack (stagebox) in the inspector. StageGrid assigns it the next free stagebox ID and reveals input/output count + row fields; it now routes and renders like a native stagebox, and its View rack… gains the full GS/AES controls. Untick to revert (its I/O counts are kept for the downstream mirror view).

5.7 How routing works

For every channel the engine builds a candidate list of all stageboxes plus all sub-boxes, ranks them by real cable-path length (ties broken by horizontal proximity), and assigns the first one with a free socket. Monitor consoles are excluded from auto-routing unless explicitly pinned.

Auto — closest box wins; the channel takes the next free socket.
Pin to rack — force a channel to a specific box; the engine still picks the socket.
Pin to socket — force both box and socket (the strongest pin; shown as SOCK).
Self-heal — a pin to a deleted/renamed box is dropped so the channel auto-routes instead of dead-ending.

Open the picker by clicking a channel's source cell in the Channels tab. Hot-shot mics emit two channels from one input (one to FOH, one to MON) for independent processing.

6 · Channels & buses

The Channels tab lists every input channel with its number, colour (by stagebox / sub-snake), name, source, and patch (stagebox·socket + cable run). Rename inline, reorder by drag or ↑/↓, insert, or delete. A PIN/SOCK chip flags manual patches.

The Buses tab lists every output — wedges, IEM packs, FX sends, recording sends — each with an aux number (A1, A2…) and colour. A stereo wedge or stereo IEM emits a linked pair (A1+A2). Buses can be pinned to an output rack and socket just like channels.

Sub-snake jack referencesA channel routed through a sub-snake shows the loom's jack on both the channel row and the parent rack socket — e.g. a bass DI on the D-box jack 1 reads D·1 in the loom colour, not the splitter's absolute socket number.

7 · Creating objects

7.1 Built-in objects

Most gear already exists in the library. Drag it on, set its label and properties, and it's part of the plan. If you customise a type's inputs (mic list, phantom, polarity, stands) the engine remembers those as the defaults for the next instance of that type.

7.2 The Custom Object editor

Build a reusable object type that lives in your library and travels with exported shows. Open the Custom Object editor and set:

Field	Notes
Name & category	The library label and the group it appears under.
Icon (SVG)	Paste an SVG (see §8) — or leave blank for a default tile.
Inputs / Outputs	Add channels in bulk: set the count, the rack rows, and per-row Analog / AES connectors — instead of adding one channel at a time.
I/O rack (stagebox)	Mark the type as a stagebox so instances accept channel patches and get a View Rack.

Worked example — an SD-rack stagebox (56 in / 16 out) New Custom Object → name "SD Rack", category Hardware → tick I/O rack (stagebox) → Inputs 56, rows 4; Outputs 16, rows 2 → set the last two input rows to AES → Save. Drag it on; it's assigned a stagebox ID and channels route to it like any box.

7.3 Sharing custom objects

Custom objects are saved locally and embedded in any show you export, so a collaborator opening your show gets your objects automatically. You can also export a pack of selected custom objects to share independently; imported objects with a clashing key are renamed rather than overwriting yours.

8 · Authoring SVG icons

Custom objects use an inline SVG for their icon. StageGrid sanitises whatever you paste (scripts, event handlers, external links and <foreignObject> are stripped), so only a whitelist of drawing tags survives. Follow these conventions and your icon renders crisply on the canvas, in the library, and in PDFs.

8.1 Rules of thumb

Use a viewBox="0 0 64 64" — every built-in icon is drawn on a 64×64 grid, so yours will scale to match. Width/height attributes are optional.
Draw with currentColor for strokes/fills you want to follow the object's theme colour. Hard-coded colours (e.g. a red LED) stay fixed.
Keep it line-art — thin strokes (1–2 px) read best at small sizes. Avoid tiny text.
Allowed tags: svg g path rect circle ellipse line polyline polygon defs linearGradient radialGradient stop title desc use clipPath mask filter pattern marker symbol text tspan. Anything else is removed.
No scripts / no external refs — <script>, on* handlers, javascript: and non-# hrefs are stripped automatically.

8.2 A minimal icon

A rack box with three rack-unit slots, themed to follow the object colour:

<svg viewBox="0 0 64 64">
  <rect x="10" y="12" width="44" height="40" rx="2"
        fill="#1a1d24" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2"/>
  <rect x="16" y="18" width="32" height="8" fill="none"
        stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="1.2"/>
  <rect x="16" y="30" width="32" height="8" fill="none"
        stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="1.2"/>
  <rect x="16" y="42" width="32" height="6"
        fill="currentColor" opacity="0.3"/>
</svg>

8.3 Using gradients & a status colour

Gradients and a fixed accent are fine — only the dangerous tags are stripped:

<svg viewBox="0 0 64 64">
  <defs>
    <linearGradient id="g" x1="0" y1="0" x2="0" y2="1">
      <stop offset="0" stop-color="#2b3140"/>
      <stop offset="1" stop-color="#11151c"/>
    </linearGradient>
  </defs>
  <rect x="8" y="16" width="48" height="32" rx="3" fill="url(#g)"
        stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2"/>
  <circle cx="46" cy="32" r="3" fill="#22c55e"/>  <!-- power LED -->
</svg>

If your icon disappearsIt was probably rejected: no <svg> tag, an unclosed tag, or it relied on a stripped feature (an external image href, a <style> block, or a script). Paste valid, self-contained markup using the whitelist above.

9 · Power module

StageGrid tracks the whole power chain. Power sources (generators, distros, drops, outlets) have a capacity; every powered object draws watts at a phase with a startup (inrush) factor. The Power Summary totals load per phase, flags the peak single inrush, and sizes the generator.

Daisy-chaining — plug a distro into a drop into an outlet into an amp; loads roll up to the root source.
Heterogeneous outlet groups — a distro can expose mixed connectors (4× IEC + 2× Socapex); each group is tracked separately, and per-outlet connector types are editable.
Pinned sources — pin a piece of gear to a specific drop/outlet instead of the closest one.

10 · Cabling — schedule & pull list

The cable schedule is a numbered list of every physical run: instrument→stagebox mic lines, sub-box looms, split→FOH/MON snakes, monitor returns, and speaker lines. Each row carries the cable kind, colour, length (rounded to stock in realism mode), route side, and the gear/box it connects.

The pull list rolls the schedule up by cable kind and length — the case list for load-in ("6× 15 m XLR, 2× 50 m loom…"). Cable colours are configurable (mic input green, mic return orange, speaker, loom, multicore, power) and used consistently across the plan, schedule, and PDFs.

11 · Exports

Export	Contents
PDF stage plan	The scaled stage with objects, cable lines, stagebox key, and legends. Layer-toggle audio / speaker / loom / power / video.
Input List PDF	Every channel: number, name, source, mic/DI, stagebox·socket (with sub-snake jack), stand, phantom — colour-keyed by stagebox.
Rack pages	A printed View Rack per stagebox — full connector layout with channel labels, GS/AES markers, and rack labels.
Illustrated plan	Channel-list pages striped by stagebox colour plus a stage diagram marking each box/sub-snake.
CSV / Push to mixer	Channel/bus data for spreadsheets or a mixer scene file.
Show JSON	The complete editable show, including custom objects and the app version stamp.

Where exports goFiles save to your browser/OS download location. The desktop app opens print/PDF in your browser for full print support.

12 · Settings

Stagebox numbering — letters (A, B, C) or numbers (SB1, SB2).
Stagebox colour palette — the rotation, with optional per-letter pins (A is always cyan…). Split racks default to orange, monitor consoles to purple.
Cable colours — per cable kind.
Realism mode — stock-length rounding, service loops, and mic-type length allowances.

13 · Keyboard shortcuts

Key	Action
F	Fit objects to area (then drag the box; Esc cancels)
Delete / Backspace	Delete selected object(s)
⌘/Ctrl + Z / ⇧Z	Undo / Redo
Drag on empty canvas	Marquee multi-select
Click a channel/bus source cell	Open the patch picker

The full, current list lives under ? → "Keyboard shortcuts" in the app.

14 · Glossary

Term	Meaning
Stagebox	A multi-channel input panel on stage; sends one snake to the console. IDs A, B, C…
Sub-stagebox / sub-snake / loom	A small breakout box feeding a parent stagebox over one multicore. Jacks land on the parent as `A·1`, `A·2`…
Split Rack	A passive splitter duplicating inputs to FOH + MON (+ optional broadcast). IDs FS1, FS2…
Monitor Console	The monitor mixer's input rack; accepts direct patches. IDs MON1, MON2…
Gender-swap (GS)	A passive M/F adapter reversing a connector's role; one adapter per marker.
AES	A digital (AES/EBU) connector designation on a socket; drawn blue.
Transformer-isolated broadcast split	A galvanically-isolated 3rd split output for an OB truck / broadcast / recording feed.
Hot-shot	A mic config emitting two channels from one input (FOH + MON) for independent processing.
Bus / aux	A mixer output feeding a wedge, IEM, FX, or recorder. Numbered A1, A2…
Pull list	The cable schedule rolled up by kind and length — the load-in case list.

StageGrid 1.7.14 · v51.28.0 — generated 2026-08-10. This manual is generated from the live app; rack diagrams are real StageGrid renders.