QuickCabling

1. Load Plan (PDF) — your venue plan (first page of the PDF).
2. Calibrate — draw over a known distance and enter its real length so runs measure correctly.
3. Pick a cable type on the left, then click along the plan to place a cable.
4. Tick any connectors the cable needs when the dialog appears.
5. Inspect Sheet to check the totals, Export to get a PDF or Excel sheet, File → Save Show to keep your work.

Click Calibrate, click two points over a known distance on the plan, then enter its real length (millimeters in Metric, feet in Imperial). Stock lengths are auto-picked with a 10% slack margin added to each drawn run.

Metric / Imperial

File → Switch to Imperial / Metric changes the whole tool between meters and feet. A saved show remembers its system, and loading it switches your session to match.

Each tab across the top is its own plan, up to 9 — its own PDF, scale, zoom and cables. Click + to add one and double-click a tab to rename it.

Cable types, cable numbering and Misc Items are shared across all plans, so IDs and colors stay consistent for the whole show. Export produces a combined sheet plus one sheet per plan.

Points marked with a ring and a "+" label carry a vertical run, which is added to the cable's length.

When two cables run together (say DMX and Powercon), pick the first type as usual, then Ctrl + click a second type in the list. Its row gets a dashed outline and a "+" tag. Draw one path and you get two cables — one of each type, each with its own ID, its own stock fit and its own connector dialog.

• On the plan the two lines sit a few pixels apart so both are visible; that's display only, and both cables measure the full drawn length.
• Clicking either one lights up both.
• Ctrl+click the second type again to un-pair it, or just click any type normally to go back to one cable at a time.
• Two types is the limit — a third Ctrl+click asks you to deselect one first.
• Deleting one half of a pair leaves the other as a normal cable.

The strip along the bottom of the window always shows the keys and mouse actions that apply to what you're doing right now — placing a cable, drawing, selecting, calibrating. Click ⌨ Hints at its right end to hide it (your choice is remembered).

Click Select (under Calibrate) to switch to the Select tool, then click a cable on the plan, or drag a box to select every cable it touches. It's lit on the plan and highlighted in the Cable List, so you can see exactly which one it is. Click the Select button again, or press Esc, to go back to drawing.

Clicking a row in the Cable List selects that cable too (Ctrl/Shift+click a row to add more).

Ctrl+Z (Cmd+Z on Mac) undoes the last cable you placed — both cables if you placed a pair — or brings back cables you deleted (including with Clear). It remembers the last 20 steps, and a cable you place again after undoing reuses the same number.

• Swapping ends and changing connectors aren't part of the undo history, and there's no redo.
• History starts fresh when you start a new show, load a show, or remove a plan.

Cables are grouped by type — click a group header to collapse or expand it. Each row shows the cable's ID, its measured length and the stock it resolves to (plus any connectors).

Each cable type's ⚙ icon opens its stock lengths and connectors. Adding a length inserts a real row into your requirements sheet — it's counted as genuine inventory, not a stray number.

Connectors

Connectors are optional end-of-run accessories — like Pex To Top or 63 Open Tail, but definable for any cable type, including your own. Once a type has at least one, finishing a drawn cable of that type pops a checkbox dialog automatically, and each connector gets its own row in the sheet too.

Misc Items are manual quantity items — not drawn on the plan. Special DMX and Special Gear are the built-in categories, but they work exactly like any category you create: double-click a category name to rename it, or use ✕ to remove one entirely (which also removes everything inside it). Add your own categories at the bottom of the dialog.

Inspect Sheet is a read-only preview of your requirements sheet — the same numbers you'll get on export, with nothing downloaded. Its tabs switch between All Cables (combined) and each individual plan, and the Cable Compensation controls at the top let you compare with and without a spare buffer.

Export opens a chooser with two formats. PDF is the same sheet typeset as a clean two-column document that anyone can open and print — choose A4 or US Letter, whether to hide unused rows (on by default, so only cables you actually need are listed), and whether to add a section for each plan after the combined All cables list (short plans share the page, or tick Start each plan on a new page). Excel (.xlsx) downloads the editable spreadsheet: an "All Cables" sheet plus one sheet per plan you've used.

An extra quantity added on top of each row's final count on Inspect Sheet / Export — not a longer cable, just more spares of the same size. Applies to connector/accessory rows too. Adjust the percentage with the −/+ stepper in Inspect Sheet, in 5% steps.

The 🚫 switches

• Next to "Cable Compensation" itself — a master switch. Turn it off to instantly compare the sheet with no buffer at all, without losing your configured percentage. Turn it back on and everything returns exactly as it was.
• Next to an individual row — excludes just that stock length or connector from the buffer. The row still shows its full required quantity, it just doesn't get any extra added on top. This is per row, not per individual cable.

Save Show / Load Show work everywhere — saved shows use a .qcab file, easy to spot alongside your other files, and hold every plan, its scale, and all your cables.

In Chrome, Edge, or Opera, File → Set Auto-Load File… links a show file so it loads automatically next time you open this tool — no manual "Load Show" needed. Use Save to Linked File to update it in place instead of downloading a new copy each time. If the linked file gets moved or deleted, you'll be prompted to relocate it or unlink and start fresh.

A second, separate linked file (same browsers as above) that holds your durable cable setup — type colors, stock lengths, connectors, custom cable types, and Misc Items categories — independent of any one show.

File → Set Cable Config File… links it and saves your current setup into it immediately; every future add/remove/color change auto-saves back to it, no manual save needed.