The three axes
A connector that seats tells you nothing about what should run through it, or which way. Technipatch crosses three independent pieces of information on every port — its direction, its signal type, its connector — and refuses a link the moment one of the three fails, even when the other two are flawless.
Three pieces of information, never one
A port carries three separate axes: its direction (input, output, or bidirectional — a network port both receives and sends), its signal type (what actually runs through it: Dante, DMX, analogue line…) and its connector (what physically plugs in: XLR, RJ45, BNC…). A drawing tool draws a line between two points; Technipatch crosses these three axes on every cable, and refuses the moment one of them fails — even when the other two are flawless.
What an RJ45 actually carries
The connector never says what runs through it: an RJ45 shows up on a plain network port as much as on a Dante link, an Art-Net output, a video run or a four-wire intercom. Here is the real list of signal types that use this socket today, counted in Technipatch’s library rather than stated:
Counted in the catalogue, not restated here: 23 signal types, 30 physical connectors.
- Dante
- HDMI
- LED panel link
- Art-Net
- Network (Ethernet)
- Intercom
112 library entries wire this socket.
Same socket, protocols that do not talk
Two RJ45 ports seat into each other without the slightest resistance, whether they carry the same signal or not — the plug never objects. It is the port’s signal type that decides, independent of the connector. Here is what Technipatch returns on a link pulled from an Art-Net output to a Dante input, both in RJ45 — the same function as the app’s Checks tab.
- Art-Net node (RJ45, Art-Net) → Dante device (RJ45, Dante)
Refused Incompatible signals: Art-Net on one side, Dante on the other. The RJ45 carries both, but the devices won’t speak the same language.
Direction does not follow from the rest either
Same signal, same connector — and still refused: two outputs never link to each other, whatever they carry. Direction is the third axis, and it follows from neither the signal nor the connector.
- Output A and Output B — two Dante outputs, both in RJ45
Refused Two outputs cannot be linked together. Link an output to an input.
What sets a system diagram apart from a drawing
A vector drawing tool draws a line between two points and stops there: it knows nothing of the signal, the direction, or what the plug actually accepts. Technipatch crosses the three axes on every cable, through an engine of written, tested rules — never a language model guessing at technical correctness. That crossing, not the line itself, is what makes a system diagram different from an illustration.
The canvas is already open
Drop five devices, pull cables between their ports: the cable list, the patch sheet and the equipment list fill themselves in while you draw. No account, no card.