---
title: Signal Flow
description: Interactive visualization of signal routing through your WING mixer
---

# Signal Flow (Premium)

Signal Flow provides an interactive, visual representation of how signals route through your WING mixer. See your entire routing configuration at a glance and trace signals from physical inputs through the mixer to physical outputs.

> **Note**: Signal Flow visualization requires a Premium or Pro subscription.

## What You'll See

The signal flow visualization displays three layers:

```
+-------------------------------------------+
|      PHYSICAL INPUTS                      |
|  LCL  AES50-A  AES50-B  AES50-C  USB      |
+-------------------------------------------+
              |
+-------------------------------------+
|           MIXER                     |
|  Inputs: CH1-40, AUX1-8             |
|  Outputs: BUS1-16, MTX1-8, MAIN1-4  |
+-------------------------------------+
              |
+-------------------------------------------+
|      PHYSICAL OUTPUTS                     |
|  LCL  AES50-A  AES50-B  AES50-C  USB      |
+-------------------------------------------+
```

**Three visual layers**:

1. **Physical Inputs** (Top): All physical input sources, aggregated by group
2. **Mixer** (Middle): Complete mixer block showing all channels and outputs
3. **Physical Outputs** (Bottom): All physical output destinations, aggregated by group

## Accessing Signal Flow

**From the Web Interface**:

1. Navigate to the **Signal Flow** tab
2. Upload your snapshot file (or select from your library)
3. The diagram loads automatically
4. Use mouse/touch to pan and zoom

## Interactive Features

### Pan and Zoom

- **Click and drag** to pan around large diagrams
- **Scroll wheel** to zoom in/out
- **Double-click** to reset view
- **Fit-to-view button** in controls to see everything

### Search

Quickly find specific channels, groups, or elements in your diagram:

1. Use the **Search** field in the toolbar
2. Type any part of a channel name, group name, or identifier
3. Matching elements are highlighted in the diagram
4. Non-matching elements are dimmed for easy visual focus

> **Tip**: Search is particularly useful for large configurations with many channels. Search for "drum" to highlight all drum-related channels at once.

### Trace Mode

Trace mode helps you understand signal flow by highlighting complete signal paths:

1. Click the **Trace icon** (route symbol) in the toolbar to enable Trace mode
2. **Click any node or connection** to highlight its complete signal path
3. The path from source through the mixer to destination is highlighted
4. All unrelated elements are dimmed

### Multi-Selection

- Hold **Shift** while clicking to add elements to your selection
- Hold **Ctrl** (or **Cmd** on Mac) while clicking for the same effect
- Click on empty space to clear the selection

> **Note**: When Trace mode is disabled, clicking still selects elements but without the path highlighting effect.

## View Modes

Toggle between different view modes via the **More** menu and **View Preset**:

| Mode | Description | Use Case |
|------|-------------|----------|
| **Default** | Standard view with balanced detail | General use |
| **Show Everything** | All routes visible | Complete overview |
| **Direct Routes Only** | Hide mixer, show only direct patches | Troubleshoot direct connections |
| **Hide Direct Routes** | Show only mixer-based routing | Focus on mix routing |

## Channel Source Selection

Control which input source is displayed for each channel via the **Channel Source** selector in the **More** dropdown:

| Mode | Description |
|------|-------------|
| **Actual Source** | Shows the currently active source (MAIN or ALT) per channel |
| **Always use MAIN** | Forces all channels to display their MAIN source |
| **Always use ALT** | Forces all channels to display their ALT source |

This is useful when:

- Comparing what your show looks like with all channels on MAIN vs ALT sources
- Documenting both configurations from a single snapshot
- Troubleshooting alternate source routing

> **Note**: When "Always use MAIN" or "Always use ALT" is selected, direct routes are automatically hidden since they bypass channel input routing and are unaffected by MAIN/ALT selection.

## Node Labels

Control how channel elements are labeled in the diagram via the **Node Labels** selector in the **More** dropdown:

| Mode | Description |
|------|-------------|
| **Numbers Only** | Shows channel numbers (e.g., "1-8") with aggregation enabled |
| **Names Only** | Shows channel names, falls back to number if name is empty |
| **Numbers + Names** | Two-line display: number on top, name below |

**Key behaviors**:

- **Aggregation disabled for names**: When showing names, each channel is displayed individually (no more "1-8" ranges) since every channel can have a unique name
- **Empty names**: If a channel has no name assigned, the number is shown as fallback
- **Long names**: Names are truncated with ellipsis if they exceed the display width
- **Clink support**: Channel names respect the clink parameter - when clink is enabled on a channel, the displayed name is the source name

> **Tip**: Use "Names Only" mode when verifying that channel names are correctly configured on your mixer. Use "Numbers + Names" when you need both the position and the name visible for documentation purposes.

## Hover Information

Hover over connections and elements to see detailed information:

- **On edges**: Source and destination names, channel count for aggregated connections
- **On nodes**: Element details and connection summary
- Toggle hover overlays on/off via **More** menu and "Show hover info"

## Working with Groups

### Collapse and Expand

Collapse or expand groups to increase readability of your diagram:

- **Double-click** any group header to collapse it to a compact form
- **Click the expand button** on a collapsed group to expand it again
- **Collapse All Groups**: Use the Layout menu (grid icon) and "Collapse All Groups" to collapse every group at once
- **Expand All Groups**: Use the Layout menu and "Expand All Groups" to expand all collapsed groups

Collapsed groups show a compact representation with just the group name and connection count. This is especially useful when you want to focus on specific areas of your signal flow.

### Filter Groups

Hide entire groups from the diagram to focus on what matters:

1. Click **More** in the toolbar to open the dropdown menu
2. Click the **Filter In/Out** button
3. Uncheck groups you want to hide (inputs, outputs, or mixer sections)
4. Click **Apply** to update the diagram

Hidden groups are completely removed from the layout - not just collapsed, but excluded entirely. Any connections that only go to hidden groups will also disappear automatically.

A warning banner appears when groups are hidden, showing you how many are filtered out. Click **Show All** to restore everything, or dismiss the banner if you want to keep working with the simplified view.

> **Tip**: Filter out unused physical I/O groups (like USB or expansion cards) to create cleaner diagrams for documentation.

### Move Groups

Freely rearrange the groups in your diagram to create a layout that works best for your workflow:

- **Drag any group** to reposition it in the diagram
- **Layout auto-saves** - your customizations are preserved automatically
- **Reset Layout** button appears when you have custom positions - click to return to the automatic layout
- **Edges adjust automatically** - connection lines update their paths based on group positions

> **Note**: Only group nodes (like "LCL", "AES50-A", "Mixer Inputs") can be moved. Individual channel elements stay within their parent groups.

### Auto-Layout

Automatically arrange your diagram for optimal readability:

1. Open the **Layout menu** (grid icon) in the toolbar
2. Click **Auto-Layout**
3. Groups are repositioned to minimize edge crossings and maximize clarity

> **Tip**: Use Auto-Layout after hiding groups or collapsing sections to rebalance the diagram.

### Auto-Compact

When enabled (default), collapsed groups automatically resize to their minimal form:

- Toggle via **More** menu and "Auto-compact groups"
- When enabled, collapsed groups show minimal height
- When disabled, collapsed groups maintain their expanded height

## Undo Layout Changes

After any layout operation (reset, collapse all, expand all, auto-layout):

- An **Undo toast** appears at the bottom of the screen
- Click **Undo** within 10 seconds to revert the change
- Click the **X** to dismiss the toast and keep the changes

## Layout Persistence

Your layout customizations can be saved and loaded in two ways:

### Local Storage (Automatic)

- Layout changes are stored in your browser per snapshot file
- Your layouts persist across browser sessions
- Clearing your browser data will reset locally saved layouts

### Server-Side Layouts (Named Saves)

Save layouts to the server for long-term storage and sharing across devices:

1. Make changes to your layout (drag groups, collapse/expand, hide groups)
2. Click the **Save icon** in the toolbar (highlighted when you have unsaved changes)
3. In the Save Layout dialog:
   - Enter a name for a **new layout**, or
   - Select an existing layout to **overwrite** it
4. Click **Save Layout** or **Update Layout**

**Load saved layouts**:

1. Click the **Load icon** in the toolbar
2. Select from your saved layouts for this snapshot
3. Or click **Show All Layouts** to import layouts from other snapshots

> **Note**: When you leave the Signal Flow page with unsaved changes, your layout is automatically saved as "Auto-Saved" for that snapshot file.

## Keyboard Shortcuts

Speed up your workflow with keyboard shortcuts:

| Shortcut | Action |
|----------|--------|
| **Ctrl+O** | Open file browser |
| **Ctrl+Enter** | Generate signal flow |
| **F** | Toggle fullscreen |
| **R** | Reset layout (when customized) |
| **1** | Set view to Default |
| **2** | Set view to Show Everything |
| **3** | Set view to Direct Routes Only |
| **4** | Set view to Hide Direct Routes |
| **?** | Show keyboard shortcuts help |
| **ESC** | Exit fullscreen |

## Understanding Aggregated Connections

Signal flow uses intelligent aggregation to keep diagrams readable:

### Physical I/O Aggregation

Instead of showing 48 individual lines, consecutive channels are grouped:

```
AES-A (1-24) --/24--> CH1-24
```

The `/24` notation indicates 24 channels are aggregated into this single visual connection.

### Aggregation Rules

- Only consecutive channels with identical routing are aggregated
- Minimum of 4 channels required for aggregation
- Single channels shown individually
- Gaps prevent aggregation

**Example**:

```
Input Channels:  1 2 3 4 5    9 10 11 12
Display:         [1-5]        [9-12]
                   (5 channels shown as range)
```

## Mixer Block Details

The mixer block always shows the complete structure:

**Inputs displayed**:

- CH1-40 (all regular channels)
- AUX1-8 (all aux channels)

**Outputs displayed**:

- BUS1-16 (all buses)
- MTX1-8 (all matrices)
- MAIN1-4 (all main outputs)

> **Note**: The mixer internals are not shown (the mixer is a "black box"). Only input and output ports are visible.

## Direct Patches

Direct patches (signals that bypass the mixer) are shown as connections that route around the mixer block.

Example use cases for direct patches:

- **Stage box splitter**: Send mic to both mixer and recording device
- **FOH/Monitor split**: Distribute inputs to multiple consoles
- **Digital snake passthrough**: Pass signals through without processing

These appear as red lines in the diagram to distinguish them from normal mixer routing.

## Best Practices

### For System Integrators

- Use signal flow to document installed systems
- Export diagrams for handover documentation
- Verify all connections before going live

### For Live Sound Engineers

- Quickly verify stage box routing
- Identify unused inputs/outputs
- Troubleshoot missing signals visually

### For Production Teams

- Archive signal flow for show documentation
- Train new engineers on system architecture
- Compare configurations between venues

## Exporting Diagrams

### Fullscreen for Screenshots

Currently, the best way to capture your signal flow diagram is through screenshots in fullscreen mode:

1. Press **F** or click the fullscreen button to enter fullscreen
2. Arrange your layout as desired
3. Use your system's screenshot tool (e.g., Windows Snipping Tool, macOS Screenshot)
4. Press **ESC** to exit fullscreen

> **Tip**: The Wing Tools logo appears in the corner of fullscreen mode for professional-looking screenshots.

### Export Options (Planned)

Future updates will include:

- PNG image export
- SVG vector graphic for scalability
- PDF page included in routing document

## Next Steps

- **[Routing Generator](04-routing-generator.md)**: Generate PDF documentation with routing matrices
- **[Routing Diff](06-routing-diff.md)**: Compare two snapshots to see what changed
- **[Audio Engineer Guide](08-audio-engineer-guide.md)**: Best practices for Wing console workflow

---

**Questions about Signal Flow?** Check the [Reference section](09-reference.md) for troubleshooting tips.