--- title: Documenting WING Routing description: A practical guide to documenting Behringer WING console routing — export channel lists, bus and matrix sends, and stagebox patches to PDF and Excel from your .snap snapshot. --- # How to Document Your Behringer WING Routing Your WING holds hundreds of routing decisions — every channel source, every bus send, every output patch. The console knows all of it, but the moment you need that information on paper (for a deputy engineer, a venue tech, an insurance claim, or next year's rebuild) you have nothing to hand. This guide shows you how to turn a snapshot into clean, shareable routing documentation in a couple of minutes. > **Note**: Everything here works from a standard WING snapshot (`.snap`) file. You never connect Wing Tools to the console — you export a snapshot and upload the file. ## Why Document Routing At All? A console's routing lives in volatile places: the desk itself, a USB stick, and your memory. None of those survive a swapped console, a borrowed engineer, or a six-month gap between shows. Written routing documentation gives you: - **Continuity** — a deputy or support engineer can walk up cold and understand the patch. - **Recovery** — if a show file is lost or corrupted, the document is your rebuild blueprint. - **Handover** — rental houses and venues can prep and verify a desk before you arrive. - **Proof** — a dated record of how the system was configured, useful for production paperwork. Doing this by hand — photographing screens or copying values into a spreadsheet — is slow and goes stale the instant you change a send. Generating it from the snapshot keeps the document and the desk in sync. ## What You Need ### Requirements - A WING snapshot file (`.snap`) saved from your console. - A Wing Tools account. The **Routing Generator** is available on the Basic tier and above; a limited PDF export works on Free. ### Exporting a Snapshot From the WING 1. On the console, go to the **Library** / snapshot screen. 2. Save the current state as a snapshot, or use an existing one. 3. Copy the `.snap` file to a USB drive (or pull it via the WING's file tools). > **Tip**: Name snapshots descriptively on the desk — `FOH-festival-2026` beats `snapshot-07`. The name carries through into your documentation. ## Generating Routing Documentation ### Basic Workflow 1. Open the [Routing Generator](04-routing-generator.md) and upload your `.snap` file. 2. Review the parsed channel list — Wing Tools reads every channel, bus, main, and matrix from the snapshot. 3. Choose your output format (PDF for sharing, Excel for editing). 4. Download. That's it — no manual transcription. A typical export gives you, per channel, the **name**, **color**, **source** (e.g. `AES50-A.30`, `Local.5`, `USB.12`), and where it is sent. Buses, mains, and matrices are documented the same way, so the full signal path is on the page. ### Choosing a Format | Format | Best for | |--------|----------| | **PDF** | Sharing with deputies, venues, and rental houses; printing for the show file | | **Excel** | Further editing, custom layouts, importing into production paperwork | | **HTML** | Quick on-screen review and searching | ## What Gets Documented A complete routing document covers the whole console, not just input names: - **Channels** — name, color, physical source, and bus/main/matrix sends. - **Buses** — names and their send routing (e.g. monitor mixes, effects sends). - **Mains and Matrices** — output structure and feeds. - **Stagebox / physical I/O** — which inputs land where, ideal for patching the stage. > **Important**: Because the document is generated from the snapshot, it reflects *exactly* what is in that file. Re-export after you make routing changes so the paperwork never lies. ## Beyond a Static List Once your routing is in Wing Tools, a few related tools make documentation far more powerful than a printout: - **[Signal Flow](05-signal-flow.md)** *(Premium)* — see the routing as an interactive diagram and trace any channel's path from input to output. - **[Routing Diff](06-routing-diff.md)** *(Premium)* — compare two snapshots and document *exactly what changed* between shows or rehearsals. - **[Snapshot Linter](10-snapshot-linter.md)** *(Pro)* — catch routing mistakes (muted buses, missing talkback, phantom power gaps) before they reach soundcheck. - **Stagebox device labels** — printable labels for your SD/DL stageboxes so the physical patch matches the document. ## Tips and Best Practices - **Document the final state, not the soundcheck mess.** Export your snapshot after the patch is settled. - **Keep a dated copy per show.** Pair it with [Routing Diff](06-routing-diff.md) and you have a complete change history. - **Name and color channels on the desk.** Good housekeeping on the console produces good documentation automatically. - **Share the PDF ahead of time.** Venues and rental houses prep faster and make fewer mistakes when they can see your patch in advance. ## Troubleshooting ### My snapshot won't upload Make sure you exported a `.snap` file from the WING (not a show/scene from a different console). If it still fails, check the [Reference section](09-reference.md) for supported snapshot format versions. ### Channel names or sources look wrong The document mirrors the snapshot. If a name looks off, it is almost always off on the desk too — re-check the channel on the console, re-export, and regenerate. ## Next Steps - **[Routing Generator](04-routing-generator.md)**: Full reference for the PDF/Excel export options. - **[Signal Flow](05-signal-flow.md)**: Turn your routing into an interactive, traceable diagram. - **[Routing Diff](06-routing-diff.md)**: Document what changed between two snapshots. --- **Questions?** Check the [Reference section](09-reference.md) for troubleshooting tips.