Spec sheet scanner

Building a product's port list by hand, one HDMI input at a time, is slow. Drop the manufacturer's manual or spec sheet in as a PDF instead, and Avitly scans the text for port counts and builds the list for you to review.

Before you start

You need the product's spec sheet or manual as a PDF. Avitly reads its first 40 pages, since port specifications live early in almost every manual and the later pages are usually appendices.

Scan a PDF

1. On a product's Connections tab (or from the ports editor in the wiring plan), choose Import from PDF.
2. Pick the manufacturer's PDF. Avitly extracts its text and scans for phrasing like "2x HDMI in" or "12 balanced analog inputs".
3. A review dialog lists everything found, with its connector, signal, and direction guessed from the surrounding text. Nothing is saved yet.
4. Uncheck anything that is wrong, then confirm to add the checked ports to the product. You can rename or fine-tune any of them afterward in the ports list.

What it recognises

The scanner matches common connector phrasing (HDMI, SDI, RJ45, Dante, XLR, Phoenix/euroblock, TOSLINK, DMX, RS-232, and dozens more) and works out direction from words like "input" or "output" near the match, and signal type from context, "balanced" or "mic" reads as audio even on a generic terminal block. A pattern like "8x8 GPIO" is read as 8 inputs and 8 outputs on that connector.

It deliberately skips language that describes something other than a physical port on the back of the unit: measurement notes, DSP channel counts, and optional expansion accessories are excluded, since counting those as ports would overstate what is actually wired up.

Tips

• This is a text-pattern scan, not AI: it works well on structured spec tables and clearly worded manuals, and it will miss a port described only in loose prose with no count or clear input/output wording nearby. When it finds nothing, add the ports by hand instead.
• Every result waits in the review dialog until you confirm it: nothing from a scan lands on the product without you checking it first.
• Once a product has ports defined this way, they are what connector and signal validation checks against when you wire it up in a project.

See also Connectors & signal validation.