Cabinets¶

A cabinet is an enclosure whose gear sits on DIN rails rather than in rack units: a control cabinet with PLCs and I/O, a distribution board, a small industrial switch box on a factory wall. Positions in a cabinet are measured in millimetres, so it is a model of its own next to racks, not a rack of a different height.

Add a cabinet¶

1. Open DCIM → Cabinets and click Add cabinet.
2. Name it and pick its site. Names are unique per site, like rack names.
3. Optionally pick a cabinet type, a role, a location within the site, a status, tags and a facility ID (the label on the door, e.g. =UH1+K1).
4. Give the mounting plate size - the plate the rails are fixed to - and, if you know it, the outer width, height and depth of the box.

All sizes are whole millimetres. The plate has to fit in the box: an outer width or height smaller than the plate is refused. A cabinet created with a type takes the type's sizes; a size you enter, or clear, wins. Changing the type of an existing cabinet leaves its sizes as they are.

A cabinet page has the usual tabs - Overview, Documents, Journal and Change log - and cabinets list on their site's and location's pages. Cabinets carry custom fields, tags, contacts, images and statuses like racks do; the status catalog offers Active, Planned, Reserved, Available and Deprecated for them, Active first.

Cabinet types¶

A cabinet type is an enclosure model - "Rittal AE 1060.500" - with the plate and box sizes every cabinet of that model has. Define them on DCIM → Cabinet types. Picking a type on the cabinet form fills the sizes; each stays editable, so the cabinet remains the source of truth. A type in use by a cabinet cannot be deleted.

Cabinet roles¶

A cabinet role says what a cabinet is for (distribution, control, metering, …) with a colour, so cabinets group visually in lists and pickers. Define them on the Cabinet roles page; none ship by default. A role in use cannot be deleted.

Rails¶

The mounting plate carries DIN rails. Each rail has a label, unique in its cabinet, and a profile - TS 35, TS 15 or G 32 - which sets the height of the band it takes on the plate (35, 15 or 32 mm). It is placed by its left end and its centreline, measured from the plate's top-left corner, and has a length, all in tenths of a millimetre.

A rail has to lie on the plate, and two rails may not overlap where they run side by side. Rails that only touch are fine, so rails can sit end to end on one line or band against band. A plate cannot shrink past its rails; move them in the same save.

On a cabinet's Overview, Plate draws the mounting plate to scale with its rails, inside the box when its outer size is known; hover a rail for its numbers. Edit rails lists one row per rail - label, profile, left end, centreline, length - beside the drawing, where a rail can also be dragged in whole millimetres or nudged with the arrow keys (Shift for 10 mm). Add rail puts a new rail across the plate 125 mm below the lowest one (75 mm from the top for the first), or in the first free spot from the top when that runs off the plate. The rules above are checked as you type; Save changes writes the whole set. The cabinet list has a Rails column.

A cabinet type carries rail templates of the same shape, edited the same way on its page. A new cabinet of the type starts with its rails, unless rails are given with it. A change to a cabinet's rails, or to a type's templates, is one entry on its change log, listing the rails before and after.

Sync from type¶

Sync from type, in a cabinet's header, compares it with its type: the sizes that differ, the template rails it lacks (add), rails with a template's label that sit elsewhere or have another profile (update), and its own rails no template names (extra). Applying copies the sizes and adds or moves rails; it never removes one. When both sizes and rails differ, either can be left out. A sync whose result would not fit the plate is refused as a whole.

Mounting devices¶

A device goes in a cabinet when its type mounts on DIN rails: the device type lists the rail profiles it fits and its body size. The device sits on one of the cabinet's rails at an offset - from the rail's left end to the device's left edge, in tenths of a millimetre - and takes its type's width from there. Devices on one rail may touch but not overlap, and stay on the rail. With no offset, a device takes the first gap from the left that it fits in.

On the cabinet's Overview the plate draws each device on its rail at its type's size - its front photo, else a box in its role's colour - and its name. A calibrated photo is drawn at its true size, its left guide on the device's left edge and its rail line on the rail; an uncalibrated one is stretched to the device's size. Hover a device for its type and offset; click to open it.

The toolbar over the plate works like a rack's elevation. Images (the default) is the look above; Names draws each device as a box in its role's colour with its name; Render lays each device's live faceplate on it - its ports coloured by cable, speed and SNMP state, with the device page's hover card - at true size when the photo is calibrated. Images marks the ports on a photo the same way, where the device type has photo ports, as a rack's elevation does; a device without keeps its plain photo. In both, a click on a cabled port opens the trace of its run in a dialog, a free port opens its own page, and the key to the colours sits under the plate. Images reads every device's markers in one request; the interfaces they stand for load per device, as Render loads them, and the live SNMP state only for a photo that marks interfaces. Disk bays and other hardware markers show their part, and their card - or a right-click - sets the part's status; the rest of the part is edited on the device. Display ▾ holds the plate's ticks (on a narrow screen the button is its icon): Labels hides the device names (and, in Names, the rail labels); Ports (Images and Render) draws the live ports - off, Images shows the bare photos and Render each type's plain drawing, as on a rack's elevation, whose Ports tick is the same one. − and + zoom, starting fitted to the column (Render starts larger) and scrolling when the plate grows wider; Export saves the plate as a file or prints it (see Export). The mode, zoom, labels and ports are remembered in your browser. Add device in the Plate heading opens a new device on the rail you pick, which takes the first free gap; Assign puts an existing device of the site on a rail, offering only devices whose type fits the rail's profile. Each rail in those menus shows its widest free stretch. The Devices tab lists the cabinet's devices with their rail and offset.

Export¶

Export, at the end of the plate's toolbar, saves the plate as a file (on a narrow screen the button is its icon). The file is drawn from the cabinet's data, not captured from the screen, and is light-themed whatever theme the app is in: the plate true to its millimetres inside its box, the rails with their labels, and each device on its rail at its offset in the mode on screen - Names, or Images with each calibrated photo at its true size and the rest stretched over their devices - its name where the page writes it, with Labels on.

The PNG and SVG carry the cabinet's name over the drawing, with its site, location, plate size and the time. On a PDF the title block is written by the server from the cabinet: its name; its site, location, type and plate size; the date, the Danbyte version and the page. Print it at Actual size; if the browser blocks the new tab, the PDF is downloaded instead. The paper is remembered in your browser, and Print shows which it will use.

Every file is named after the cabinet and the day: k1-plate-2026-10-02.svg. A photo that will not load is drawn as its device's Names box, and the menu says how many. Render has no vector drawing yet: in Render the PNG is a picture of the screen, and the SVG and PDF draw the Images look - the menu and the PDF dialog say so. There is no Export while you arrange the plate.

The plate in 3D¶

2D | 3D, first on the plate's toolbar, swaps the drawing for the cabinet in 3D (?viz=3d keeps it in the URL): the enclosure at its outer size with its door standing open, the galvanised mounting plate inside, each rail as a bar of its profile, and each device on its rail as a box of its type's width, height and depth, its front photo on its face - at true size where the photo is calibrated, stretched over the face where it is not, the role's colour where there is none. A type with no depth recorded is drawn 90 mm deep.

The ports marked on a device's photo are drawn on it, at their markers, as the 3D room draws a racked device's: cabled ports in their speed tier, free ones faint in their type's, disabled grey, a port held for a cable amber, live SNMP state where the device is polled, a part's status on a hardware marker and an amber outline where SNMP disagrees with the record. Where a calibrated photo is clipped to its device, so are its ports. They resolve in one request when the view opens - the room's own, so the drift outline costs a check per device - and the key to their colours sits under the view.

Drag to turn it and scroll to zoom. Close door and Open door swing the door on its left-hand hinge (it snaps when the system asks for reduced motion); Front and Rear look straight at either side, as a double-click on the cabinet does; PNG downloads <cabinet>-3d.png. Hover a device for its card - type, role, rail and offset, size - and click it to keep the card with Open device; hover a port for its card - state, speed, the cable and its far end - and click it to keep that one. The view draws at the quality picked in a floor plan's 3D View menu on this device. The same cabinet, door and all, opens in a floor plan's 3D room.

Placing a device¶

In the device form, Mounting switches between Rack and Cabinet. On Cabinet, pick the cabinet and a rail: the offset starts at the first free spot the device fits, and the plate is drawn under the fields with the device's outline there. Click a free spot on a rail to put it there, double-click a gap to centre it in the gap, drag the outline along or across rails, or nudge it with the arrow keys (Shift for 10 mm). It snaps flush to a neighbour or the rail's end, and turns red where it would overlap or run off the rail; rails of a profile the device does not fit are dimmed.

The slider under the plate moves the device along its rail; its track shows what is taken. Beside it, buttons jump to the previous or next gap the device fits in, or set it flush left or right in its gap; on the slider, Page Up and Page Down jump between gaps and Home and End go to the first and last spot. The line under the plate reads the device's edges (120–180 mm), or No gap fits. A blank offset still takes the first gap.

Arranging a cabinet¶

Arrange in the Plate heading turns the plate into the same placer for every device in it: click a device to pick it, then drag it, nudge it or use the slider. Move as many as you like - moved devices show where they will go, red where they would clash - and Save applies them in one go, so devices can swap places. With nothing picked, click a free spot on a rail for Add device here or Assign here. Escape drops the pick; leaving with unsaved moves asks first. Arrange is offered to users who may change devices. While arranging, a plate in Render shows Images until you save or cancel.

Where a device may sit¶

A device in a cabinet is at the cabinet's site: one without a site takes it, and the cabinet's location when it has none; one at another site is refused. A device sits in a rack or a cabinet, never both. Taking a device out of its cabinet takes it off its rail; a device can also be in a cabinet off any rail.

Rails, cabinets and types keep their devices:

• a rail that carries devices cannot be removed, shortened past them, or given a profile they do not mount on - moving a rail moves its devices with it;
• a cabinet with devices on its rails cannot be deleted, nor move to another site while devices are in it;
• a type's width or profiles cannot change in a way devices of it on rails would not survive.

Sync from type skips a rail update that its devices would not survive and lists it as blocked, with the reason. Search shows where a device sits - K1 · R2 @ 120 mm - and finds it by its cabinet's name.

Floor plans¶

A floor plan tile can link to a cabinet: in the plan editor's inspector, Linked object → Cabinet lists the cabinets of the plan's site, and Fit to cabinet sizes the tile to the cabinet's outer width × depth. Clicking the tile opens a panel with the plate drawn and its devices rail by rail; the cabinet page's Show on floor plan opens the plan on its tile. Its live state (GET /api/floor-plans/{id}/state/) carries the cabinet's device_count, rail_count and the worst monitoring check of its devices; cable runs to its devices end on its tile; the 3D scene lists it as a box of its outer size - the plate plus 50 mm, 200 mm deep, where the outer size is not recorded - whose card opens its door onto the plate and its devices. /api/floor-plan-tiles/?cabinet={id} finds the tiles that link to it.

Permissions¶

Cabinets, cabinet types and cabinet roles are object types of their own in permissions (cabinet, cabinettype, cabinetrole). A permission limited to sites limits cabinets by their site, as it does racks. Types and roles are shared by the whole tenant.

API¶

Sizes are inner_width_mm and inner_height_mm (the plate, required unless the type gives them) and outer_width_mm, outer_height_mm and outer_depth_mm. References are written as site_id, location_id, role_id, cabinet_type_id and status_id, and read back as small objects. ?picker=1 returns a short form of each list for pickers. Deleting a type or role that cabinets use answers 409 with how many use it.

A cabinet's rails, and a type's rail_templates, are read and written with it as a list of {id, label, profile, x_mm, y_mm, length_mm}. A write replaces the whole set: an item with the id of one of its rails updates that rail, an item without one is a new rail, and rails left out are removed. Errors come back per rail, in the order sent.

POST /api/cabinets/{id}/sync-from-type/ answers the difference ({"applied": false, "diff": …}, its rails split into add, update, blocked and extra); with {"apply": true} it applies it, and sizes and rails (both true by default) narrow what applies.

A device reads cabinet, din_rail and din_offset_mm, and writes cabinet_id, din_rail_id and din_offset_mm; /api/devices/?cabinet= and ?din_rail= filter by them, and ?din_profile=ts35 keeps devices whose type mounts on that profile. A device type has width_mm, height_mm, depth_mm, din_profiles (a list of ts35, ts15, g32) and din_rail_mm. A cabinet counts its devices in device_count.

POST /api/cabinets/{id}/arrange/ moves devices already in the cabinet in one save: {"placements": [{"device_id", "din_rail_id", "din_offset_mm"}]}, a null rail taking a device off its rail. The arrangement is checked as a whole - every rail's devices fit and none overlap, moved or not - so devices can swap places; errors come back per placement, in order, and nothing changes unless all of it fits. It needs change on every device it moves.

POST /api/cabinets/{id}/export/pdf/ lays the plate out on one sheet of paper and returns the PDF as a download: svg is the drawing, as the Export menu's SVG draws it (required); paper is {size: a4|a3|letter|tabloid, orientation: portrait|landscape}, A4 landscape when absent, either key alone keeping the other's default; title_block: false leaves the title block off. The server writes the title block from the cabinet - its name; its site, location, type and plate size; the date, the Danbyte version and Page 1 / 1 - and nothing in the request changes it. It needs view on cabinets (a 403 without), and another tenant's cabinet, or one outside the sites you are limited to, is a 404. The SVG is checked and limited as the topology's PDF is, and the same one PDF at a time per user and two across the server count every drawing's PDFs together. ?print=1 answers {"url": "/api/cabinets/{id}/export/pdf/<token>/"} instead: the PDF for five minutes, to you alone in the same tenant while you can view the cabinet, ?download=1 to save it; a newer one replaces it.