How to use DMXhub

DMXhub is a free macOS desktop app. There is nothing to buy and no account to create.

Install

Get on the right network first. DMXhub sends and receives real lighting data over your network interface, so before you build anything, put your Mac on the same network and IP range as your consoles and nodes. Art-Net is commonly run on a dedicated 2.x or 10.x lighting network and sACN on a production LAN with multicast. DMXhub just needs you to pick the correct interface per source and output. You'll pick the exact network interface per source and per output inside the app.

What the app does, in one line. It ingests lighting control (Art-Net and sACN) from the network, merges and remaps universes through routes you draw, and sends the merged result back out as Art-Net and/or sACN, a router/patchbay/merger for lighting control networks.

Everything you build lives in the main router editor window, which the rest of this guide walks through.

On launch you land on the start page rather than dropping straight into the last show. It shows the DMXhub wordmark and three things:

Projects are `.dmxhub` files. A project file holds your entire configuration: every source, every output, every route, merge policies, failover settings, modifiers, and master state. Your config *is* the show, so save it like one.

Inside the editor, project commands live in the `File ▾` menu (top-left of the toolbar):

Unsaved-changes dot. The project name is centered in the toolbar. When you have unsaved edits, an orange dot (•) appears next to the name. The name reads Untitled until you first save.

Undo / redo are always available from the two arrow buttons next to the File menu (↶ / ↷), or via keyboard. They cover graph edits like adding sources, drawing routes, and changing policies.

Sources are your inputs: the consoles, media servers, and nodes whose data you want to ingest. They live in the top half of the left Library pane, under the Sources header.

Add a source

Configure the source in the Inspector

Universes within a source. A source carries many universes, each with its own on/off and its own live 512-channel preview. Select the source node on the canvas and click its disclosure arrow (▸) to expand it; each universe shows a toggle dot, a U01/U02… label, and a live DMX bar. Use the + on the source node header to add another universe slot. Click a universe's dot to mute or unmute just that universe.

Discovery. As live Art-Net and sACN traffic arrives on the chosen interface, the source's universes light up in the previews so you can confirm you're actually receiving data before you route anything.

Outputs are your destinations: where the merged result is sent. They live in the bottom half of the left Library pane, under the Outputs header.

Add an output

Configure the output in the Inspector

Arming. New outputs and routes are only as live as you make them. In the Library, each output has a small square checkbox to the left of its name: filled orange = armed, hollow = disarmed. Click it to arm/disarm; you can also toggle armed in the Inspector. The same merged result can be mirrored to several outputs, so you might arm an Art-Net output and an sACN output simultaneously.

Transport. Output sending only happens while the engine is running. Press ▶ Start in the top-right of the toolbar to begin transmitting and ■ Stop to cease. Disarming an output (or stopping) cleanly stops its streams downstream.

A route (also called a mapping) connects one or more input universes to one or more output universes, with a merge policy in between. You build routes visually on the center canvas.

Draw a route by dragging

Other ways to wire

Set the output universe. Select the mapping card; the Inspector shows the route. Under output, the U field is the universe number sent on the wire, the Art-Net port-address or the sACN universe at the destination. The input universe and the output universe are independent, so this is where you remap (e.g. input U1 → output U101).

Reading the card. A collapsed mapping card summarizes the route: Source·U1 → Output·U101 plus the merge mode abbreviation. A green dot and orange highlight indicate the route is live (passing signal). Expand the card to see the input previews and the merged output preview inline.

Remove a route with remove mapping at the bottom of the route's Inspector panel.

When a route has more than one input, the combine policy (set in the route's Inspector, under routing) decides how they mix. Select the route, then pick from the combine dropdown:

A plain-English description of the selected mode shows directly under the picker.

Per-input controls. Each input in the route is a row with controls:

Add an input to a route with + add in the route's inputs section, which lists every source universe not already wired in.

Failover protects a route when an input loses signal. Its controls are in the route's Inspector under routing → advanced.

Failover settings

Failover order follows the input list: rank 1 is the primary, and the first available input down the list takes over. Reorder the inputs (drag the ⠿ handle) to set that order.

Manual flip (switch mode). In switch mode each input row gets a radio button:

When a route fails over or you flip it, the route shows its live state on the canvas (the active wire and card highlight), so you can see at a glance which source is currently feeding each universe.

Per-route modifiers are post-merge processing applied to a route's output, in the Inspector under output → advanced:

Modifiers run after the merge, so they apply to the combined result regardless of how many inputs fed it.

Master and blackout are global, in the top toolbar:

Per-input scale, per-route level, modifiers, grand master, and blackout stack in a predictable order: input scale → merge → route level/modifiers → grand master → blackout.

DMXhub gives you live 512-channel DMX previews and throughput stats so you can confirm signal at every stage, end to end, at 44 Hz.

DMX bars. Every preview is a 512-channel bar: one column per channel, grayscale from black = 0 to white = 255. They update continuously while the engine runs (▶ Start). You see them in three places:

Watching the input bars and the merged bar side by side is the fastest way to verify a merge policy, a clamp, or a channel-range mask is doing what you intended.

Status bar (bottom of the window). A live readout of engine health:

Live highlighting. On the canvas, live routes and their wires highlight orange, and source/route indicators turn green when passing signal, so the editor doubles as a real-time status board.

DMXhub's shortcuts cover project I/O and editing. On macOS the modifier is ⌘ (Command).

Projects

Editing

Dialogs

Notes: shortcuts respect text fields. While you're typing in a name or number field, ⌘Z performs normal text undo rather than a graph undo, so editing labels never blows away your routing history. Undo/redo apply to graph edits (adding sources/outputs/routes, changing policies, reordering inputs, modifiers, etc.). The arming checkboxes, ▶ Start / ■ Stop transport, and the Blackout button are one-click controls in the toolbar and Library rather than keyed shortcuts.