Item Library Overview
The Item Library is your organization's central catalog of cargo items. Every item you create — boxes, pallets, cylinders, irregular parts, or complex assemblies — is stored here and can be reused across any number of load plans without re-entering dimensions each time.
What the Item Library Is For
In logistics, the same products ship repeatedly. A standard 1,200 × 800 mm pallet of finished goods goes out every week. A particular machine component that ships to dealers. A range of retail cartons in five sizes. Defining these items once and maintaining them accurately in a shared library eliminates repetitive data entry and ensures everyone on your team is using the same, verified dimensions and properties.
The Item Library gives your organization:
- A single source of truth for item dimensions, weights, and physical properties
- Shared access across all team members — one person updates an item and everyone sees the change
- Reuse across plans — add library items to any plan with a single click
- Usage tracking — see how many plans each item has appeared in
- 3D model storage — attach CAD files (STEP, STL, OBJ, PLY) to complex parts and they render in 3D across all plans
- Geometry thumbnails — once a CAD part finishes processing, its library card shows the real geometry instead of a generic icon, drawn in the loading orientation you saved
What an Item Record Contains
Each item in the library stores everything the load optimizer and exporter need to know:
| Property | Description |
|---|---|
| Name | Descriptive label for the item |
| SKU | Optional product or stock-keeping unit code |
| Type | Box (cuboid), cylinder, or STEP-CAD |
| Dimensions | Length, width, height (mm) or diameter and height for cylinders |
| Weight | Per-unit weight in kg |
| Fragile | Whether the item can have other items stacked on top |
| Stackable | Whether this item can be stacked on top of others |
| Max weight on top | Weight limit for stacking above this item (kg), if stackable |
| Orientation | Rotation preferences: any, this-side-up, vertical only, horizontal only |
| Separation tags | Hazmat class, food-grade, wet goods — enforces separation distances |
| Crush strength | Maximum pressure this item can sustain from above (kg/m²) |
| Color | Display color in the 3D editor |
| Notes | Internal notes for planners |
| 3D model | Optional CAD file (STEP, STL, OBJ, or PLY) for complex parts |
The Library vs Plan Items
Items exist in two contexts in LOP: the library and a plan.
When you add a library item to a plan, LOP links the plan's item to its library definition and keeps the two in sync. If you later edit the library item — its dimensions, canonical orientation, or properties (stackable, fragile, max weight on top, color) — those changes automatically flow into every existing plan that uses the item the next time you open that plan, so your plans track your current product specifications without re-adding items by hand. Editing an item within a single plan changes only that plan and does not write back to the library.
See Managing Library Items for exactly what a library edit does to an existing plan's layout.
Organizing Your Library
The library opens in grid view, which shows each item as a card with its geometry thumbnail. A list view toggle sits next to it for a denser, table-style layout; whichever you pick is remembered for your next visit.
As your library grows, use these tools to keep it manageable:
- Search — instant search by item name or SKU
- Tag filter — an All Tags dropdown listing every tag in use; pick one to show only the items carrying it
- Sort — Most Used (the default), Name A–Z, Name Z–A, Newest, or Oldest
- Usage count — see at a glance which items are actively used in plans
There is no folder or category system currently. Use descriptive, consistent names (e.g., "Pallet — 1200x800 Standard", "Carton — Small 400x300x300") to make items easy to find.
Access and Permissions
All members of your organization can view and use items from the library. Creating, editing, and deleting items requires at least Member role. Admins can manage the full library including bulk deletions.
Items are shared across the entire organization — there are no per-user private items.
Next Steps
- Managing Library Items — create, edit, search, and delete items
- Assemblies & Item Trees — build parent-child item relationships
- Adding Library Items to Plans — use library items in a load plan
- STEP Import — attach 3D CAD models to complex parts