Items Overview
Items are the core building blocks of every load plan in LOP. An item represents a single product, box, pallet, drum, or any other piece of cargo that you need to load into a container or truck. Before the optimizer can generate a loading plan, it needs to know exactly what it is working with — and that starts with your items.
What Is an Item?
In LOP, an item is a definition of a piece of cargo. It describes the physical shape, size, and weight of the cargo, along with optional handling requirements such as whether it is fragile, whether it can be stacked, or whether it has hazardous material restrictions.
Each item definition can represent one or many identical physical units. For example, if you are shipping 50 identical boxes of the same product, you create a single item definition and set the quantity to 50. The optimizer will then find the best placement for all 50 copies individually within the available space.
Item Types
LOP supports two fundamental item shapes:
Cuboid (Box-Shaped) The most common type. A cuboid is defined by three dimensions: length, width, and height. This covers standard cardboard boxes, wooden crates, plastic totes, pallets, and most industrial packaging.
Cylinder (Round) Used for drums, rolls, pipes, reels, and other circular cross-section cargo. A cylinder is defined by its diameter and height. LOP handles cylindrical items with the appropriate 3D rotations (standing upright or lying on its side).
If your cargo has an irregular shape that does not fit neatly into either category, the best practice is to use the bounding box — the smallest cuboid that completely encloses the item. Add a small clearance margin to account for protruding corners or rounded edges.
Key Properties at a Glance
Every item carries a set of properties that the optimizer and constraint engine use when building the loading plan:
| Property | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Dimensions | Determines physical space the item occupies |
| Weight | Used for payload limits, CoG balance, and stacking calculations |
| Quantity | How many identical copies of this item to load |
| Fragile | Prevents other items from being stacked on top |
| Stackable | Whether this item can support weight above it |
| Max Weight on Top | Hard crush-strength limit in kg |
| Orientation | Controls which rotations the optimizer is allowed to use |
| Group ID | Keeps related items close together in the loading plan |
| Separation Tags | Enforces safety distances for hazmat or incompatible cargo |
Items Panel
The Items Panel is located on the left side of the Editor. It is your primary workspace for managing the cargo in a plan. From here you can:
- Add items manually one by one (via the small green + FAB in the bottom-right corner of the panel)
- Import items in bulk from an Excel or CSV spreadsheet
- Import items from ERP and WMS systems such as SAP or Oracle
- Search and filter items already in the plan
- See which items have been placed and which remain unplaced
- Click any item to highlight it in the 3D viewport
Panel Header
The header shows ITEMS N | PALLETS M alongside the plan's total weight. A ⋯ overflow menu on the right of the header hosts bulk actions: Palletize All, Unpalletize All, Collapse All, Expand All, and Delete all items (destructive, requires confirmation).
Row Badges
Each row in the panel shows a small badge on the right that identifies the row type:
- PALLET — a loaded pallet. Tinted green below 90% Capacity, amber at 90–100%, red above 100% (Capacity =
max(volume%, weight%)). Hover the badge to reveal ▲ / ▼ / ✕ quick actions. - ITEM — a loose cuboid, cylinder, or STEP item (placed or unplaced). Neutral gray. Hover to reveal quick actions.
- ASSEMBLY — a STEP assembly tree group. Neutral gray.
Right-clicking any row opens the full context menu (duplicate, edit, delete, etc.). Double-click opens the Edit panel.
Duplicate Naming
Duplicating a row auto-increments a numeric suffix: Bananas → Bananas (1) → Bananas (2). Previous "Copy of Copy of …" chains are no longer generated.
Constraints Panel
The Constraints panel now lives at the bottom of the right panel (AI Analysis side). It collapses with the right panel.
Next Steps
Depending on how you want to add cargo to your plan, follow one of these guides:
- Creating Items Manually — add items one at a time with full control over every property
- Item Properties Reference — deep dive into every property and how it affects the loading plan
- Importing from Excel or CSV — bulk-add items from a spreadsheet
- ERP/WMS Import — import directly from SAP, Oracle WMS, or other enterprise systems
- Quantity & Groups — understand how quantities work and how to group related cargo