Creating Items

You can add items to a plan one at a time using the item creation form in the Items Panel. This approach gives you full control over every property and is the best choice when you have a small number of distinct cargo types or when you need to fine-tune an individual item's settings.

Opening the Add Item Form

1. Open your plan in the Editor.
2. In the Items Panel on the left, click the + Add Item button at the top of the panel.
3. The item creation form will appear.

Required Fields

These fields must be filled in before you can save the item.

Item Name

Give your item a clear, descriptive name. This name appears in the Items Panel, in the 3D viewport tooltips, and in all exported reports.

Good examples: Carton – Automotive Parts A4, Steel Drum 200L, Pallet – Electronics Row 3

Avoid: Item 1, Box, Cargo — these become confusing when you have many items in a plan.

Shape Type

Select the shape that best describes your cargo:

Cuboid — The default. Use this for boxes, crates, pallets, totes, and any rectangular cargo. You will enter three dimensions: length, width, and height.

Cylinder — Use this for drums, rolls, coils, pipes, and any cargo with a circular cross-section. You will enter diameter and height.

Dimensions

Enter the physical dimensions of the item. LOP accepts dimensions in the unit system configured in your Settings — either millimeters/kilograms (metric) or inches/pounds (imperial). The unit label is displayed next to each field.

For a Cuboid:

• Length — the longest horizontal dimension
• Width — the shorter horizontal dimension
• Height — the vertical dimension when the item is in its natural upright position

For a Cylinder:

• Diameter — the outer diameter of the circular cross-section
• Height — the length of the cylinder when standing upright

Weight

Enter the total weight of one unit of this item, including all packaging and any internal contents. Weight is used for:

• Checking the container's maximum payload limit
• Calculating the center of gravity for the load plan
• Determining whether stacking is safe given the crush strength of lower items

Optional Fields

Quantity

Set how many identical copies of this item are being shipped. The default is 1.

When you set quantity to 5, the optimizer creates 5 independent copies of this item and places each one individually in the 3D space. You do not need to create 5 separate item definitions.

See Quantity & Groups for more detail on how quantity works.

Color

Each item is assigned a color for visual identification in the 3D viewport. LOP assigns a default color automatically, but you can change it using the color picker.

Use color strategically to make the loading plan easier to read at a glance. For example:

• Assign red to fragile items so they stand out
• Use the same color for items belonging to the same order
• Differentiate product categories by color family

SKU

An optional stock-keeping unit code. The SKU is stored with the item and included in CSV and Excel exports. It is not used by the optimizer — it is purely for reference and traceability.

Notes

A free-text field for any additional information about the item. Notes appear in exported load plan reports and are useful for communicating special handling instructions to warehouse staff.

Saving the Item

Once you have filled in the required fields, click Save Item. The item will appear immediately in the Items Panel and will be included in the next optimization run.

Editing an Existing Item

To edit an item after it has been created:

1. Find the item in the Items Panel.
2. Click the three-dot menu (⋯) next to the item name.
3. Select Edit.
4. Make your changes and click Save Item.

Deleting an Item

To remove an item from the plan:

1. Find the item in the Items Panel.
2. Click the three-dot menu (⋯) next to the item name.
3. Select Remove.

Removing an item also removes all of its placements from the current loading plan.