Labels and Reels

A Label is one physical label carrying one or more Identifiers: a printed text code, a DUST marking, a QR code, an NFC chip, a barcode, or a Data Matrix symbol, in any combination. Labels are manufactured on a Reel, and DICE keeps each Label’s physical position on its Reel. A Label Collection is a folder that groups Reels; it is an organizing tool only and is never shipped.

A Label is to its Reel what a set of Identifiers is to a Thread. Until a Label is bound to a Thread it is inventory; once bound, its Identifiers behave like any other Identifiers on that Thread, and the Thread shows which Label they came from.

Note

Labels and Reels availability depends on your organization’s configuration. If you do not see Labels in the General section of the sidebar, the module is not enabled. Viewing Labels and activating them requires Team membership; creating Reels, enrolling, moving, and archiving Labels requires Team administrator or Organization administrator access. Binding and unbinding a Label follows the edit permission of the target Thread, exactly like a loose Identifier.

Reels and Label Collections

A Reel has a name and an optional description. The name is usually the number printed on the spool, but it is only a title: two Reels may share a name, and a Reel keeps its identity when renamed. Reels can sit at the top level of your Team’s inventory or inside a Label Collection, and you can move a Reel between Collections at any time.

Each Reel also carries an expected composition: how many Identifiers of each type a Label on that Reel carries, entered as a number per type (0 for a type the Reel does not use) when you create or edit the Reel. The default is one text code, one DUST marking, and one QR code. The composition guides enrollment, in DICE and on an enrollment station reading it through the API; it never limits what a Label may carry.

Open Labels in the sidebar’s General section to see your Label Collections, unfiled Reels, and their counts. On a desktop both lists are tables: click Name or Updated to sort, newest updated first by default; on a phone the same sort is a Sort by control above the cards. Use the Shipped filter (Any, Shipped only, Hide shipped) to include or exclude Reels that have left your Team; shipped Reels and Labels stay visible with a Shipped badge rather than disappearing.

Most Reels arrive in DICE already enrolled by an enrollment station. The Reel page is where you work with them afterwards: it lists every Label in position order with its Identifiers and, once bound, the Thread it went on; you can search by name, position or Identifier value, and archived Labels stay hidden until you select Show archived. From here you activate the Reel, cut it to a customer’s quantity, bind its Labels, and ship it.

Enroll Labels

Select Enroll Labels, then choose an existing Reel or create one (optionally inside a Label Collection, with its expected composition). Enrollment is label-centric: DICE stays on the current Label while you add its Identifiers, then moves to the next position.

1. The capture panel shows one slot per expected Identifier (two QR slots when the Reel expects two QR codes). Fill each slot with the matching input: capture the DUST marking with the scanner (the web camera, or the DUST Go app when you are on a device), scan the QR code, barcode, Data Matrix or NFC chip, or type the printed text code.
2. Add further Identifiers if the physical label carries more than expected, or skip a slot. A Label needs at least one Identifier; a DUST marking is not required.
3. Select Next label to save the Label at the next position and continue down the strip. Positions may have gaps when an enrollment failed; retry that position later.
4. Alternatively, choose File import and upload a CSV or JSON list for the whole Reel. Each row supplies the Label’s Identifier values and, for DUST, an HTTPS image URL. Row order is physical order.

DUST markings enrolled in DICE are identifiable by default, so a scan in the field can find them. Switch the indexing toggle to Verify-only when you deliberately want a Label kept out of search until it is activated (see below). Enrollment stations that run unattended enroll Verify-only by default.

A printed QR URL can be enrolled as an Identifier even when its Vlink is not managed in DICE. Enrollment preserves the QR value without creating or claiming a Vlink; the existing redirect destination is unchanged. If the Vlink is already managed in DICE, its Team ownership and association checks still apply.

Enrollment never creates or binds a Thread. A repeated capture of the same DUST marking at the same position reconciles rather than duplicating.

Tip

Repeated values are allowed. Some reels legitimately carry the same text or QR value on several or all Labels. When a Reel does contain a repeated value, the Reel page shows a duplicate value warning listing the affected positions, so a misread code is visible without blocking enrollment.

Activate Labels

Activate makes a Label’s DUST markings identifiable: the platform indexes them so an Identify scan can find the Label or, once bound, its Thread. Labels enrolled by an enrollment station are Verify-only until activated; Labels enrolled in DICE are usually already active. Any Team member can activate a Label or a Reel; it does not need administrator access.

• Activate Reel on the Reel page activates every Label on the Reel in the background. The identifiable count on the Reel shows progress. A Label whose DUST is found to duplicate another indexed DUST is reported and skipped; the rest continue.
• Activate on a single Label does the same for that Label only.
• When binding a Label you may choose to activate it as part of the bind, and a Bulk Bind can activate every Label it binds. This is optional, never required.

When a background activation cannot index a Label’s DUST, the Label shows Activation failed on the Reel page and its DUST stays Verify-only. That is different from a Label that is Verify-only by choice: the failure tells you to look into it, usually a duplicate DUST. Select Activate on the Label to retry once the cause is resolved.

Most Teams activate a Reel before they start binding its Labels, or let a Bulk Bind activate the Labels it binds.

Move and cut Labels

Labels can move between Reels, one at a time or as a contiguous cut. Cutting is how a customer order leaves your inventory: when a customer orders 100 Labels and your Reels hold 2,000, you cut 100 onto a new Reel named for the order and ship that Reel.

Cut a Reel by scanning

Positions are printed nowhere on a Label, so the reliable way to say which Labels leave the spool is to scan the two you can see. Open the Reel and choose Cut Reel (or Cut a Reel from the Labels page, where the first scan decides the Reel). The page keeps one scanner on the left, which reads the first Label and then the last; the order quantity, the piece and the destination sit beside it, and the Quantity card states how many Labels are left on the Reel.

1. Quantity — optionally enter the order quantity first; the card states how many Labels are left on the Reel, the most one cut can fulfil, and warns when the quantity exceeds it. The cut is refused unless the span holds exactly that many Labels, and once the first Label is scanned the page names the Label that would end the piece — Aim for position N — with its printed codes, text code first, so you read the end of the piece off the spool instead of counting stickers. Positions that hold no Label are skipped in that count and listed, so “2 Labels from position 1” ending at position 3 comes with the reason: position 2 holds no Label. Count direction sets which way the quantity is counted from the first Label: Forward toward higher positions, or Backward toward lower ones, for cutting from the end of the Reel so the Labels come off the right way round. DICE remembers the choice on this device. When the quantity does not fit in the chosen direction but does in the other, the warning offers to switch.
2. First Label — scan any printed code on the first Label of the piece you are cutting off: its text code, QR code, barcode or NFC. You can also type the code, or use a handheld scanner. A DUST works only once the Label has been activated; Reels that arrive straight from an enrollment station are Verify-only, so scan the printed code instead. The input you pick — DUST, camera or keyboard — is remembered for the second Label and for your next cut, so a station set up one way stays that way.
3. Last Label — scan the last Label of the piece the same way. The order of the two scans does not matter. Choose Rescan on either row of the review to read that end again. Landing the count usually takes a second try at the far end, so once both ends are scanned the spacebar (or the button on a Dragon Scanner) rescans the last Label directly, as long as no field or button on the page has focus; the next press captures.
4. Review — DICE shows how many Labels sit between the two, the positions they span, and every position inside the span that stays behind: an archived Label, a Label already shipped, or a position that was never enrolled. Those gaps remain on the source Reel as provenance; the count shown is what the customer receives. Labels already bound to a Thread are counted separately, because a Reel ships only while every Label on it is unbound. When the span falls short of the quantity, DICE points at the Label that would make the count (“scan two more along: position 102, code AB0102”) — you still scan it; nothing moves on a suggestion.
5. Destination Reel — choose the New Reel tab (pick its Label Collection, name it for the order and add a description if useful; it is filed beside the source Reel by default and inherits its expected composition) or the Existing Reel tab, where you search Reels by name or Collection. Then Cut.

If a printed code appears on more than one Label of the Reel, DICE lists the candidates by position and asks you to scan another Identifier of the Label in your hand or pick the position you can see. It never guesses. A Label from another Reel is refused by name, so a spool mix-up is caught before anything moves.

After the cut, Open Reel shows the new Reel and Ship this Reel starts a Shipment with the Reel already on it (see Shipments).

Move by position or selection

• Cut a Reel by positions: on the Reel page choose Move or cut, enter a position range and a target Reel. This is the typed alternative for desktop work when you already know the positions; the dialog shows how many Labels the range covers before you confirm.
• Move Labels: select individual Labels and a target Reel, for example to assemble a sample Reel from several sources.

Moved Labels keep their positions when every one of them is free on the target Reel. Otherwise the whole batch is appended after the target’s last position in its original order: taking Labels 1–10 from four Reels onto one sample Reel yields positions 1–40. The source Reel is never renumbered, so the positions of the Labels that stay put do not change. Bound Labels can be moved too. Every move is recorded on each Label’s history.

Check a Reel with Label QA

Note

Label QA availability depends on your organization’s configuration; it is enabled separately from the Labels module. If you do not see Label QA on the Labels page, it is not enabled for your organization.

Label QA is a sampling check of a Reel’s enrollment: scan some of its Labels, a DUST here and a printed code there, and confirm that the Identifiers on one physical label resolve to one Label at one Reel position. Open it from the Label QA button on the Labels page or a Collection, from QA this Reel on a Reel page, from Check in Label QA in a Label’s menu, or from the scanner when an Identify finds a Label.

1. Choose how you are scanning under Instrument (Dragon, loupe, phone camera, keyboard or wedge scanner, DUST Go) and set the Target percentage of each Reel’s Labels you intend to check. The default is 10%.
2. Scan any Identifier on a Label. The first Label you resolve becomes the focus Label and sets the Reel under check.
3. Keep scanning. Each scan is shown in relation to the focus Label: Same Label, Same Reel · position n, Different Reel, or a failure such as Not found. Moving to the next sticker is normal; DICE shows the relation and you judge whether it is what you expected.
4. When something looks wrong, choose Flag as suspect on the Label and add a note. The flag is recorded on the Label for everyone who opens the Reel.

Tip

On a Reel that is still Verify-only, scan a sticker’s printed code before its DUST. The DUST is then verified against the Label you just resolved; a DUST that does not verify is reported as a failure on that Label.

Every check is recorded on the Label itself, not on your device, so a run started on a desktop continues on a phone with the same coverage. The Reel coverage card shows, per Reel, how many Labels are checked (at least one Identifier matched), fully checked (every Identifier type in the Reel’s composition matched), failed and flagged, measured against your target. The Reel page shows the same figures and marks each checked Label with a QA checked badge; a flagged Label also carries its Flagged badge with the note. Scans on this device lists what you scanned here, grouped by Label, and can be downloaded as CSV; clearing it never removes a recorded check.

Bind a Label to a Thread

There is no separate Label binding screen. Open the target Thread, select Bind, and scan any Identifier on the Label, on the web or in the DUST Go app, exactly as you would bind a loose Identifier. DICE recognizes that the Identifier belongs to a Label and binds the whole Label: every active Identifier on it attaches to the Thread together.

1. On the Thread’s Identifiers card, select Bind.
2. Scan the Label’s QR code, type its printed text code, or capture its DUST marking. Any member works.
3. DICE confirms the Label, its Reel and position, and lists the Identifiers it will bind. Optionally choose to activate the Label as part of the bind.
4. Confirm. With Stay after bind enabled you can keep binding further Labels or Identifiers to the same Thread.

A Label bound to another Thread cannot be bound again; DICE names the other Thread when you are allowed to see it. Unbind on the Label card detaches the Label and all of its Identifiers at once. A Verify-only Label cannot be found by scanning its DUST marking until it is activated; use its QR or text code to bind it, or activate the Reel first.

Bulk bind a Reel Range

When many pre-enrolled Labels have to go onto many Threads, binding one at a time is no faster than sticking the physical labels on by hand. Bulk Bind binds a contiguous run of Labels on a Reel, a Reel Range, to a selection of Threads in one operation: the first Label in the range goes to the first selected Thread, the second to the second, and so on. It is all-or-nothing, so either every pairing is bound or none is.

This is also the moment unserialized goods become serialized. A hundred identical shirts have no identity before their Labels are bound, so the Labels you bind must be exactly the ones you then apply, in the same order. Bulk Bind is deliberately strict about that: it never skips over a position.

1. Select the Threads. Open the Folder or the Threads list, sort it in the order you will peel the Labels off the spool, and select the Threads. The selection bar at the bottom of the screen shows how many are selected. Select Bulk bind Labels there, or open the Reel and select Bulk bind to N selected Threads.
2. Choose the Reel and the Reel Range. DICE proposes a range starting at the Reel’s first unbound position and long enough for your selection; adjust From position and To position to match the run you verified on the spool. The range must cover exactly as many positions as there are selected Threads.
3. Check the Pick List. Every row pairs a position and its printed code with the Thread it will be bound to. You can re-order the selection (oldest first, newest first, by name) if the pairing is not the one you intended.
4. Resolve blockers and read warnings. Bind is available only when there are no blockers.
5. Optionally keep Activate Labels after binding on. Select Bind.

Blockers stop the whole Bulk Bind and name the position or Thread:

• A position with no Label, an archived Label, a shipped Label, or a Label already bound elsewhere. DICE never hops over such a position, because a skip would silently shift every pairing after it. Cut or archive around the gap, or remove a Thread from the selection, and try again.
• A Thread your Team does not own (a Thread shared with you cannot carry a Label from your inventory), a Thread you cannot edit, a Thread that is archived or shipped, or one locked in a sent Shipment.
• The same Thread selected twice.

Warnings are shown but do not stop the bind: a Label that carries fewer Identifiers than its Reel expects, and a Thread that already carries a Label (the existing Label is named so you can decide).

After a successful Bulk Bind:

• The Pick List stays on screen and can be downloaded as a CSV (position, printed code, Label, Thread) for the person applying the labels at the bench. It is a working document, not a stored record; the same pairing can always be read from the Reel page or from each Thread’s Label card.
• If Activate Labels after binding was on, the Labels’ DUST markings are activated in the background and the page shows progress. A Label whose activation fails stays bound and Verify-only, and shows Activation failed on the Reel page.
• Your Thread selection is kept, so you can continue with the same Threads, for example to generate Certificates or attach files. Clear it when you are done.

Tip

To check the applied labels against the goods, open the Reel on a phone. Each bound Label lists the name and description of the Thread it is bound to, in position order, so you can walk the run and confirm each physical label sits on the right item.

Identify and Verify with Labels

Scanning a Label’s Identifier in Identify works like any other Identifier: a bound Label opens its Thread, and the result names the Label. Scanning an Identifier of an unbound Label shows the Label itself, with its Reel and position, and offers to bind it to an existing Thread, create a new Thread for it, or open its Reel.

Create a Thread from a scanned Label

When the item a Label is going onto has no Thread yet, create the Thread straight from the scan instead of creating it first and binding afterwards.

1. In Identify, scan any Identifier on the unbound Label, on the web or in the DUST Go app. A Verify-only Label cannot be found by its DUST marking until it is activated; scan its QR or text code instead.
2. In the Label found dialog, select New Thread. (Your organization may call Threads something else; the button uses its name.)
3. Enter a name. Optionally select Add a photo to take or upload a picture of the item; it is attached to the new Thread and set as its thumbnail.
4. Choose the Folder. DICE suggests your working folder, and offers only your Team’s Folders, because a Label can only be bound to a Thread its own Team owns.
5. Select Create. DICE opens the new Thread with the whole Label, and every active Identifier on it, already bound.

Creating the Thread and binding the Label happen together: if the Label cannot be bound (for example, it was bound to another Thread in the meantime), no Thread is created. If only the photo fails to upload, the Thread is still created and bound, and DICE tells you the photo was not attached.

Verify works on the individual Identifiers as before.

Labels on the Thread page

On a Thread’s Identifiers card, Identifiers that arrived as part of a Label are grouped under an expandable Label card showing the Label’s name and description, its Reel and position, and each member Identifier. Loose Identifiers appear below the Label cards. Selecting a member opens the usual Identifier details.

Ship Reels and Labels

A Reel ships as one unit in a Shipment, and only while every Label on it is unbound: it is inventory changing hands. In an editable Shipment, choose Reels in the manifest and pick the Reels to include. A Reel with any bound Label cannot be added; DICE names the first bound Label and its Thread.

A bound Label travels with its Thread. When a Thread with bound Labels is shipped, each Label and its Identifiers move with it; the Reel and the other Labels on it are not affected and are never pulled into the Shipment.

On the receiving side a shipped Reel keeps its name, positions and expected composition, and is filed beside earlier Reels from the same source Collection when one has already been received, otherwise it arrives unfiled. On the sending side the Reel and its Labels remain visible with a Shipped badge under the Shipped filter. A Reel can later be shipped back and received again.

Caution

Every active Identifier on a shipped Reel’s Labels is required for the Shipment. A private Identifier blocks the Shipment instead of being omitted, so nothing arrives incomplete.

Related pages

Identifiers and scanningHow Identifiers are scanned, identified, bound and verified.

ThreadsThe records Labels are bound to.

ShipmentsTransferring Threads and Reels to another Team.