BrainModular

I do a lot of midi routing around behind the VST host and it would nice to be able to directly access external hardware and virtual midi ports directly from Usine modules. I have a couple third party vst's for midi out but no midi in. Native functionality would be betst anyways...

If I understand you correctly, you want to have something like "named" Midi In and Out modules(?). If so, a possible workaround would be templates where you name the modules and set the port and Midi channel so that you can choose the right one from the pop-up list instead of creating and editing.

Personally, (but I'm not a MIDI expert) for this kind of stuffs I use MIDI buses and then, a put on a track a patch that receives all the midi out codes from all the patches and send them to their respective devices.
I think that it's a better solution than addressing directly MIDI devices in patches. By this way you can keep your patches 'device independent', which more in the spirit of Usine and more secure!

Unless I'm missing something, the only midi port in the VST version is the default track in/ out, right?
So if I need midi from each of several external ports to go to multiple different destinations for various processing and rerouting to VSTI's, hardware etc. then I need to do this in another software? I do this already in Bidule VST but a similar functionality in Usine would be nice and would play nicer with my method of doing things. Just a thought though, and I can find workarounds...