Overview
The seating plan editor is the authoring workspace for building and maintaining reusable plan schemas.
This page focuses on creation and design tooling:
- Drawing areas, blocks, rows, tables, and general admission areas
- Configuring labels, metadata, and visual behavior
- Managing object-level properties and plan-level settings
- Running plan checks before save/export
Operational event workflows (assigning plans to events, event availability, event pricing allocation, holds at event level) are documented in Seated Events.
Editor Surface
| Workspace area | What it is for |
|---|
| Top menu | Plan-level actions, edit commands, view controls, seat tools, and label tooling |
| Object menu (left) | Add/draw new plan objects (areas, blocks, tables, GA, text, shapes, icons) |
| Canvas | Draw, select, move, resize, reorder, and visually inspect the layout |
| Settings panel (right) | Configure selected objects and plan metadata (price bands, gates, stairs, stands, tags) |
| Plan information modal | Stats, duplicate label checks, preview generation, rendering version, area-wide maintenance actions |
Plan
| Tool | What it does | Why/when to use it |
|---|
| Change plan settings | Opens the plan settings modal | Finalizing plan metadata (name, venue, completion) |
| Plan information | Opens detailed plan stats and checks | Validation and pre-save QA (counts, duplicates, preview) |
| Export | Exports the current plan | Sharing, backup, or moving plan data between environments |
| Editor performance mode | Simplifies block rendering detail until hover | Improves editor responsiveness in dense layouts |
| Background settings | Opens background color/image options | Aligning geometry to a venue map and improving editing readability |
Edit
| Tool | What it does | Why/when to use it |
|---|
Duplicate (Ctrl/Cmd + C) | Duplicates current selection | Fast repetition of similar layout structures |
| & flip vertically / & flip horizontally | Mirrors selected object | Symmetry workflows (especially polygonal shapes, blocks, tables) |
| Delete (Backspace) | Removes selected object | Removing obsolete layout elements |
| Send to back / Send to front | Changes z-order layer position | Managing overlapping objects and labels |
Select all (Ctrl/Cmd + A) | Selects all editable objects in context | Bulk move/reconfigure workflows |
| Draw selection | Starts polygon selection drawing | Precision multi-select across irregular seat geometry |
Cancel drawing (Esc) | Cancels active draw/selection overlay | Exiting drawing mode quickly |
| Select seats / Select objects | Changes draw-selection targeting mode | Switch between fine seat-level edits and whole-object operations |
View
| Tool | What it does | Why/when to use it |
|---|
Enter/Exit full screen (F11 or Ctrl+Cmd+F) | Toggles editor full-screen mode | More canvas space for dense plans |
Default size (Ctrl/Cmd + 0) | Resets zoom | Recovering from extreme zoom states |
Zoom in / Zoom out (Ctrl/Cmd + +/-) | Changes zoom level | Precise editing or high-level review |
| Enable zooming help for customers | Enables zoom-assist overlay behavior | Shop usability, especially when seats are very small at entry zoom |
| Enable sticky grid | Snaps moved objects to nearest grid line | Cleaner spacing and alignment consistency |
| Show alignment guides | Shows alignment guides while moving objects | Faster visual alignment across blocks/labels/shapes |
Seats
| Tool | What it does | Why/when to use it |
|---|
| Hide selected seats | Marks selected seats as hidden | Temporarily or permanently removing saleable visibility |
| Unhide selected seats | Reverses hidden state for selection | Re-enabling seats in a section |
| Show deleted seats | Switches to deleted-seat selection mode | Reviewing and restoring previously deleted seats |
| Delete selected seats | Marks selected seats as deleted | Structural seat removals |
| Restore selected seats | Restores deleted seats (in delete mode) | Undoing seat removals |
| Set best seats | Adds focal point object (feature-gated) | Enabling best-available seat scoring |
| Show heatmap | Toggles score heatmap rendering | Visual QA for best-available distribution |
| View from seat settings | Opens 3D Digital Venue mapping modal (feature-gated) | Linking seats/areas to third-party view IDs |
| Grid spacing | Adjusts editing grid step (gridStep / areaGridStep) | Controlling drawing/snap granularity |
The top-right seat counter displays current / max seats for the active
scope. The editor enforces hard seat/space limits and will disable creation
tools when the limit is reached.
Some teams call removed seats kills. In editor terms, this usually maps to
structural seat removal (Delete selected seats / Restore selected
seats). Event-level sale controls are documented in Seated
Events. Hidden Vs Delete Seats
Use these two tools for different outcomes:
| Option | Use it when | Key behavior |
|---|
| Hidden | You want seats out of sale/customer view but may need them back later | Seats stay in the plan structure and keep their labels; unhide is available later |
| Delete | You are making structural plan changes and want seats removed from the schema | Seats are marked as deleted, labels are removed, and restore requires delete mode |
Deletion Limits And Guardrails
- Attached-event limitation: once a plan has already been synced to events, existing synced seats cannot be deleted in the editor. Use Hidden instead for operational removals.
- Capacity limitation: you cannot unhide or restore seats when the plan is already at its hard seat limit.
- Mutual exclusivity: setting seats to hidden clears deleted state, and deleting seats clears hidden state.
- Restore workflow: use Show deleted seats to select deleted seats before running Restore selected seats.
If your goal is event-level availability management (rather than changing plan structure), use event seat statuses in Seated Events.
Labels
| Tool | What it does | Why/when to use it |
|---|
| Show table/row names in the shop plan | Toggles parent labels in rendered plan | Customer-facing wayfinding clarity |
| Show block/row labels in editor | Toggles object labels in editor only | Reducing visual noise during layout work |
| Show seat labels in editor | Toggles seat labels in editor only | Faster seat-level troubleshooting |
| Advanced options | Opens full label/tooltip configuration modal | Controlling auto-labeling behavior and tooltip payload |
| Font family | Sets editor/label font family | Readability and brand consistency |
Label Advanced Options (modal)
| Group | Tools |
|---|
| Tooltip settings | Toggle tooltip fields: price band, price, table, block, row, comment, stand, stair, gate, tag |
| Area settings | Toggle area details (for example, show price in shop) |
| Area labeling | Area prefix, definition source, label type |
| Block labeling | Block prefix, definition source, label type (including hidden) |
| Table labeling | Table prefix, label type |
| General admission labeling | GA prefix, definition source, label type |
| Excluded labels | Manage labels/numbers skipped by auto-generation |
| Recalculate labels | Rebuild labels when area label settings changed |
Background Settings (modal)
| Tool | What it does |
|---|
| Background colour | Transparent or custom color |
| Color picker + hex input | Fine color control |
| Background image upload | Imports a venue image for drawing reference |
| Adjust background image | Opens image positioning/adjustment flow |
jpeg, jpg, png, webp.
Selection Strip
The canvas includes a quick selection strip for:
- Default select tool
- Rectangle selection
- Lasso (polygon) selection
- Clear current selection
The canvas edge controls can add:
- Horizontal guide
- Vertical guide
Guides are editing aids and are not part of customer-facing output.
Zoom HUD
Canvas zoom HUD supports:
- Inline
+, -, and reset controls
- Relative zoom percentage display
- Optional full-size rendering toggle
Plan information is a maintenance/QA workspace, not only a stats readout.
It provides:
- Scope switch between whole plan and individual area stats (large plans)
- Plan preview generation/regeneration image
- Duplicate seat label detection with direct seat-jump actions
- Object and capacity counts (areas, blocks, rows, tables, seats, GA, accessible)
- Price band / gate / stair / stand / tag usage breakdowns
- Restore actions when referenced metadata items are missing
- Rendering version selector (with version help text)
Footer actions:
- Save all areas
- Recalculate labels
| Tool | What it does |
|---|
| Add rectangular area | Inserts a rectangular area container |
| Draw area | Draws polygonal area boundaries |
| Tool | What it does |
|---|
| Draw seats | Draws a seat block polygon |
| Draw row | Draws a row shape |
| Add block | Opens modal to add a rectangular block by row/seat counts |
| Add row | Opens modal to add a single row by seat count |
| Tool | What it does |
|---|
| Add tables | Opens table wizard (simple and advanced modes) |
| Tool | What it does |
|---|
| Add GA | Opens GA modal |
| Add circular area | Creates circular GA block with capacity |
| Add rectangular GA | Creates rectangular GA block with capacity |
| Draw polygonal area | Creates polygonal GA block with capacity |
Text, Shapes, and Symbols
| Tool | What it does |
|---|
| Add text | Adds text object |
| Add circle / Add rectangle | Adds shape objects |
| Draw line / Draw polygon | Adds drawable figure objects |
| Add icon | Opens symbol library modal and inserts selected symbol |
Background Shortcut
Background settings is available from the object menu as a direct shortcut to the background modal.
Object menu can switch between:
- Vertical dock
- Horizontal dock
Guardrails
- Seat/space creation actions are disabled when the max space limit is reached.
- Add block/row/table controls auto-clamp input to hard seat limits.
Add Tables Wizard
The table wizard has two modes.
Simple Mode
| Setting | What it controls |
|---|
| Seats per table | Seat count on each table |
| No. of tables | Number of tables to generate |
| Advanced settings | Switches to advanced grid mode |
- Add circular table(s)
- Add rectangular table(s)
Advanced Mode
| Group | Settings |
|---|
| Grid geometry | Column count, row count, seats per table |
| Totals | Total tables and total seats vs remaining soft limit |
| Table structure | Table shape, seat disposition (for rectangular tables) |
| Booking behavior | Disallow individual seat booking |
| Label options | Seat label type, order, offset |
| Display options | Grid gap, angle |
- Add table grid (or Add table if single table)
When best-available seats is enabled, the wizard warns that tables requiring
whole-table booking are excluded from best-seat suggestions.
Icon Library
Add icon opens categorized symbol sets:
- Generic
- Occasions
- Food & drink
- Sports
Selecting an icon inserts it directly on the canvas.
Right Settings Panel
Main Tabs (seating mode)
| Tab | Purpose |
|---|
| Properties | Object-level configuration for current selection |
| Price bands | Define and manage price band visuals and assignment behavior |
| Gates | Manage gate taxonomy and apply to selected seats/GA |
| Stairs | Manage stair taxonomy and apply to selected seats/GA |
| Stands | Manage stand taxonomy and assignment |
| Tags | Manage tags and assignment behavior |
- Save & back
- Edit boundaries
- Center area
- Area context indicator (main area vs active area)
Area state warnings appear when:
- Label settings changed and area labels need recalculation
- Focal point scoring changed and area scores need recalculation
Layer List
When no single object is selected, the panel shows a draggable layer list for:
- Reordering objects
- Selecting objects directly from layer entries
- Seeing area/type badges per layer
Price Bands
- Add new price band
- Edit label, color, and marker shape
- Apply selected price band to selected seats/GA
- Toggle shop display behavior:
- Show price band colors/shapes
- Show unavailable items in filters
- Show unavailable legend
Common management pattern:
- Add new item
- Rename item term (for example, custom gate/stair naming)
- Edit item metadata
- Apply to selection / remove from selection
Tags include extra metadata:
- Color
- Description
- Used as filter
- Used as tooltip
- Show as ticket info
The Properties tab is object-type aware.
Allocated Block
| Group | Available tooling |
|---|
| Structure | Row count, seat/column count, block shape, seat layout, row alignment, row label position |
| Labels | Row/seat label type, order, start offset, post offset |
| Display | Angle, automatic radius sizing, radius margin, curve, row spacing, skew, seat spacing, inner radius, opacity |
| Row overrides | Per-row label and seat-count overrides, reset-to-default, add/delete row |
Table
| Group | Available tooling |
|---|
| Structure | Seat count, table shape, seat disposition, whole-table booking toggle |
| Labels | Seat label type, order, offset, post offset |
| Display | Automatic size, radius/length/height, angle |
General Admission Block
| Group | Available tooling |
|---|
| Structure | Custom label, capacity |
| Label display | Label offsets, font size, hide label |
| Seat options | Bulk seat/GA settings via shared seat settings component |
| Display | Width/height/radius/angle (shape dependent) |
Area
| Group | Available tooling |
|---|
| Area actions | Save/enter/load area (depending on state), delete area (when allowed) |
| Warnings | Recalculate labels or scores when out of sync |
| Display | Stroke/fill colors, rectangle dimensions, angle |
| Label display | Hide label, offsets, font size |
| Seat options | Bulk seat/GA settings in area scope |
| Group | Available tooling |
|---|
| Appearance | Fill, opacity, stroke width/style/color |
| Geometry | Radius (circle), width/height/angle (rectangle) |
| Linking | Add/remove URL link and link target |
QR / Barcode Object
| Group | Available tooling |
|---|
| Code type | QR code or barcode type |
| Geometry | Width, height, angle (with type-aware constraints) |
Text Object
| Group | Available tooling |
|---|
| Content | Plain text, rich text (HTML), or ticket-data variable |
| Variable data | Field picker and test preview values |
| Typography | Font size, text color, style, decoration |
| Text block | Automatic size, width/height, padding, shrink-to-fit, horizontal/vertical alignment |
| Box styling | Stroke width/style/color, background/fill color |
| Linking | Add/remove URL link and link target |
| Display | Angle |
Image Object
| Group | Available tooling |
|---|
| Appearance | Scale, opacity, angle |
| Shop visibility | Show image in ticket shop (size-limited) |
| Asset update | Replace image via background image uploader |
Symbol Object
| Group | Available tooling |
|---|
| Appearance | Opacity, scale, angle |
Seat
| Group | Available tooling |
|---|
| Seat metadata | Custom label, comment, restricted flag, accessibility flag, accessibility icon mode |
| Assignments | Price band, gates, stairs, stand, tags |
| Best-seat scoring | Score and score adjustment (when focal point exists) |
| Seat status actions | Hide, unhide, delete, restore |
Row (single-row override)
| Group | Available tooling |
|---|
| Row metadata | Custom label, seat count override |
| Layout overrides | Row alignment, row label position, left/top offsets, radius offset (when applicable) |
| Seat label overrides | Seat label type, order, offset, post offset |
Focal Point
| Group | Available tooling |
|---|
| Scoring | Intensity slider |
| Visualization | Heatmap toggle |
| Sync aid | Recalculate scores action when areas become out of sync |
- Set 3D venue ID at plan level
- Map seat-level view IDs
- Paginate through seat mappings
- Save mappings (and optionally Save all areas on large plans)
Tips And Shortcuts
The settings panel exposes shortcut guidance for selected objects, including:
- Rotate by small increments with modifier + left/right arrows
- Rotate by larger increments with modifier + up/down arrows
- Move objects with arrow keys
- Increase move distance with
Shift
Guardrails And Limits
- Seat/space hard limits block further creation once reached.
- Input controls for block/table/row creation clamp to allowed ranges.
- Some operations are constrained when plans have events/sales attached.
- Area deletion is restricted for saved areas when events are attached.
- Image-in-shop toggles are disabled above file-size threshold.
