You might have an existing image of your venue's seating chart that displays all of the seats, rows and sections for your venue. With our seating chart tool, you can upload this as a reference and trace over it to ensure that it matches your existing design.
💡 This article covers some advanced seating chart functionality. If you haven't already, please make sure you're familiar with our 'Getting started with seating charts' article, and comfortable using the basic tools.
How to create a seating chart by tracing an image
Start by creating a new 'Simple' seating chart, and when prompted, upload the image of your seating chart.
You'll then have to go through the calibration steps, which matches the spacing between seats and rows in your image with the seats in the designer, so that you can trace more accurately.
When you see a close-up version of your image, click to place a seat over one of the seats in the image. You can use the toggle at the bottom to adjust the size of the seat marker — you want the seat edges to match the edge of the marker.
Click to mark at least four seats to help calibrate. When you're ready, click 'Next'.
You may find that the designer automatically resizes your seats for you. You can manually adjust again if you'd like. Click 'Next' when you're happy.
Next, you'll be provided a duplicate row, and asked to move it so that it's parallel with another one. This helps calibrate the distance between rows in your image. When you're done, click 'Next'.
Now, you're ready to start tracing! Use the 'Row' and 'Multiple rows' tools to start tracing the seats in your image. The calibration should have set up the designer so that the spacing between seats and rows accurately matches the reference image below.
Once you've traced all of your seats and rows, assign labels to your Rows and Seats.
Then, make sure to set and add a 'Category' to all seats.
You can use the eye 'Preview' icon to see what your seating chart will look like without the reference image.
You can also toggle the reference image 'off'.
If you want to display your reference image on your customer-facing seating chart, you can upload it underneath the 'Background' header on the right side. You can adjust the size using the percentage toggle.
That's it! When you're happy with your seating chart design, make sure to give it a name and click 'X' in the top right to close out of the designer. It'll now be available for you to use in your events.