The seat map designer

The free plugin's seat map builder makes straight rows on a grid. The designer replaces the grid with a canvas. You add blocks, drag them into place, rotate them, and click any row or seat to set how it is numbered, what it costs and how it is marked.

Open it from TBI Box Office → Designer and choose the venue, or follow the Designer link from the venue itself.

Blocks

A plan is made of blocks. Add one from the panel on the left and drag it by its name to move it.

• Rows of seats. Straight rows, with a rectangle or curved front. Set seats per row, row spacing and seat spacing.
• Curved rows. Rows on an arc, for a fan-shaped auditorium. Set the curve as well.
• Round table. Seats around a table, for a cabaret or dinner layout. Set the table size and the number of seats.
• Stage label. A marked shape for the stage, so buyers know which way they face.
• Text label. A word or two for the bar, the exits, the sound desk. Small, medium or large.

Every block can be rotated, duplicated or deleted. Deleting a block deletes its seats. The canvas has a width and height you can change, and Fit brings the whole plan into view.

Numbering

Each block has a first row letter and a first seat number, and numbers left to right or right to left. Row letters skip I by default, the way most theatres do.

Click a row's label to change just that row: its first seat number, or skip blocked seats when numbering so a row with its end seats removed still reads 1 to 18 without gaps.

Price bands and attributes

Click a row label to set a band for this row, or click a seat to set just that seat. Attributes are set the same way:

• Accessible and Companion, for wheelchair spaces and the seat beside them.
• Restricted view.
• Blocked (never sold), for the lighting desk, a pillar, house seats.
• A label on the ticket, if a seat needs one.

To change several seats at once, hold Shift and drag a box around them; changes then apply to every selected seat. Click the background to clear the selection. Bands themselves, their colours and how seats are labelled for buyers are covered in Price bands, colours and the buyer view.

Saving

The bar above the canvas keeps a running count: seats on sale, seats blocked, and the venue's seat cap. Save plan writes the plan to the venue. If you leave with unsaved changes the designer warns you.

Performances already on sale

Performances sell against a snapshot of the plan taken when they were created. Drawing here never changes a seat for a show already on sale, so you can redraw the venue for next season while this season's shows carry on. New performances pick up the new plan.

Opening a venue drawn with the grid builder

The designer opens any plan the free builder made. The rows arrive as blocks stacked in a column; drag them into place and carry on. Nothing about the venue's performances changes.