27. Seating Plans - Introduction
Create, manage, and maintain reusable seating plans for your venues.
Overview
Seating plans define your reusable venue layout: seats, rows, tables, general admission areas, labels, and plan-level settings.
Each seating plan belongs to a single venue, and a venue can have multiple seating plans.
This section covers the authoring side of seating:
Creating plans
Choosing a plan type
Building layouts in the editor
Managing revisions
Managing holds
Operational workflows such as attaching plans to events, syncing event data, and managing event-level availability are covered in Seated Events. Seating plan area data can also be retrieved via the Seating Plan Areas API endpoint.
How Seating Plans Fit Into The Workflow
Create a seating plan from Seating plans.
Choose a plan type (small/medium or large), or import an existing plan file.
Build and save the layout in the editor.
Complete the plan by setting a Name and Venue.
Attach and sync the plan to one or more events from the event workflow.
Plans must be complete before they can be attached to events. Incomplete plans
can be saved as drafts and continued later.
Access And Requirements
Requirement | Details |
|---|---|
Seating plans feature | Your company must have seating plans enabled. |
Permissions | You need the relevant seating plan permissions to view/create/edit plans. |
Venue access | Plan completion requires a venue, and venue selection is constrained to venues you can access. |
Large plans | Large plan creation is only available when your company has the large-plan seating context enabled. |
Plan Types
When you create a new seating plan, you choose a type:
Small / medium plan
Large plan (if enabled for your company)
The type controls how the editor behaves and how the layout is structured.
Type Comparison
Type | Best for | Structure | Capacity guidance | Availability |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Small / medium | Theatres, cinemas, comedy clubs, and similar venues | Single canvas | Up to 1,000 seats per plan | Available when seating plans are enabled |
Large | Stadiums and large multi-zone venues | Main plan with separate editable areas | Up to 1,000 seats per area | Requires the large-plan seating context |
The editor shows live seat counters and enforces seat/space limits while you
build.
Choosing A Type
From Create seating plan, you can:
Start a new small/medium plan
Start a new large plan (if available)
Import an existing plan file
Continue an incomplete draft
For exports and imports:
Use Export in the seating plan editor to download a plan file.
Use Create seating plan and choose Import to upload a previously exported file.
Small plan import supports
.nuspx.Large plan import supports
.nuspxand.nuspb(when large plans are enabled).
Important Behaviours
Type Is Fixed After Creation
Once a plan exists, its type is preserved on future saves. If you need a different type, create a new plan.
Large Plans Use Area Editing
Large plans are designed around areas:
Build the high-level area map in the main view
Enter an area to edit its detailed seat content
Save area changes back to the main plan
Feature Gating
If a large plan file is imported into a company without large-plan access, the import is blocked and users are prompted to use supported plan types.
What You’ll See In The Seating Plans Area
A primary list of complete plans.
A separate flow for continuing recent incomplete drafts.
A holds tab (when holds are enabled and you have access), used to manage reusable hold groups.
Related
Editor
Revisions
Holds
Seated Events
Venues