AURA

The «Guests» panel: seating by seat and CSV

The «Guests» panel of the floor plan shows how many guests are seated and lets you enter a guest for every seat or paste a list of names. The names are shown by the chairs on the plan, in the A3 PDF and in the seating CSV file for hosts and for printing place cards.

Learn more: Help · Features.

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How to use it

  1. Open the floor plan and click «Guests» in the top row or on the left strip: the «Guests» panel opens on the right (on a phone and a tablet it slides up under the plan). The «Guests» button on the quick panel of a selected table opens it too. From a project: the «Space» step, the «Guest seating» card, the «Seat the guests» button opens the same plan.
  2. At the top of the panel is the total «Seated 8 of 60» and «60 seats»: the number of guests comes from the project passport, and without it the panel says «Seated 8» (on a phone the total is in the heading). When the number of guests is known, the bar shows the share of guests seated. Below is the list of all tables, each with «8 of 10». Click a table and it unfolds: each chair has its own «Enter full name» field with the seat number. Enter a name; Enter moves to the next seat. Choosing a table on the sheet also unfolds it in the panel, and choosing a row in the panel selects the table on the sheet.
  3. To avoid typing by hand, click «Paste a list». In the window paste the names into the «Guest names» field (one name per line), choose the table in the «Where to seat them» list (each shows «4 of 10 free») and click «Seat them»: the names take the free seats of the table in order, and the guests already entered stay where they are. Under the field it says how many names are in the list and how many seats are free at the table. You can also copy a column of names from Excel and paste it into the field of the seat you need: the names fill the seats in a row starting from it. Numbers at the start of lines («1.», «2)») are removed by themselves.
  4. After the paste a green line says what came out, for example «Guests seated: 8. Left without a seat: 2.» If there are more guests than chairs, the extra names stay in the «Without a seat: N» line at this table with the hint «These guests have no chair yet. Add chairs and they take the new seats.» Add chairs (the «seats» field on the quick panel or the «Chairs around the table» block in «Properties», the «Seats at the table» section).
  5. To get a list for the hosts, click «Download CSV» in the panel (the button appears when the plan has names) or «Download» → «Download seating CSV» (on a phone «⋯» → «Download»): the «Table», «Seat number» and «Guest» columns are there for hosts, for printing place cards and for checking the list.

Good to know

  • If the number of seats or the shape of a table changes, guests stay on the remaining chairs in order, new chairs come in empty, and the guests of removed chairs move to «Without a seat». No name is lost.
  • The CSV file uses «;» as the separator and opens in Excel by columns. Guests without a seat are listed in it marked «no seat». When the plan has guests, seating.csv is also included in «Download for the designer».
  • The names are shown by the chairs on the plan, in the A3 PDF and in «Hall in 3D»: there the «Seating» checkbox shows them, and «Find a guest» takes the camera to a guest's chair (the «Hall in 3D» article, section «Labels and seating in the hall»). They are not passed to the client through a presentation link: the plan slide and the walk through the hall count the seats but do not show the guests.
  • One table holds up to 100 guests, and a name can be up to 100 characters. When a table is copied, duplicated or saved as your own preset, the guest list is not carried over.
  • Guests can be entered and changed by those who can edit the plan: the project owner and editors. A commenter or viewer sees the names and can download the seating.
  • «Seated» counts the names entered, not the seats: a plan with room for 60 is not a party of 60. So the number of guests comes from the project passport, and without it the total reads «Seated 8» with no «of». A buffet needs no seating. If the tables on the plan have no chairs, the «Guests» panel says «The tables have no chairs yet» and suggests adding chairs: «Add» → «Chair». On a buffet plan «Buffet: no seating needed» stands above that line.
  • At a table with four or more guests entered the panel shows the first one and a «7 more guests» line: click it to see everyone. Whether the panel is open is remembered for the visit.

Seating from the phone

Open the properties of the selected table and the guest list. Each row corresponds to a seat, and an empty row leaves it free. If there are fewer seats now, the remaining names are kept without a seat.

Through export you can save the seating as a CSV. When copying tables and saving your own presets, the guests' names are not carried over.

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