Floor plan: dimensions, seating and export

The plan helps you place items at their real size, check for overlaps and prepare materials for the designer.

Reviewed: 2026-10-19

How to use it

Open the project → the «Space» step → the «Floor plan» card and click «Create a floor plan» (for a project that has a plan the card says «Place the tables» or «Open floor plan»; the project owner and editors create plans). A list of the project’s plans opens with the «New floor plan» button. Or open «More» → «All tools» → «Floor plans» and click «New floor plan». The editor opens full screen. At the top left there is the «Back to the step» arrow (to the project’s list of plans; «Back to the project's 3D models» if you came from «Items in 3D»; a plan without a project has «Back to floor plans»), the «Floor plan: …» heading with the plan’s name and the «Saved» status. On the right are the «Aura Guide» icon (it answers questions about this screen) and the «Guests», «Download» and «Hall in 3D» buttons, and behind the «⋯» icon are «Checks», «Pins» (for a project plan), «Color legend», «Rename the plan» and «Save a copy». Enter the hall width and length in millimeters in the «Hall sizes» window.
Instead of an empty plan, you can «Start from a ready hall»: «Banquet, round tables» (Ø1800 tables for 10 seats), «Imperial table» (2400 × 900 tables joined end to end into one long table) or «Buffet» (high Ø600 tables and open aisles). The preset is sized for the number of guests in the project passport (60 without it), is saved in the project and opens in the editor right away; then move the tables to fit your venue.
A plan card in the project shows a picture of the hall, its size in meters, who changed the plan and when, and whether there are enough seats: «No tables yet: 0 of 120 seats», «96 of 120 seats: add tables» or «120 of 120 seats: the guests fit». The buttons are «Place the tables» (or «Open floor plan») and «View in 3D». Above the list there is the «Find a plan» search, the «First» sort order and the «Cards / List» switch.
All your plans are together in «Floor plans»: «More» → «All tools» → «Floor plans» (or the «Floor plans» tab in the «Projects · Visualizations · Floor plans · Boards · Documents» row above the list). A card shows a picture of the hall, the name, the project as a link, the line «Seated 8 of 60 · 60 seats» (for a plan without tables «No tables yet», for a buffet plan «Buffet: no seating needed») and the «Open» and «Hall in 3D» buttons. Above the cards there are the «Find a plan» search, the «First» sort order and the «Cards / List» switch: in the list each plan is one row with the size of the hall. «New floor plan» here first asks «Which project is this plan for?», because a plan lives in a project: the window already has the project you worked in last time chosen, and «Next» opens that project’s plans, where you can start from a ready hall. «No project for now» opens an empty plan without a project. Such a plan says «Without project» on its card and has the «Add to a project» button: a copy of the plan goes into the project, and the plan itself stays in «Floor plans».
The plan itself takes up almost the whole screen. On the left is a strip of six labelled buttons: «Hall sizes» (width and length, source of dimensions, grid step, minimum aisle, list of objects, the «Reviewed by» field and the «Floors: N» line), «Drawing» (the underlay), «Measure» (M), «Add», «Draw» (the pencil, the eraser, a caption, an arrow and a team pin) and «Guests». «Add» opens a menu: «Ready sets» (tables with chairs, stages, bars, lounge zones, table settings), «Table», «Chair», «Decor» (installations) and «Furniture and 3D models» (your 3D models, the project's models, the AURA gallery and the catalog), and below them two groups: «Walls and columns» (a wall, a column) and «Openings and passages» (the door, window, stairs and aisle). «Checks», «Pins», «Color legend», «Renumber the tables in order», «Rename the plan» and «Save a copy» are in the «⋯» menu in the top row, and «Realistic photo» stands next to «Hall in 3D». A click on a button opens a menu or a window next to the strip, and Esc or a click outside closes it. At the bottom of the screen there is a row: on the left «?» (the «Mouse and keys» window with the «Floor plan guide» link), the total «Seated 8 of 60 · 60 seats» and the seats line «60 of 60 seats: the guests fit», on the right «Undo» and «Redo»; in the bottom right corner of the sheet, «Select several», «Guides», «Distances», «Properties» and the «− 100% +» zoom, where the percentage brings back the whole sheet. On a phone, the strip sits at the bottom of the screen (it has «Dimensions» instead of «Hall sizes»), «Download» and «Show floor below» move into the «⋯» menu, and the windows and the «Guests» panel slide up from below.
Add objects and select them on the plan. Drag an object by its middle, rotate it to any angle with the round handle above it, and resize it with the square handles: a growing side stops at the venue wall. A wall, a door, a window and an aisle have length handles at their ends at any zoom: when the object is small on screen, they stand just past its ends, and the opposite end stays in place. The handles across it (a wall's thickness, a door's swing, a window's reveal) appear when the object is wide enough on screen. Any other small object has its corner handles just outside it. For suitable objects you can enter a guest list.
Move the plan view with the mouse: hold it down on an empty spot and drag. The mouse wheel and two fingers on a trackpad move the plan too (with Shift the wheel moves it sideways), and Ctrl/Cmd+wheel or a pinch on a trackpad zooms in and out around the cursor, from 50% to 3200%. Space with a drag and the middle mouse button move the view over objects too. On a phone, move the plan with a finger on an empty spot, and zoom and move it with two fingers, even when the first finger was on an object. A click on an empty spot without moving clears the selection, and the selection frame is drawn with Shift (or Ctrl/Cmd) held or in the «Select several» mode. The view does not jump to the selected object while it is on screen, and the percentage in «− 100% +» («Whole sheet») shows the whole hall so that the strip of floors does not cover it.
To avoid placing each chair separately, click «Add» → «Ready sets» and choose a ready table: round Ø1200 for 6 seats, Ø1500 for 8, Ø1800 for 10 and Ø2000 for 12; oval 1800 × 1000 and 2000 × 1100 for 8, 2400 × 1200 for 10 and 3000 × 1200 for 12; rectangular 1800 × 800 and 1800 × 900 for 6, 2400 × 900 and 2400 × 1000 for 8; serpentines (ring segments of 90°, 60°, 45°, 36° and 30°, with chairs outside, inside or on both sides); a half-round Ø1500 for 5 seats, trapezoids and a triangular table. The preset lands in the middle of the visible part of the plan; then you move and rotate it like any object, and the chairs go with the table. Single chairs, lounge, bar and stages are described below, in the «Ready sets: stages, bars, lounge, table settings and chairs» section.
When an object is selected, a quick panel appears at the bottom center: name, width and depth (a round table has a single diameter Ø), the «seats» field for a round or oval table with chairs, the «Guests» button (opens the «Guests» panel at this table), «Rename (F2)» and «Properties (P)», plus rotation by 90°, color, duplicate, delete and «Deselect». «Properties» opens the full panel on the right over the plan with collapsible sections «Size and position», «Shape», «Color on the plan», «Seats at the table»: the «Width», «Depth» and «Rotate» sliders, exact values, «90°» and «Reset». The properties panel does not slide out by itself when you select an object: you decide whether it is open or closed, and the editor remembers this on the device.
The right mouse button on an object (a long press on a phone, Shift+F10 or the menu key on a keyboard) opens the object's menu: «Rename», «Properties», «Duplicate», «Copy», «Insert», «Rotate 90°», «Recolor», «Group» or «Ungroup», «Save as preset», «Move to floor…» (on a plan with floors) and «Delete», each with its key beside it. If the object was not selected, the click selects it. The right button on an empty spot of the sheet offers «Insert», «Caption here», «Measure from here» and «Show everything». On a plan open for viewing only, the menu keeps «Properties» and «Copy».
The line at the bottom answers the main question: how many guests are already seated and whether there are enough seats. «Seated 8 of 60 · 60 seats» counts the names entered at the tables; the number of guests comes from the project passport, and without it the line is shorter: «Seated 8 · 60 seats». Next to it is the seats line: «60 of 60 seats: the guests fit», «48 of 60 seats: add tables» or, without a passport, «Seats on the plan: 60». On a phone only the first line stays. A buffet needs no seating: the cards of the plan and of the «Space» step say so.
To mark up the plan by type of work, select an object and choose a color in the «Color on the plan» block: the «Fill / Outline» switch decides what to recolor, and «Default color» brings back the type's color. Select several objects with Shift or Ctrl/Cmd (on a phone, with the «Select several» button); the «Apply to all objects of this type» button carries the fill and outline over to all tables, chairs or installations. In the «Color legend» block, name the colors: «Light», «Sound», «Floristry».
Review the checks for overlaps and distances. When a specialist has reviewed the plan, enter their name in the «Reviewed by» field in the «Hall sizes» window.
The plan saves itself: at the top next to the name it says «Saved» (while it is being written, «Saving…», and if it did not work, «Failed to save» and the «Save again» button). «Save a copy» in the «⋯» menu makes a copy of the plan. To hand it over, click «Download» (on a phone it is in the «⋯» menu): the «Download» window has SVG, PDF A3, GLB, OBJ, «Download seating CSV» (when the plan has guests), «To the presentation» and «Download for the designer».
To bring a ready plan from «My templates» into the project, open the project’s list of plans (the «Space» step → the «Floor plan» card → «Create a floor plan» or «Other plans», or the «Back to the step» arrow in the editor) and click «Take from saved work», and «Take into the project» on the plan you need: a copy is saved in the project.

The hall's own outline: an irregular shape, arcs, a marquee

A hall does not have to be a rectangle. In the «Hall sizes» window, in the «Hall shape» block, choose «Own outline»: this is how you draw an L-shaped restaurant, a hall with a round end, a round marquee or a hall with a cut corner. A plan without its own outline stays a rectangle, as before.

A ready shape: press «L-shaped», «Round end» or «Round marquee». The shape fits the current width and length of the hall, and you can then adjust it on the sheet.
Your own outline from scratch: press «Draw the outline» and click the corners of the hall on the plan, they snap to the grid. Shift keeps a wall at exactly 0°, 45° or 90°. To set a wall from the survey, type its length as a number (for example, 8000) and press Enter: the wall goes towards the cursor. The «Wall length · mm» field and the «Add the wall» button do the same. Backspace erases a digit or the last point, Esc cancels.
Close the outline with a click on the first point, the «Close the outline» button or Enter. The strip at the bottom says «The hall outline is ready» with the number of walls and the area.
«Edit the outline on the sheet» shows the corners and diamonds in the middle of the walls. Drag a corner to move it. Drag a diamond outwards or inwards and the wall becomes an arc: this is how you draw a half-round wall or a rounded end. A double click on a diamond adds a corner in the middle of the wall, a double click on a corner removes it. «Ready» or Esc ends the editing.
«Rectangle» brings back an ordinary hall by its width and length. Every change of the outline is undone with Ctrl/Cmd+Z.

Every wall of the outline has its length in millimeters written on the sheet, an arc its length along the arc. The «Hall sizes» window shows the number of walls, the overall size and the area of the hall by its outline, the same as in the hall's caption and in «Adjoining areas».
«Checks» tell you if a table or another object stands outside the outline, for example in the cut corner of an L-shaped hall. Doors and windows stand on the straight walls of the outline and slide along them.
If the outline grows left or up, everything on the plan moves with it, and the view stays in place: nothing changes its position relative to the walls.
The outline goes into the PDF A3, the SVG, a presentation slide and «Hall in 3D»: the floor, the walls along every side of the outline with the openings of doors and windows, the slabs between floors. All floors of a building share one outline.
A visualization made from the floor plan builds the hall by its outline too: the floor and the walls of the same shape, the columns and supports in their own shapes.
The outline is the shape of the hall itself. «Adjoining areas» are still rectangles outside along the sides of the hall, and «Wall» from «Add» is a separate wall inside the hall. «Fit the venue to the underlay» makes the hall a rectangle again.
An outline has 3 to 64 corners, no wall shorter than 100 mm, and walls must not cross: otherwise the editor tells you what to fix.

Walls by clicks

Walls inside the hall are drawn as a polyline: click the corners, and between every two corners a separate wall of the plan stands. It is handy for partitions, niches, backstage and the bar.

Open «Add» → «Walls and columns» and click «Wall». The «Wall» bar appears over the plan.
Click where the wall starts, then the next corner. Corners stand on the grid and snap to the ends of walls already on the plan. Shift keeps a wall at 0°, 45° or 90°.
To set an exact length, type it and press Enter: the wall goes towards the cursor. Set the thickness in «Thickness · mm», 200 mm by default. Backspace erases a digit and, with no digits, removes the last corner. «Remove the point» does the same.
Finish the walls with Enter, Esc, a double click or «Ready». A click on the first corner closes them into a ring. The cross «Cancel the walls» leaves without walls.

The finished walls are selected together: move them at once, and change each one's length and thickness in its properties. All walls of a line are undone in one Ctrl/Cmd+Z step.
At a corner the incoming wall runs on by half its thickness, so the corner is solid on the plan and in 3D.
In the AURA app walls are drawn by taps: «Add» → «Hall» → «Wall». Type a length and choose with an arrow where the wall goes, set the thickness in «Thickness · mm». A second tap on the last corner or «Ready» finish the walls.

A seating plan from a ready frame

Open a ready frame whose order has tables. In the «Do more with this» list to the right of the frame (on a phone, in the «More» sheet) click «Seat the guests». The frame's owner and the project's editors see the line.
AURA arranges the tables and chairs from this frame's order on a floor plan, with no measurements and no photo, and opens the plan in the editor: for a frame in a project, among the project's plans; for a frame without a project, in «Floor plans». A message says what came out, for example «Plan ready: 4 tables, 28 seats», and what did not fit.
Move the tables to fit the real hall, enter the hall size and the «Measurement source» in the «Hall sizes» window: the plan saves itself.

Tables are joined the way the catalog modules allow: serpentine tables form a serpentine or a ring, rectangular tables an imperial table, rows or a U shape, and round tables stand on their own. Chairs go around the tables.
If the order has chairs, the plan seats exactly those; if not, as many guests as the frame specifies; if that is missing too, as many as the tables hold. Whatever did not fit is named in the message instead of silently disappearing. Bar and cocktail tables get no chairs: the guests stand.
The chairs around the tables carry the product from the order, so «Add to the estimate» in the project estimate adds both the tables and the chairs.
The hall size on such a plan is approximate: the tables plus about 2 m to the walls. So until the measurement source is set, «Checks» shows «Specify the source of the venue dimensions.». A table without dimensions in the catalog becomes a Ø1800 mm round table on the plan, and the message says so too.
One frame gives one plan in a project: clicking again opens the plan already built, even if it was edited («This plan was already built: …»). A new plan comes from another frame or after the old plan is deleted.
The floor plan is part of the tool set: without it the plan is not built, and the message says why.

Underlay, measuring and guides

Underlay: click «Drawing» on the left strip (the window is called «Underlay») and «Upload the venue plan». A PNG, JPG, WebP or PDF image up to 20 MB works; the editor will not send a larger file or another type and tells you why right away. A one-page PDF is placed right away; for a PDF with several pages, choose the page with the plan. Remove the password from a password-protected PDF beforehand. If the plan is not saved yet, the editor saves it by itself. The underlay goes under the objects and fits into the hall.
While the underlay is not locked, it behaves like an object of the sheet. Click it to select it: a frame, four corner handles, a round turning handle and a bar of actions at the bottom appear. Drag the underlay by any spot to move it, by a corner to stretch or shrink it (the picture keeps its proportions, the opposite corner stays in place), by the round handle to turn it (with Shift by 15°). An underlay stretched by hand counts as not calibrated again. While the underlay is not selected, dragging on it moves the plan, and while the «Underlay» window is open you can drag it at once. Every movement is undone with one Ctrl/Cmd+Z; Esc while dragging puts it back, Esc afterwards clears the selection, Delete removes the underlay. The bar of actions has «Transparency», «Rotate 90°», «Scale by a segment», «Fit to the hall», «Lock» and «Options» (the underlay window). In the window you can rotate it, change its transparency and its width in millimeters, hide it («Show the underlay») and lock it («Lock the underlay»). A locked underlay becomes the background: it cannot be moved by accident, and clicks and drags on it move the plan. «Remove the underlay» takes it off the plan; Ctrl/Cmd+Z brings it back.
Scale calibration: click «Calibrate scale», click the start of a wall of known length on the underlay, then its end (Shift keeps the line strictly horizontal or vertical), enter the actual length in millimeters (the measured number in the field is already selected, just type yours) and click «Apply scale». The scale is recalculated so that the segment becomes that length. For a PDF, instead of calibrating you can enter the drawing scale in the same window (for example, 100 for 1:100) and click «Apply»: the editor knows the sheet size from the file.
Grid calibration: if the venue drawing has a grid (column spacing, floor tiles, the architect's markings), click «Calibrate scale», click two grid nodes and, in the line that appears, choose «By the grid» instead of «By a size». Enter «Cells between the points» and «Underlay grid step · mm» and click «Apply scale». The grid on the drawing is not necessarily one meter: take the step from the label on the drawing or from a reference dimension. If the underlay is included in the export («With the underlay»), the A3 sheet states the calibration method and the grid step.
After calibration, the editor offers to fit the venue to the underlay: «To the underlay's size» or «Mark the venue on the underlay» (click one corner of the hall, then the opposite one). Nothing changes without your confirmation: «The venue will be … mm» appears, and only «Fit» changes the venue dimensions. Objects, dimension lines and the underlay move together. If the hall was marked on the underlay, «Stretch the underlay onto the hall» is offered next to it: it changes the underlay, not the hall.
Fit the underlay to the hall: when the hall's sizes on the plan are already right, click «Fit the underlay to the hall» in the «Underlay» window (or «Fit to the hall» in the bar of the selected underlay) and click one corner of the hall on the underlay, then the opposite one. «Stretch the underlay onto the 12000 × 18000 mm hall» appears: the underlay stretches without distortion and lies so that the marked corners go onto the hall's corners, and the hall's sizes do not change. The scale counts as confirmed («Underlay: fitted to the hall … mm wide»). If the proportions of the marked hall differ from the plan by more than 2%, the editor warns you and names both sizes: check the marks or the hall's sizes. «Fit the venue to the underlay» does the opposite: it changes the hall's sizes by the picture. After a calibration or a fit the window offers «Lock»: a locked underlay does not move from a stray click.
Measuring: the «Measure» button or the M key. Click at the start and at the end: the distance appears in millimeters. The points snap to the corners and sides of objects and chairs, to the venue walls and to the underlay frame; Shift keeps the axis; Esc first removes the point, then closes the measurement. A measurement is temporary. To keep it on the plan as a dimension line, double-click the measurement line or its second point (on a phone, double-tap) or press «Pin dimension»: the strip at the top says «Dimension pinned: it shows on the plan and in the PDF». A single click on the line starts a new measurement. A dimension that goes more than 100 m beyond the hall cannot be pinned. A click on a line or its number selects it (from the keyboard: Tab and Enter or Space), and Delete removes it. A click on the edge of an object under the line selects the object: the line itself catches a click only in a narrow strip.
Guides: while dragging, an object or a group snaps to the edges and centers of neighboring objects, to the walls and to the axes of the hall, and a line labeled «edge», «centre», «wall» or «venue axis» shows the snap. Away from the guides, the object snaps to the grid. Alt (Option) while dragging turns off both the guides and the grid.
Distances: for a selected object, group or several objects you see the numbers to the nearest walls and neighbors horizontally and vertically. Click a number, enter the distance you need in millimeters and press Enter: the object moves exactly there, and the keyboard goes back to the plan. The cross next to the field (or Esc) closes it without changes. If a wall is in the way, the editor tells you how much it managed; the hint disappears when the selection changes.

Draft plan from a 3D scan

A plan built from a 3D scan of the hall (the «Hall in 3D» article, section «Plan from a 3D scan») opens as a draft: the top of the editor says «Plan from a 3D scan: a draft, check the sizes».

Compare the length and the width of the hall with a survey or the venue’s drawing. If needed, correct them in the «Hall sizes» window.
Press «Sizes checked» next to the notice: the plan stops being a draft, and the mark is saved with the plan. Ctrl/Cmd+Z brings the draft back.

In the source of the sizes a plan from a scan says which length set the scale. The source and «Plan checked by» are printed on the A3 PDF and the SVG.
If you build the plan from the scan again, it becomes a draft again and «Plan checked by» is cleared: the sizes are new.
In the «Space» step the ready halls include «From a 3D scan of the hall»: it creates an empty plan and opens «Real venue» in the 3D scene. This option is seen by those who have the 3D scene.

Good to know

All plan dimensions are entered from on-site measurements. A photo or an AI frame does not replace the exact geometry of the venue.
Checks for overlaps and aisles are calculated from the outline of objects, taking rotation into account: a rotated table next to another object gives a check only when they really overlap. The venue's requirements and whether the aisles are suitable are confirmed by a specialist.
Rotating with the handle goes in 0.1° steps; near 0°, 45°, 90° and so on, the object snaps to the even angle; with Shift the angle changes by 15°. The editor's keys work wherever the focus is on the page, except in input fields: the arrows move the selection by one grid step (with Shift, by 10 steps), Delete removes it, Ctrl/Cmd+D places a copy next to it (the browser does not offer to add a bookmark), Ctrl/Cmd+A selects everything, Esc clears the selection; on the round handle, the arrows rotate by 1° (with Shift, by 15°).
Select several objects with a frame. Hold Shift (or Ctrl/Cmd) and drag the mouse from an empty spot of the plan: the objects that fall entirely inside the frame are added to the selection; a click on an empty spot without moving clears the selection, and a plain drag on an empty spot moves the plan. You can also select them one by one with Shift or Ctrl/Cmd, and on a phone with the «Select several» button, after which your finger draws a frame. At the bottom center, the «Selected: N» panel appears with the «Rotate», «Recolor», «Copy», «Group», «Duplicate», «Delete» and «Clear selection (Esc)» buttons; «Properties» (the P key) has the same actions plus «Save as preset». If you drag any of the selected objects, they all move; the round handle above the selection frame rotates them together around their common center. How to move and zoom the plan itself is written above, in the «How to use it» section.
Groups: select, for example, a section (a table and chairs) and click «Group» or press Ctrl/Cmd+G. A click on any object in the group selects the whole group: it is moved, rotated, copied, duplicated and deleted as a whole. A double click selects one object inside the group. «Ungroup» or Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+G breaks up the group. A group is saved in the plan and in your own presets; copies of a group form a new group, while a single object copied or duplicated from a group becomes separate. An object left alone in a group stops being a group. A table with chairs from the presets is not a group: its chairs are built automatically, and «Ungroup» turns them into separate chairs (they stay in the table's group if the table was in a group).
Ctrl/Cmd+C copies the selected objects (one or several), and Ctrl/Cmd+V pastes the copies one grid step to the right and down; each next paste is shifted one more step, and the pasted objects are selected right away. You can also paste the copies into another plan opened in the same browser tab. The guest list is not copied, just as with duplicating. Pasting does not exceed the limit of 200 objects on a plan. While the cursor is in an input field, Ctrl/Cmd+C and Ctrl/Cmd+V work with the field's text. The link to a 3D model is carried over only within a plan and between plans of the same project; another plan gets an object of the same size without the link.
An object's X and Y set the position of its center from the left and top walls. The slider ranges are chosen for typical event furniture; a size beyond the slider can be typed in by hand.
The table shape is chosen in the object panel: rectangle, ellipse or circle, half-round, trapezoid (with a short side), triangle and ring segment (a «serpentine» with an outer and inner radius and an angle). The «Chairs around the table» block sets the number of seats on each side or arc, the chair size (510 × 510 mm by default) and the gap from the table edge; the chairs rebuild themselves when the table changes. These chairs do not count toward the plan's limit of 200 objects; in the product list and in «Hall in 3D» they are separate items. The «Seats» total on the A3 sheet, in the README and on the slide equals the number of chairs on the plan (around tables and standalone), or the number of guests if more guests are named. The «Ungroup» button turns the chairs into regular chair objects: then they take up room in the limit, and the «Seats» total does not change. If a serpentine's inner radius is too small for the chairs on the inner arc, «Checks» shows «chairs stand on the table».
Your own presets: select a table with chairs or several objects, click «Save as preset» in the object's menu (the right mouse button, a long press on a phone), the «To presets» button on the quick panel or the same button at the bottom of «Properties», and enter a name in the window. The preset is kept in your account and only you can see it: in the «My packs» tab of the «Ready sets» window in all your plans and in the «Library» on the «My templates» tab; you can rename or delete it there too. The guest list and the links to 3D models do not go into a preset.
The plan palette has 16 ready colors, the recently chosen ones, palettes from «Saved work» and «Custom color». The label on a colored object turns dark or light by itself so that it stays readable. A selected object keeps its outline on the screen, and the selection is shown by a frame around it. Colors and the legend go into the PDF A3, the SVG and the picture for the presentation: the legend with names and the number of objects sits in the bottom right corner of the sheet, and a color that only outlines have is shown as an empty swatch. The swatch button in the legend selects all objects of that color, you can recolor them at once, and the name moves to the new color.
You can view a project plan in 3D right away: the «Hall in 3D» button in the editor’s top bar opens «Hall in 3D» with this plan, where you can walk around the hall and look at the layout. The same «Hall in 3D» button is on the plan’s card in «Floor plans»; in the project’s list of plans it is called «View in 3D», and on the «Hall in 3D» card of the «Space» step it is «Open the hall in 3D». Unsaved changes are saved before you go there. The button is visible to those who have «Hall in 3D» open. A plan without a project opens in 3D right away as a quick view over the editor (section «Hall in 3D without a project and the realistic photo»); its card in «Floor plans» has both «Hall in 3D» and «Add to a project».
Camera angles and PNG snapshots of the hall are in «Hall in 3D» (the «Space» step → the «Hall in 3D» card): there you can remember good camera views and download them as pictures. The angles are stored together with the plan and are kept when it is edited.
In «Hall in 3D», each color has its own material named after the legend. There are no outlines in 3D, so an object with only an outline gets the outline color. Products with a verified 3D model are also painted in the plan color; to keep their own materials, clear the «Paint 3D models in plan colors» checkbox in the «Download» window next to the 3D buttons (the plan color stays in the object's properties). A GLB keeps the colors in the file itself. A separate OBJ file keeps only the material names, without colors. An OBJ with colors is in «Download for the designer»: scene.mtl sits next to scene.obj, so keep both files in the same folder.
«Look in 3D» of decor (the «Shape» section of the properties, in the beta of the 3D scene) tells how «Hall in 3D» draws an item without a 3D model: as a sofa, an armchair, a pouf or bench, a coffee table, a bar counter, a screen, a shelving unit, a plant or a block. «Auto» recognises the look by the name, so most of the time there is nothing to choose. On the plan itself and in PDF and SVG the item looks as before.
Before exporting, the editor saves the plan by itself; if saving fails, the export does not start, and the reason appears under the top bar. The editor also keeps unsaved edits in the browser: if the server already has another version of the plan the next time you open it, you can open these edits as a separate copy.
To add a plan to a presentation, open it from the project. The designer package includes the plan, the 3D file of the hall (GLB, and OBJ with the scene.mtl color file) and the product list. Library models with the «Only in AURA» condition are not included in the downloaded 3D file: in their place there is a block of the same size, as noted under the buttons after the export.
To delete a plan, click «Delete» with the trash can on its card in the project’s list of plans (the «Space» step → the «Floor plan» card → «Other plans», or the «Back to the step» arrow in the editor) and confirm with «Delete permanently». «Floor plans» has no delete button. A project's plans are shared by its team. The project’s list of plans is visible to the project owner, editors, commenters and viewers (a client who has access only to selected frames does not see it): it holds the plans of this project by all authors, and someone else's plan shows its author. The project owner and editors can create and change plans. Saving goes by version: if a colleague saved first, the editor offers to open your changes as a separate copy. A commenter or viewer opens a plan only for viewing: they cannot save it, but they can download the drawing, the 3D file of the hall and the designer package. A plan can be deleted by its author or the project owner; the project history keeps a line saying who created or deleted the plan.
A plan without a project (created in «Floor plans» with the «No project for now» button) is visible only to you, and «Floor plans» shows only your plans. If you are removed from a project, its plans disappear from your list too; access to them comes back together with access to the project. A project's plans are shown in the project presentation no matter who on the team created them.
The «Cards / List» switch above the list changes the view: cards are larger, and the list shows each plan as a row. In «Floor plans» the row has the name, the project, the seating total, the hall size and the buttons, and in the project’s list of plans the name, type, date, version and actions as icons (hover over an icon to see a hint; the trash can means «Delete»). The choice is remembered in this browser separately for each page.
The underlay is not a plan object: it is not in the product list, the CSV, the 3D files or the presentation slide, and it is not copied or saved into presets. Its edits are undone with Ctrl/Cmd+Z, like any others. Everyone who opens the plan sees the underlay file, and those who can edit the plan can change it.
The export has a «With the underlay» checkbox. It is off by default: the A3 sheet stays a clean working drawing and the file is small. With the checkbox, the underlay goes into the PDF, the SVG and the designer package within the hall, and the README says so. Dimension lines always go into the PDF and SVG.
The distance numbers on the plan and the guides are calculated from the objects' overall dimensions along the sheet axes. For a table with chairs, the distance to walls and neighbors is measured from the outer edge of the chairs: that is where the guests pass. The exact distance along the outline, taking rotation into account, is shown in the object's properties. Guides and distances are turned off with the buttons in the bottom right corner, and the choice is remembered on the device.
A plan can have up to 100 dimension lines, and they do not count toward the limit of 200 objects. Measuring changes nothing, so even someone who opened the plan only for viewing can measure. The «Pin dimension» button, though, is only available to those who can edit the plan: it changes the plan itself.
A plan keeps the last 5 underlay files. If you undo actions (Ctrl/Cmd+Z) far back, to a file that no longer exists, the underlay is removed when you save, and the «Underlay» window says so: upload the venue plan again. Ctrl/Cmd+Z after calibration also removes the offer to fit the venue.
Large images and PDFs are processed on the server one at a time. If the server is busy, the editor asks you to try again in a minute.
«Download GLB», «Download OBJ» and the 3D file in «Download for the designer» are built the same way as «Hall in 3D»: tables of their own shape on legs or a base, chairs square or round as chosen in «Chair shape», doors and windows as openings in the walls (the windows with semi-transparent glass), adjoining areas with their own floor, the floors of a building one above another, each as a group named after the floor. The walls and floor in the file are neutral (light gray walls, light beige floor), so you do not have to repaint them in SketchUp. Object colors are taken from the plan.

How many chairs fit around a round table

Chairs around a round or oval table face it, so neighboring square chairs meet at their front corners before the table edge runs out. The seat number field (in «Properties» → «Seats at the table» and «seats» on the quick panel) does not let you enter more chairs than fit without overlapping: the extra ones would stand on top of each other.

Select a round or oval table with chairs. Under the seat fields it says «Up to N chairs of this size fit around it», and the «?» icon next to it explains why.
If you enter more, the field keeps the maximum number, and a hint under the block says how many chairs fit and how to seat more.
To seat more guests, make the table bigger, make the chairs narrower in the «Chair width · mm» and «Chair depth · mm» fields, or choose «Round» in «Chair shape»: round chairs of the same size fit more tightly.

For example, 11 square chairs of 510 × 510 mm fit around a Ø1800 table, not 14 as the edge length would suggest. Ready tables from «Ready sets» seat fewer than the maximum, leaving room for passing.
If there are already more chairs than the maximum (the plan was made earlier or the chairs were made wider later), «Chairs overlap» appears under the fields, and «Checks» shows the same for the table. Reduce the number of seats or change the chairs.
The maximum is calculated for rows around round and oval tables. Straight sides, half-rounds and serpentines keep the previous limits: up to 40 chairs per side and up to 60 per table.

Ready sets: stages, bars, lounge, table settings and chairs

«Add» → «Ready sets» opens the «Ready sets» window. Its tabs stand in two rows: «Tables with chairs» («Round», «Oval», «Rectangular», «Serpentines», «Other shapes») and «Stages, bars, zones and table settings» («Stages and platforms», «Bars and cocktail tables», «Lounge zones», «On the table», «Chairs» and «My packs» with your presets). Each card shows the size and the number of seats.
«Oval»: oval banquet tables 1800 × 1000 and 2000 × 1100 for 8 seats, 2400 × 1200 for 10 and 3000 × 1200 for 12. The chairs stand around the table at an even spacing, including on the narrow curves, and face the table. An oval table is resized with the handles, like a rectangular one: the number of chairs follows the edge length.
For tables with chairs, there is a «Chair shape» switch above the cards: «Square» or «Round». The choice applies to the table you place next. For a table that is already on the plan, change the shape in «Properties» → «Seats at the table» → «Chair shape».
«Stages and platforms»: round Ø3000, rectangular and oval 4000 × 2000, «Stepped stage, round» and «Stepped stage, rectangular» of three steps of 200 mm (section «A stepped stage and stages on each other»). «Bars and cocktail tables»: «Bar counter with stools» 3000 × 600 for 5 seats and 2000 × 600 for 3, «Cocktail table» Ø600, «Cocktail table and two stools» (two Ø400 stools facing each other) and «Two cocktail tables». «Lounge zones»: «Sofa, two armchairs and a table» and «Two sofas and a table» (sofa 2000 × 900, armchairs 800 × 800, table 1000 × 600). «On the table»: «Tableware set for one guest» 600 × 400 (a plate, cutlery and glasses, 200 mm high) and «Centrepiece flower arrangement» Ø400, 450 mm high. «Chairs»: a single square or round chair.
Your own preset is saved from the object's menu: right-click a table with chairs (or a selected group), on a phone hold your finger on it, and choose «Save as preset». The «To presets» button on the quick panel does the same. In the window type the «Preset name» and press «Save preset»: it appears in the «My packs» tab.

A set of several items (lounge, two cocktail tables) is placed as a group: it is moved and rotated as a whole, and a double click selects one part. The parts of the set remain regular plan objects and count toward the limit of 200 objects, so the card is unavailable if there is not enough room left in the limit.
Stools at a bar counter and at a cocktail table are built like chairs around a table and are counted in «Seats». Drag the tableware set and the flower arrangement onto a table: an item lying wholly on a table stands on its top in «Hall in 3D», and there is no remark about an overlap.
Serpentines are set up so that two modules joined end to end continue one rhythm of chairs across the joint: 90° serpentines have one chair fewer on the outside than would fit. The «4 to a circle» label on the card tells how many modules close a full circle.

A stepped stage and stages on each other

A stage that lies wholly inside another stage stands on it: this is how a stepped stage of two, three or more steps is built. You do not say what a stage stands on, the editor sees it from the outlines. Each step keeps only its own height.

Ready-made: «Add» → «Ready sets» → the «Stages and platforms» tab → «Stepped stage, round» (Ø4000, Ø3000 and Ø2000) or «Stepped stage, rectangular» (4000 × 3000, 3000 × 2000 and 2000 × 1000). Three steps of 200 mm are placed as a group around one centre.
Your own stepped stage: place a stage («Add» → «Ready sets» → «Stages and platforms»), add a second one, make it smaller and drag it wholly inside the first. It stands on the lower one as a step and rises to its height in «Hall in 3D».
A step's height is set in the stage's «Properties» with the «Step rise» field, from 50 to 3000 mm; without its own height a stage is 400 mm. Under the field a line says «Stands on: Stage 1, 200 mm above the floor» or «Stands on the floor». The quick panel of a selected stage says, for example, «h 200 mm · 400 mm above the floor».
To move one step of a ready set, double-click it or ungroup the set (Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+G) and drag it. A step moved past the edge of the stage under it stands on the floor.

A table, a chair or decor standing wholly on a stage, with the chairs around it, stands on its top step: a head table in «Hall in 3D» stands on the deck instead of sinking into the stage. Such a table gives no remark about the stage under it.
A stage that reaches over another only in part stands on the floor, and «Checks» say, for example, «Stage 2 partly reaches over Stage 1: put the stage wholly on the lower one or move them apart.»
On the PDF A3 sheet and in the SVG the lower steps are drawn under the upper ones, the name of a stage with a step on it stands in the band around the step, and a stage of its own height gets «h 200» after its name. In items.csv every step has its own row with its height.
In «Hall in 3D» the steps stand on each other, and the «From the stage» view looks from the top step. A visualization made from the floor plan builds the steps the same way.
Do not draw stage steps as stairs: «Stairs» lead to another floor.

Furniture and 3D models on the plan

Click «Add» → «Furniture and 3D models» (on a computer, the «Furniture» button in the left strip). The window has four tabs: «My 3D models», «Project models» (for a project's plan), «AURA Gallery» (if the 3D models gallery is open to you) and «Catalog». The window remembers the tab you chose last.
A card shows the product's picture, its name and the W × D × H sizes in millimetres; a checked model is marked «Checked». The «Find by name» field filters the models at once and searches the whole list in the gallery and the catalog.
On a computer, drag a card onto the plan: the product stands where you release the mouse button, its centre on the grid (with Alt (Option) without snapping), and it does not go past the hall's walls. While you drag, the product's outline at the plan's scale follows the cursor. A click on a card puts the product in the middle of the visible part of the plan.
Phones and tablets have no dragging: tap a card, and the product is placed in the middle of the visible part of the plan and selected at once. Then move it on the plan as usual.

The product is placed at its real size from the catalog or the checked 3D model, and «Hall in 3D» shows it with the same model. The sizes are kept in the plan in millimetres: if the catalog or the model changes later, the layout stays as it is.
A model of the «AURA Gallery» is first added to «My 3D models» for free, as with the «Add to my models» button, and only then goes on the plan. It does not use the limit of builds from photos. Buy a paid model in the gallery first: its card is grey and reads «A paid model: buy it in the gallery».
A grey card means the product cannot be placed yet. «Check the model first»: you have not confirmed your model's sizes yet; the «Check the model» link opens it. «Not checked by the author»: a project model that its author has to check. «The model is still being built»: wait until the build ends. «The product has no dimensions»: the catalog lacks its width, depth or height.
Products count towards the plan's limit of 200 objects. When the limit is reached, the cards are unavailable.

Hall in 3D without a project and the realistic photo

You can try a plan in 3D without adding it to a project. In the editor of a plan without a project press «Hall in 3D» (in the previous look «View in 3D»): the hall opens in 3D over the plan with all the changes, even unsaved ones. Look from above or take a walk and pick the ready views; «Back to the plan» or Esc closes the view.
The card of a plan without a project in «Floor plans» also has «Hall in 3D»: it opens the plan straight in this view.
Saved views, «Realistic photo», the video tour and 3D models of the furniture work in a project. When you like the layout, press «Add to a project» in the view and choose a project: a copy of the plan goes into it, and the draft itself stays in «Floor plans».
A plan of a project has the «Realistic photo» button next to «Hall in 3D». On a screen narrower than 1600 pixels it is called «Photo» for short, and «Download» becomes an icon with a down arrow. The button opens the hall in 3D right with the «Photo» window: choose the view, add a wish if you like and press «Take a photo». The price is shown in the window before the picture is made.

In the quick view the furniture is shown in a simplified way in its own sizes, the walls and the floor in neutral colours. Nothing is saved and nothing is charged.
«Realistic photo» makes a photorealistic shot of the drawn hall with its furniture and decor, paid from the project owner's wallet; the price is shown in the «Photo» window before the picture is made.

Resizing several objects and the shape on the plan

The square handles in the corners of the selection frame resize all the selected objects at once: tables grow or shrink, chairs keep their size, and their number around the table adjusts.
A chair and a product from the catalog or a 3D model (except tables) have a «Shape on the plan» switch in the quick panel and in «Properties» → «Shape»: «Round» or «Square». It changes the object's outline on the plan.
If a product's size on the plan was changed by hand, «Properties» says «Dimensions on the plan were changed manually» under the product name. The «Restore the product size» button brings back the width and depth from the catalog or the verified 3D model in one step, which Ctrl/Cmd+Z undoes.
An object with a verified 3D model that does not fill its place on the plan (by more than 15% in width or depth) gets «The plan size does not match the model» in «Properties» with the model's size in 3D. In «Hall in 3D» the model keeps its proportions and is not stretched along one axis, so empty space is left around it. If the place was stretched by hand, the model in 3D follows it as a whole. The «Take the model size» button fits the width and depth on the plan to the model in one step, which Ctrl/Cmd+Z undoes.
A selected circle (a round table, stage, decor or column) is framed by a dashed square with four corner handles. Any corner handle changes the diameter: the circle stays a circle and the opposite corner stays in place. An oval gets the same frame and side handles too.
An arc table (a serpentine) is picked out by the same dashed frame. Zoomed in far, a handle changes the size by a fine step (down to 1 mm) rather than by the grid, so it follows your hand at once. Shift switches the snapping off.

Mirror

Select a table or several items (with a frame or with Shift), for example a complex figure of tables.
On the selection bar at the bottom click «Mirror left to right» or «Mirror top to bottom». The right-click menu has the same items.
The selection is mirrored about its own middle as one figure: the items change places, each one turns as its mirror image, the chairs on the left and the right of a table change sides. Undo: Ctrl/Cmd+Z in one step.

Table names on the plan are not flipped and read as usual. Fixtures stay on their trusses.
In the AURA app «Mirror left to right» and «Mirror top to bottom» are on the selection bar at the bottom of the sheet.

Pencil: a table, decor or stage of your own shape

Click «Draw» → «Pencil» on the left strip (in the previous look of the editor it is the «Pencil» button on the tool strip). At the top, choose what you draw: «Table», «Decor» or «Scene».
A click places a corner, the next click joins it to the previous one with a straight line; Shift keeps the line strictly horizontal or vertical. To draw a smooth rounded line, drag with the mouse or a finger while pressing: the line is smoothed.
Above the sheet choose what to draw with: «Line» (clicks and smooth lines), «Arc» (a click at the end of the arc, then at a point it passes through; with Shift a half circle; or press at the end and drag towards the bend), «Circle» (press at the centre and drag to the edge, with Shift across the whole circle) or «Rectangle» (from corner to corner, with Shift a square). A circle and a rectangle become a round or straight table, decor or stage at once, like real ones: a round stage is round in 3D.
Close the shape with a click on the first point, the Enter key or the «Ready» button. The shape becomes a numbered object of the plan («Table 8»): it is moved, turned and stretched by its handles, and the shape is kept.
«Undo the step», Backspace or Ctrl/Cmd+Z while drawing remove the last corner or the last line, Esc closes the pencil. Ctrl/Cmd+Z undoes the finished shape in one step.

This is how you outline a table of a shape the ready sets do not have. A drawn table has no base chairs: add the chairs you need from «Furniture and 3D models» or as single chairs.
A shape holds up to 64 points: a long smooth line is simplified to them, and the shape stays close to what you drew. A side is at least 20 mm, the lines do not cross, and the shape is at least 100 × 100 mm; otherwise the plan says what to fix.
In «Hall in 3D», on the A3 sheet, in SVG and in GLB the drawn item stands in its own shape.
In the AURA app «Line», «Arc», «Circle» and «Rectangle» are drawn with a finger; for a half circle switch on «Half-round».

Eraser and replacing chairs

Click «Draw» → «Eraser». Press a chair at a table: only that chair goes, the table and the other chairs stay. Drag the eraser over chairs to remove several at once.
Pressing a table, a single chair, decor or a stage removes only that item. This is how one part of a ready set (a lounge, two cocktail tables, a stepped stage) is removed while the rest stays a group.
To put a chosen 3D model or product in place of the base chairs, select the table, open «Properties» → «Chairs around the table» and press «Replace the chairs from the library». «Furniture and 3D models» opens: choose a chair, and it takes the place of each chair of the table in its own size, without duplicates. The new chairs are grouped with the table and move with it.

The guest of a removed chair is not lost: they wait without a seat in the table's seating, the other guests keep their seats.
The eraser does not touch walls, doors, windows, columns, stairs, aisles or trusses. Ctrl/Cmd+Z undoes any erasing; erasing in one stroke is undone in one step.

Table numbers and names

A new table gets the number after the largest table number on the plan: with «Table 3» and «Table 7», the new one is «Table 8». Copies, pasted tables and tables from ready sets are numbered the same way. A number never repeats, even if some tables were deleted.
To give a table your own name or number, select it and type the name in «Properties» → «Table name or number», or double-click the table on the plan (F2). The name shows on the plan, in the seating and the «Guests» panel, on the A3 sheet and in «Hall in 3D».
To put the numbers in order, press «⋯» → «Renumber the tables in order» (the same button is under the table's name and in the right-click menu of an empty spot of the plan). Tables named «Table N» get the numbers 1, 2, 3 from top to bottom and from left to right, floor by floor in a building.

Tables with a name of their own («Newlyweds», «Bar counter») are not changed by renumbering and take no number. Ctrl/Cmd+Z undoes the renumbering.

Columns of the hall

Open «Add» → the «Walls and columns» group and click «Column». The column appears round and 400 mm across in the middle of the part of the plan you see, or next to it in a free spot when something already stands there. A new table, chair and decor appear the same way. Drag it into place.
To make a column square, select it, open «Properties» and choose the rectangle in «Shape». Set the width and depth in millimetres from the survey; a rectangular column may have different sides.
A column or a support can take any shape of the plan: «Shape» offers «Half circle» (a pilaster at a wall), «Triangle» and «Trapezoid» (a support in a corner), «Ring segment (serpentine)» (a curved pier). The width and depth set the size of a half circle, a triangle and a trapezoid, a ring segment has an outer and an inner radius and an angle. A wall can be made an arc the same way: select the wall and choose «Ring segment (serpentine)» in «Shape», which gives a half-round wall or a rounded end.
A support of its own shape that no ready shape fits (a pier of a complex section, a buttress, a niche): select the column, open «Properties» and press «Draw the support shape» in the «Shape» block. Click the support's corners on the sheet: they snap in 10 mm steps, Shift keeps a side at 0°, 45° or 90°. You can type a side's length as a number and press Enter, as for the hall's outline. Close the shape with a click on the first point, the «Close the shape» button or Enter: the column takes the outline you drew, and «Shape» shows «Own outline». Ctrl/Cmd+Z brings the previous shape back in one step.
You can give a column your own name, for example «C-3», and its own colour, like any other object of the plan.

Nobody walks through a column. «Checks» tell you when a table (with the chairs around it), a stage or decor stands on a column, and when a column blocks an aisle. A column set into a wall is not a remark.
A support of its own shape is stretched by its handles like any object and keeps its form. It has 3 to 32 corners, every side at least 20 mm, and the sides never cross. «Checks» test a table and an aisle against the support's own shape, not its box, and the PDF, the SVG, the slide and «Hall in 3D» draw it the same way.
On the PDF A3 sheet and in the SVG a column is filled dark without a label, and the legend gets a «Columns» row with their number. The plan on a presentation slide shows columns the same way.
In «Hall in 3D» a column rises from the floor to the ceiling, to the height of the hall's walls, and takes the walls' colour unless it has its own. Columns carry no labels in the scene.
Columns describe the venue, so they are not in the item list (items.csv).
Do not draw a column as a wall or decor: then the aisle check and «Hall in 3D» do not know it.

Floors

When a venue has several floors, all of them are drawn in one plan: each floor has its own tables, walls, doors and windows and its own ceiling height, while the width and length of the hall are shared. The seat counter counts the whole building. AURA places the stairs between neighbouring floors by itself, and you climb them on a walk through «Hall in 3D».

Above the sheet of the plan there is always a floor strip. For a building with one floor it holds a single «Add floor» button: click it and a small window opens with two ticks, both on. «Copy walls, columns, doors and windows» repeats the construction of the floor on the new one, so you do not draw it again. «Add stairs to the new floor» asks AURA to place stairs between the previous top floor and the new one, away from tables and decor; under the tick it says by which wall they will stand. Click «Add floor»: the new floor goes on top, is called «Floor 2», takes the ceiling height of the floor under it and opens right away, and the stairs are selected. Ctrl/Cmd+Z removes both the floor and the stairs in one step. The ticks are remembered on this device.
When there are two floors or more, the strip shows floor tabs shaped like rounded buttons: «Floor 1», «Floor 2» and so on. A click on a tab opens the floor, the ← and → arrows, Home and End work on the tabs, and PageUp and PageDown open the floor above and below. The names are never cut off: when a name is long, there are more than four floors or there is little room, one dropdown tab with the name of the open floor stands between the «Go to the floor below» and «Go to the floor above» arrows (▼ and ▲) instead of the tabs. On a phone it is always so, and a tap on the tab opens the «Floors» window.
Next to «Add floor» is a single «⋯» button with the actions for the open floor: «Rename» (a double click on the tab and F2 do the same), «Ceiling height», «Duplicate floor», «Delete floor» and «All floors…». A copy of a floor takes everything that stands on it except the stairs: instead AURA places new stairs between the previous top floor and the copy, if the «Add stairs to the new floor» tick is on in the «Floors» window. The tab's tooltip shows the seats, objects and ceiling of that floor. On a phone these actions are in the «Floors» window.
«All floors…» opens the «Floors» window, and so does the «Floors: 2» line in the «Hall sizes» window. In the window the floors are listed from the top one down: each shows its seats, objects and ceiling, and has an «Open» button and its own «⋯» menu with «Rename», «Ceiling height» (they unfold the «Title» and «Ceiling height, mm» fields), «Swap with the floor above», «Swap with the floor below», «Duplicate floor» and «Delete floor». Under the list are the «Stairs: 2 of 2» line, the «Show floor below» switch, the «Add stairs to the new floor» tick (under it is written «For a new floor and for a copy of a floor.»; it is shown to those who can change floors) and the «Add floor» button. The stairs keep joining neighbouring floors: stairs that would pass through a floor lead to the floor right above their own.
To move an object to another floor, select it and choose «Floor» in «Properties» → «Size and position». The plan opens that floor together with the object.
«Show floor below» on the strip (on a phone it is a switch in the «Floors» window) shows faintly what stands on the floor under the open one: its walls, columns and stairs. It helps to place walls and stairs. While it is on, a label «Shown faded: Floor 1» hangs over the sheet, and its cross («Hide floor below») turns the display off. The faint objects cannot be selected and do not go into the files. The first floor has no such button: there is nothing under it.

New objects, presets and pasted copies land on the open floor. Ctrl/Cmd+A, frame selection, guides, distances and «Checks» work on the open floor; the counter on «Checks» counts the whole building, and the checks window says how many remarks are on other floors.
When you pick an object in the «List of objects» (grouped by floor there), by a guest, by a team pin or from the estimate, the plan opens that object's floor by itself.
«Delete floor» asks «Delete «Floor 2» and N objects on it?», and Ctrl/Cmd+Z brings the floor back. When only one floor is left, the plan becomes an ordinary floor plan again: the name of that floor is not kept, and its ceiling height becomes the ceiling height of the hall in «Hall in 3D».
A plan holds up to 6 floors and up to 200 objects for the whole building, and the stairs take one of those places. If the new floor's structure did not fit into the 200 objects, the note after adding says how many objects were not copied, and if there is no room for the stairs either, the floor is added without them. At six floors «Add floor» cannot be pressed and says «A plan holds at most 6 floors». A basement: add a floor, move it down with «Swap with the floor below» in the «Floors» window and rename it.
A floor's ceiling height is measured from its floor to its ceiling, as with a tape measure. An empty field takes the ceiling height of «Hall in 3D» (usually 3 m). The slab between floors is 250 mm.
«Download PDF A3» prints a page per floor from the bottom up, and «Download SVG» saves the open floor titled «Floor plan · Floor 2». «Download for the designer» has plan-A3.pdf with every floor, plan.svg of the first floor, plan-2.svg, plan-3.svg and so on for the floors above, and a «Floor» column in items.csv. The plan slide of a presentation shows each floor on a page of its own.
Keep the floors of one building in one plan: then «Hall in 3D» stacks them and the stairs connect them. Separate plans of a project stay alternative layouts.
The card of a plan with floors shows the first floor and a label with the number of floors, for example «2 floors».
The underlay lies on one floor. On another floor the «Underlay» window says which floor it is on and goes there with «Open floor», and «Calibrate scale» and «Mark the venue on the underlay» open its floor by themselves.
Floors can be added, renamed and deleted, and windows and stairs placed, by accounts with the beta access «Floors, stairs and windows»; it is open to every account until an administrator switches it off. Without it the buttons do not hide: «Add floor» and «⋯» stay on the strip but cannot be pressed and say why. Every project member opens, views and saves a plan with floors; a viewer and a commenter see the floor tabs and «Show floor below» but do not change the floors.
If a plan has neighbouring floors without stairs, for example floors added earlier, a notice «There are no stairs between the floors» with the «Add stairs» button appears under the strip. Click it: AURA places the missing stairs, one for each pair of floors from the bottom up, in one undo step (Ctrl/Cmd+Z). The plan does not change by itself when it opens. «Later» hides the notice for this plan on this device, and to a viewer the notice suggests asking the project owner to add the stairs. The «Stairs: 2 of 2» line in the «Floors» window shows the same.
Stairs need room: with a ceiling of 3 m they are about 5.3 m long, plus a metre before the bottom step and a metre past the top one. If the hall has no free wall that long, AURA places the stairs where they touch the fewest objects and says under the tick how many; if they do not fit at all (the hall is shorter than about 7.3 m along a wall), the floor is added without stairs and the window suggests placing them yourself. Afterwards move the stairs or the objects they touch: «Checks» will show them.
The «View in 3D» button opens the hall in 3D on the floor that is open in the plan now, and «Open floor plan» in 3D brings you back to the plan on the floor shown in the scene.

Stairs

The stairs are placed for you. When you add a floor with the «Add stairs to the new floor» tick (it is on), AURA places stairs between the previous top floor and the new one, by a wall of the hall, away from tables and decor. Ctrl/Cmd+Z removes the floor and the stairs together.
To place stairs by hand, open «Add» → the «Openings and passages» group → «Stairs». If the plan has one floor so far, AURA adds «Floor 2» and says «Floor 2 added: the stairs lead to it»; Ctrl/Cmd+Z removes both the stairs and the floor.
The stairs appear 1200 mm wide, and their length follows the rise, 280 mm per step. The bottom step is where the «UP» arrow starts. Drag the stairs into place and turn them like any object.
«Properties» has a «Stairs» section: its first line says which floors the stairs join, for example «Joins «Floor 1» and «Floor 2»»; then «Leads to» (the floor above or below), «Steps» (an empty field counts them by itself and hints «auto: N»), «Rise» in millimetres and the «Reverse stairs» button, which turns the stairs by 180°.

The stairs are stored on the lower floor. There you see the steps and the «UP» arrow, and on the upper floor, in the same place, a dashed opening labelled «DOWN». The stairs can be selected and changed on both floors. Stairs added on an upper floor lead up to it from the floor below.
The rise equals the ceiling height of the lower floor plus the 250 mm slab. By default the number of steps is the rise divided by about 175 mm.
«Checks» tell you when a table, decor or another object on the upper floor stands in the stairwell, and when the stairs cannot be walked: less than 0.9 m to a wall at the top or before the bottom step, stairs that lead nowhere (on the top floor), or two stairs standing on top of each other.
In «Hall in 3D» the stairs have steps and handrails, and the slab above them has an opening with a guard rail. On a walk a «Go up to floor 2» button appears near them (the «Hall in 3D» article, section «Climbing the stairs on a walk»).
Stairs describe the venue, so they go neither into items.csv nor into the estimate. Stairs do not go into a preset of your own, because they connect the floors of one plan: when the selection has stairs, the preset is saved without them with the note «Stairs are not included in a preset.», and stairs alone have no «Save as preset» button.
Do not draw the steps of a stage as stairs: stairs always lead to another floor. Stage steps have «Stepped stage» (section «A stepped stage and stages on each other»).

Window

Open «Add» → the «Openings and passages» group and click «Window». A 1200 mm window appears on the wall of the hall nearest to the middle of the screen, turned along it.
Drag the window: at a wall it slides along it, and released closer than 300 mm to a wall it snaps to it. With Alt (Option) held, the window moves freely.
«Properties» has a «Window» section: «Window width, mm», «Sill, mm» (900 by default) and «Window height, mm» (1500 by default). The sill and the window height are measured from the floor of its storey.

On the sheet a window is a gap in the hall's wall with two thin glazing lines.
In «Hall in 3D» the wall below and above the window stays, and the opening has glass. In the downloaded GLB and OBJ the glass is semi-transparent, its material is called «Glass».
«Checks» tell you when a window is not on a wall of the hall and when its sill plus its height is above the floor's ceiling.
A window describes the venue and does not go into items.csv. Nobody walks through a window: mark an entrance with a «Door» and a path for guests with an «Aisle».
Without the beta access «Floors, stairs and windows» the «Window» tile stays in place with a lock and says why, while every project member sees and saves the windows on a plan.
How a door, a window, an aisle and stairs differ is written in the «Openings and passages: what to choose» section.

Doors on the wall of the hall

Open «Add» → the «Openings and passages» group and click «Door». The new door appears on the wall of the hall nearest to the middle of the screen, turned along it.
Drag the door: at a wall it slides along it, and released closer than 300 mm to a wall it snaps to it. With Alt (Option) held, the door moves freely.

In «Hall in 3D» a door opens the wall. The height of the opening comes from the «Opening height · mm» field in the door's «Properties» (it is visible when the «Products and materials» module is open); without it the door is 2.1 m high.
A door has its width handles at its ends at any zoom, and the handles of the leaf swing appear when the door is deep enough on screen; a window works the same way with its reveal. You can also type the size in «Properties».
Openings are made only in the outer walls of the hall. A door in a «Wall» object inside the hall makes no opening in 3D yet.
How a door, a window, an aisle and stairs differ is written in the «Openings and passages: what to choose» section.

Openings and passages: what to choose

Door: the way into the hall and out of it. It stands on a wall, snaps to a wall when you drop it close, and you can walk through it. In 3D it is an opening in the wall 2.1 m high, or of its own height if «Opening height · mm» is set.

Window: glass in a wall. It stands on a wall the same way as a door, but you cannot walk through it. In 3D it is an opening with glass, and the wall stays under the sill and above the window. A window is for light and a view.

Aisle: a clear lane for guests. It does not stand on a wall, you put it anywhere; it is a lane of 1800 × 4000 mm that must be kept free of tables. In 3D it opens a wall only if it butts against it. An aisle is not an entrance: mark an entrance with a door.

Stairs: the link between floors. They do not stand on a wall, they stand in the hall, and you walk up them to another floor. In 3D they are steps with handrails and an opening in the slab. When you add a floor, the stairs are placed for you.

You need an entrance or an exit: «Door». You need light and a view: «Window». You need a clear lane for guests between tables: «Aisle». You need to get to another floor: «Stairs».
All four are in «Add» → the «Openings and passages» group. Every tile has a caption, and under the tiles there is a short line: «A door and a window stand on a wall. An aisle keeps a lane clear. Stairs join floors.»

The plan's «Aisle» and the «Required minimum aisle width» in the hall sizes are different things: the first is an object on the plan, the second is a number that «Checks» use to test the distances between tables.
Without the beta access «Floors, stairs and windows» the «Window» and «Stairs» tiles stay in place with a lock: a click does not place an object but explains why. When the plan already has 200 objects, all tiles are unavailable until you remove something.

Route arrows: the guest route and the setup route

Click «Draw» → «Arrow» on the left strip. At the top, choose whose route it is: «Guest route» (a green arrow) or «Setup route» (an orange dashed one).
Click on the plan where the route starts, then where it ends: the arrowhead goes at the second point. Shift keeps the arrow strictly horizontal or vertical, Esc cancels.
The new arrow is selected at once. Drag its ends to move the start or the head, and drag the diamond in the middle to bend it and lead the route around tables or a column. Drag the arrow itself with the mouse or move it with the arrow keys.
The panel at the bottom lets you change the route, «Reverse the arrow» (the head goes to the other end), «Straighten» a bent one and «Delete the arrow (Delete)». Ctrl/Cmd+Z undoes any of these.

A plan holds up to 100 arrows; they do not count towards the object limit. To name a route («Guest entrance», «Truck access»), put a «Caption» next to it.
Arrows go onto the PDF A3 sheet and into the SVG over the objects, and the legend gets «Guest route» and «Setup route» rows with their number. The setup route is dashed, so it stays distinct in black and white print too.
The plan slide of a presentation shows the arrows the same way, with the same legend rows.
In «Hall in 3D» the arrows lie on the hall floor. The «Route arrows on the floor» checkbox in the «Hall view» window hides or shows them; downloaded GLB and OBJ files do not include them.
The plan's «Arrow» is not related to arrows on the project board: on the board an arrow connects cards.

Trusses and lighting fixtures

The «Trusses and lights» beta is available by invitation. A truss is drawn on the plan as a straight span, and lighting fixtures are hung on it. The plan shows where the light hangs, at what height and how many trusses, corners and fixtures to bring. Where spans meet, the plan puts a corner or a cube itself, counts the load on every truss and keeps the DMX patch of the fixtures (sections below).

Open «Add» → the «Trusses and lights» group and click «Truss». Click on the plan where the truss starts, then where it ends. Shift keeps the truss strictly horizontal or vertical, Esc cancels.
Select the truss and open «Properties». In the «Truss» section choose the «Section, mm» 290 or 400, set the «Hanging height, mm» from the floor to the bottom of the truss and the «Supports»: «Hung» (the truss hangs on hoists under the ceiling) or «On towers» (towers stand under both ends). The span length is the «Width» size.
Click «Fixture», choose the type at the top: Wash, Profile, Beam, PAR, LED bar or Strobe, and click the truss or next to it. The fixture hangs on the nearest truss within 1.5 m. You can click several times in a row, Esc finishes.
For a selected fixture, set the «Light color» and the «Tilt, °» in «Properties»: 0° shines straight down, 90° forward. A line from the fixture on the plan shows where it shines; turn the fixture with the round handle, like any object.

Fixtures move with their truss when it is moved, turned or shortened. A fixture is dragged along its truss or moved to another truss. If the truss is deleted, the fixture stays where it is, and «Checks» say that it hangs on no truss.
If you start or end a truss at the end of another truss, the point snaps to it. Where two spans meet at an angle the plan puts a 2-way corner, three (a T) a 3-way corner, four (a cross) a 4-way corner, and where towers stand under the joint or more than four spans meet, a cube. Two trusses in one line join without a corner. Corners are drawn as a square with diagonals on the plan and the PDF A3 sheet, hang as a cube in 3D, are counted in the «Lights and trusses» summary and go into the item list as «2-way corner 290» or «Cube 400».
«Checks» also tell you about a truss above the ceiling: the hanging height together with the section is more than the hall's ceiling height. Trusses and fixtures hang over the furniture, so they do not count as overlapping tables or the stage.
The «Hall sizes» window and the properties of a truss or a fixture show the «Lights and trusses» summary, for example «Truss 290: 24 m · Wash: 8 pcs». The same summary is printed in the header of the PDF A3 sheet and the SVG for the technicians, and the truss itself is drawn on the sheet as a lattice with its span length. In the product list (items.csv) trusses are listed by section with the span length in the width, and fixtures by type.
In «Hall in 3D» the truss hangs at its height as a lattice of four tubes with bracing, on hoists up to the ceiling or on towers, and the fixtures hang under it. If you choose «Light» → «Evening», every fixture shines a cone of its color, and up to eight fixtures closer to the middle of the hall (up to four on «Normal» quality) really light the hall.
Only invited people can draw trusses and fixtures, while a plan with them opens, saves and shows in 3D for everyone in the project. The «Technical light» of the AI visualization wizard paints light into the picture, while a truss on the plan is a drawing in millimeters.

Load on a truss

The selected truss (and a fixture on it) shows «Load: 46 of 540 kg» in «Properties»: how much the fixtures on the truss weigh and how much a span of its section and length can carry.

Select a truss or a fixture and open «Properties». The «Load» line stands under the truss and fixture fields.
A fixture's weight is the typical one of its kind (Wash 20 kg, Profile 26 kg, Beam 17 kg, PAR 4 kg, LED bar 6 kg, Strobe 9 kg). If a fixture is heavier or lighter, type its weight in «Weight, kg»; an empty field brings back the typical one.
When the weight is above the allowed load, the line turns red: «The truss is overloaded». Remove fixtures, take the 400 section or split the span in two. Above 80 % of the allowed load the line says «Close to the limit».

AURA takes the allowed load from typical tables of aluminium square truss (290 and 400 mm), spread evenly along the span, rounded down. For a span longer than the table (290 over 18 m, 400 over 20 m) the line asks you to check with the rigger.
It is a guide for the plan, not an engineering calculation: the rigger checks the exact load by the manufacturer's table of the truss that comes to the venue.

DMX patch of the fixtures

Every fixture has a DMX universe, a start address and a number of channels. The plan gathers them into a patch list for the lighting desk.

Select a fixture and open «Properties». Fill in «Universe», «DMX address» and «Channels». An empty «Channels» takes the typical number for the fixture's kind (Wash 16, Profile 24, Beam 16, PAR 8, LED bar 12, Strobe 4).
Expand «DMX patch: N fixtures» in the properties of a truss or a fixture. It shows every fixture of the plan by address, for example «1.017–32 Wash 2 · Truss 1 16 ch.». Fixtures with overlapping addresses are highlighted in red.
«Number in order» gives consecutive addresses: truss by truss (top to bottom and left to right on the plan), along each truss from its start, then the fixtures without a truss. A fixture that does not fit into 512 channels starts the next universe. It is one undo step.
«Download CSV» saves the patch list: fixture, kind, truss, universe, address, number of channels and last channel. The file opens in Excel.

In the AURA app the same fields, «DMX patch», «Number in order» and «Download CSV» are in the «Object settings» of a truss and a fixture.

Adjoining areas: welcome area, veranda, outdoors

Open «Hall sizes» on the left strip and find the «Adjoining areas» block. Click «+ Welcome area», «+ Veranda», «+ Outdoors», «+ Restrooms» or «+ Dressing room».
The area is placed as a rectangle outside, along a side of the hall. Set the «Title», «Side of the hall», «From the corner · mm» (offset from the corner of the side), «Along the wall · mm» and «Outwards · mm».
Under each area you see its size, floor area and number of seats, and the block heading shows the same for the hall itself («Hall: …»). Objects placed in an area are counted in it, not in the hall.
«Remove zone» takes it off the plan; Ctrl/Cmd+Z brings it back.

A plan can have up to 12 adjoining areas, and a name can be up to 60 characters. Areas with their names are drawn on the PDF A3 sheet and in the SVG; the sheet covers the hall together with the areas, so a large plan may need a smaller scale.
Objects are placed and dragged into an area the same way as into the hall; when copied, an object that is in an area stays in it.
The plan's adjoining areas are not related to the board's zones and their chats.

Color legend: an example

The legend tells the contractors what a color on the plan means. You give colors to objects, and in the legend you name each color after a kind of work. The «Color legend» window is always there: on the left strip of the former editor and in the «⋯» menu of the new one. While the plan has no colors of its own, the window says how to add them and leads here with the «How it works» button.

Select all the lighting stands (with Shift or Ctrl/Cmd, on a phone with the «Select several» button), press «Color on the plan» and pick yellow.
Paint the sound blue and the floristry green the same way.
Open «⋯» → «Color legend». The window has three rows: yellow, blue and green with the number of objects. Type the names «Light», «Sound» and «Floristry».
A click on a color's circle in the legend selects every object of that color: this way you can repaint or move all the lighting at once.

In the PDF A3 and the SVG the legend with the names and the number of objects stands in the bottom right corner of the sheet, on a presentation slide under the scale bar.
In «Hall in 3D» and in the GLB and OBJ files the colors become materials named after the legend: «Light», «Sound», «Floristry».
A color that only outlines have is shown in the legend as a hollow circle.

Captions on the plan and renaming in place

To label a spot on the plan («Guest entrance», «Photo area», «Socket 220»), click «Draw» → «Caption» on the left strip, click where you want the text, type it and press Enter. Esc cancels.
Drag a selected caption with the mouse; the panel at the bottom has «Edit text», «Make the caption larger», «Make the caption smaller» and «Delete the caption (Delete)». A double click on a caption also opens its text.
To rename a table, chair or installation right on the plan, double-click the object, or select it and press F2, or use the «Rename (F2)» button on the quick panel, or the «Rename» item of the object's menu (the right mouse button, a long press on a phone). Enter or a click outside saves the name; Esc keeps the old one.

A plan can have up to 100 captions, and a caption can be up to 200 characters. Captions go into the PDF A3 and SVG together with the dimension lines.
A double click on an object in a group selects it separately and opens its name for editing right away.

Plans in the mobile app

In the mobile build, plans are available from the studio library and from the project card. A tap selects an item, moving a finger changes its position, and two fingers move and zoom the canvas. Exact sizes, coordinates, rotation, shapes, groups, zones and captions open in the bottom panels.

Changes automatically stay as a local copy on the phone. Tap «Save» to send them to the server and open them on another device. In case of a version conflict you can explicitly load the current plan or save your changes as a separate copy.

Add a venue drawing from files, choose a PDF page and calibrate the scale. The underlay goes into the export only if you choose it separately. An A3 sheet in SVG or PDF, the list of objects and the CSV seating list open in the system save and share menu.

Team pins on the plan

A saved plan of a project has pins. Click «Draw» → «Pin» on the left strip or «⋯» → «Pins», then «Place a pin», and click the plan where the change is needed («Move this arch 300 mm to the left», «The aisle is narrow here»).
Write the text and click «Place». To call a colleague, type @ and pick them from the list: they get a Telegram message if they connected the bot.
The pin's number is shown on the plan. Clicking a pin opens its thread in the «Team pins» window: the replies, «Reply» and «Show on the plan», which zooms the plan to the pin.
When the change is done, click «Resolved»: the pin leaves the plan, and the «Show resolved» checkbox brings such pins back to the list and the plan. «Return to discussion» opens the pin again.

Everyone who opens the project sees the pins. The owner, editors and commenters place pins and reply; the pin's author, the owner and editors can mark it resolved. A client who sees only chosen frames does not see pins.
Pins are not part of the plan: they are not in the PDF A3, the SVG or the SketchUp files, and the plan is not saved again because of them. The number on the «Pins» button shows the open pins.
A plan without a project has no team, so it has no pins. Link the plan to a project to discuss it with the team.

Estimate variants and options on the plan and in 3D

In an order's plan an object can be linked to a variant or an option of an estimate row: select the object and in «Properties», in «Variant or option of the estimate», choose for example «Bar counter: variant «Metal»» or «Option «Lighting»».

While the estimate holds another variant or the option is not in, the object is see-through on the plan and in «Hall in 3D», so both alternatives are visible in one place. When the client chooses the variant and the choice is moved into the estimate, its object becomes ordinary and the former one see-through.

The field is shown in the quotes pilot when the order estimate has rows with variants or options.