AURA help

AURA brings event projects together in one application: the concept, visualizations, the floor plan, documents, tasks and decor production. A project gathers the event brief and everything needed for the preparation; you can also start with a single visualization.

A step-by-step workflow for decorators and event designers: a brief and venue photos, an idea board, AI visualization, floor plans and seating, an estimate and client approval.

How the top row and the bottom bar of a phone work: the direction switcher, the three sections, search, «Tasks», «Create» and the «More» menu under the avatar.

The «All tools» page gathers what is not in the header or the bottom bar: the lists across all projects, the library and the production sections. It opens from the «More» menu.

Short notes about what has appeared and changed in AURA (formerly «What's new»). The dot on the avatar and the number on the «AURA news» row of the menu show how many notes you have not read yet, and after an update the notes are shown once in a window.

Aura Guide answers from the help right on the open page: press its icon in the header (a circle with a speech bubble and a spark), the «Aura Guide» row in the «More» menu or «Ask Aura Guide» in the «Create» window. The «?» by a page title opens the help article. Questions about how to use AURA are free; a question about your own project is paid.

The beta modules of «Production» are marked «Beta». Next to the label is the «Beta feedback» button: a short note goes to the AURA team together with the page and the module version.

Personal projects and generations require an account. Signing up takes a minute: a name, an email and a password. After signing up, confirm your email with the link in the message. Invitations are tied to a specific email address.

Help explains how the interface works; support handles questions about your account, payments and individual situations.

The AURA mobile app for iPhone: studio, projects, visualizations, boards, plans, production, chats and the catalog. The app is in closed testing through TestFlight; it is not on Android or in the App Store yet.

The Home page shows one next step for your project, five goals, the things you worked on last and today's tasks. A newcomer with no projects makes a first visualization from Home in three actions. The «Create or find» window searches by name and leads to the main jobs: a new project, a visualization, a plan and seating, the hall in 3D, a task. In the AURA app for iPhone, Home is the first tab.

«My studio» is the shared section above the directions: the studio card with the logo, contacts and team, «Create a new project», all Design, Production and Floristry projects in one list, sections across every project (tasks, documents, boards, chats, plans, photos, estimates, suppliers, sketches, 3D models), the studio's document templates, the library and the Aura Guide. It opens with the word «My studio» in the header.

The «Tasks» icon in the header opens your tasks and the team's by due date. Tasks live in task lists: a project has its own, and the studio's shared tasks are kept apart. The «By status» view lays the cards out in columns, from «To do» to «Ready».

A task card holds the result, the dates and what the team agreed. A day and an hour before the due date, Aura reminds you of an unfinished task. A task can be linked to a project even if the task list itself is shared.

The tasks of a project can be saved as a studio template and added in the next project in a minute with «Templates» → «Add a ready plan». Due dates are recalculated from the event date, and the people responsible are kept as roles.

Keep concepts, instructions and notes in «My documents». A document can be stored on its own in the studio knowledge base or inside a project.

Invite a specific account by email or publish a version of the document to view by link. The ways of access are managed separately.

The «My projects» list: the nearest events on top, «Now: …» on every card, search, «In progress» and «Archive», and «Create project» in one window. The «⋯» menu of a card shows the project to the client, invites the client, and moves the project to the archive or the trash.

In every direction the first word of the header is «My projects» («My orders» in Production), and the home page starts with «Create project» and the list of projects. Inside a project «Things to do in order» leads through the steps of the direction: in Design from the board to showing the client, in Floristry from the arrangement board to the estimate. Boards, 3D models and plans each live in their own section, floristry collages in Floristry.

The project «Overview» opens first: the dark «What's next» card suggests one action, next to it are the «Event brief» and the «Team», and below them «Latest changes» and «Team comments» are folded. Above are the name, date, venue, number of guests, «Show the client» and «⋯».

A project has one row of five steps. A step opens as a page with the cards of its tools: each card has one state and one button. A tool opens as a page of its own with a «Back to the step» button.

Access to the visual board is granted through the project team. The owner creates the invitation; the member needs their own account with the email you specify.

«Chats» is the work messenger of AURA for the whole team and every direction: team channels, direct messages, groups of up to 15 people and project chats with subgroups and board zones. In a chat you reply with a quote, pin messages, react, and send voice messages with their text, photos, videos and files. A contractor is invited by a link into the chat they need only: the project and the prices stay hidden. Chats are in beta.

A free canvas for the venue, items, references, notes and tasks. Frames group materials into concepts.

A sticker adds a colored note to the board, and text creates a caption without a background. Once added, you can start typing right away and choose a font, your studio's own font included.

The «Elements and templates» tab in the «Add to board» panel (the «+ Add» button on the tool rail) gathers tools for discussing and planning a concept.

You can collect materials from the project, the catalog and your own templates on the board, and add files.

A frame groups a part of the board. The «Frames» panel on the right works as the table of contents of the board and the order of the slides, «Show» switches the frames like slides, and any frame can be downloaded as PDF, PNG or JPEG.

AURA uses the materials of the selected frame as the brief for a visualization.

The board has a separate sheet for drawing with a finger or a stylus, as in Procreate: layers, a photo of the hall as the bottom layer, stamps of flowers and vases, and drafting with sizes. A sketch in a frame with the venue photo and items becomes a photorealistic visualization with the same composition, and every sketch, those without a project too, is gathered in «My sketches».

A beta for those who have the floristry collage. The «Flowers and vases» panel on the board holds the same cut-outs without a background as the collage: flowers, greenery, branches and vases. Gather them on the board in a frame with the venue photo, and «Visualization from frame» arranges the composition the way it is put together.

Navigation commands help you keep track of objects on a large board and fix changes safely.

Project members see the board within the permissions they were given. Comments can be attached to a specific object.

A board frame can be given a chat of its own («A separate chat for this frame»): it becomes a zone with the direction «Decor», «Catering», «Print and colour proofs» or your own. A zone has its own members and its own chat, which works like any chat in «Chats». The chats of all your zones are gathered in the «Discussion» menu on the board and in «Project chats» (the button in the project header). The messages stay if the frame is removed from the board. Available in beta to everyone, no invitation needed.

A visualization is put together on one screen: on the left «What goes into the visualization» (venue, products, words and «More options»), in the center the photo of the hall and the wait, at the top the switch «I'll build it» and «I'll describe it». It all ends with the «Create» button.

Describe it in words or dictate what you need, and attach photos. AURA asks only for what is missing, puts together the «What goes into the visualization» list, and the visualization is created with the «Create» button at the same price as in the «I'll build it» mode.

A ready visualization opens on the whole page: the picture with its variants on the left, «What's next» with the «Retouch an area» button and the «Do more with this» menu on the right, «Download» and «Show the client» at the top, and the check, the discussion and what it is made of are folded into «Details».

«Retouch an area» is applied to the chosen ready variant: outline the place on the image and write what to change. The original stays as a separate variant. The more specific the change, the easier it is to judge the result.

The «Visualizations» page holds all your visualizations: ready, in progress and failed. Find the one you need by name, tag or project, open it, retouch it, show it to the client or move it to a project.

Beta, open to everyone. A florist builds the composition from cut-out flowers, greenery, grasses and vessels right on the venue photo, and AI finishes the collage in the hall's light while keeping its shape. It suits arches, hanging installations, ikebana and compositions that are hard to describe in words.

A supplier of vases, flowers and materials sells a pack of elements for the collage and gives a link to their site or product. The florist sees «Supplier» on the elements and a «Where to buy» block under a finished arrangement. An admin can give a pack the «Partner» placement for a period: such a pack comes first in the library and on the Floristry home. Prices and the placement contract are agreed with the admin; they are not in AURA.

Floristry has its own tools: «Price list and norms» with the prices of flowers, greenery and materials and the norms of compositions, «Materials in stock» with what lies in the studio, and «Calculator», which counts the stems, the purchase, the work and the client's total and adds the calculation to the project's estimate. A composition can also be calculated from a photo or a collage with AURA.

The «Library» gathers in one place everything you can take into a project: the «Catalog» of products, «Frame styles», the «AURA Gallery» with frames and venues of other people, «Items in 3D» and your «My templates». This article explains how the library is arranged and covers the «AURA Gallery»: concepts that people allowed to publish, 3D models, venues and element packs.

«My templates» (formerly «Studio materials» and «Saved work») is the fifth part of the «Library»: your saved drafts, venues, products, sets, frames, palettes and plans that you can take into a new project. Only you can see them.

The «Catalog» is the first part of the «Library»: products of rental companies with photos, parameters and a rental price.

«Frame styles» set the light, colour and mood of a visualization, like a photographer's preset. They are the second part of the «Library» and are chosen in the «Frame style» row when you create a visualization.

Create a model from a single photo, add optional views or pick frames from a short video. Before the run AURA checks the photo for free, and after the build it checks the model's mesh and makes a cleaned version sized to the dimensions you entered. You can download the model for SketchUp (DAE, STL), other programs (OBJ) or as GLB. Models from photos have a 24-hour limit. You can show a model in a project: members open it and download the file, while the owner and editors put it into a visualization and onto the floor plan. A checked model can be published in the «AURA Gallery», and someone else's ready model can be added to yours for free without using your build limit. Clear chairs, wine glasses and glass can be shown see-through with the «Transparent material» tick.

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

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.

«Hall in 3D» shows the hall from the project plan in 3D, full screen: walls to the venue's dimensions, doors and windows, the floors of a building, tables, chairs, the stage and decor in their places. On the left is the toolbar with «Hall view», «Finishing», «Views», «Fly-through», «Video tour», «Photo» and «Real venue»: you can rotate the hall, walk through it at eye level, lay parquet, marble or carpet on the floor, choose the wall finish, the ceiling height and colour, save views, send their snapshots to a presentation or the board, record a fly-through video, take a photorealistic photo of the current view or make a photorealistic video tour with a link for the client, show a 3D scan of the real venue in place of the drawn hall and download the hall for SketchUp. Available in beta, open to every account.

There is one «Show the client» button, and the way is chosen in the «How do you want to show the client?» window: show the presentation full screen, send a link for approval or download a PDF. The article explains how the ways differ, what the client gets and where to read the client's answer.

The editor turns visualizations, the live floor plan, the studio's 3D models, the estimate from the event budget and the project materials into a story for the client, from the idea to client review. «Create with AURA» makes a presentation from a prompt and files in four steps: chat, questions, slide-by-slide structure and design. This is a beta version, open to every account now.

The «Show the client» button in the editor opens the «How do you want to show the client?» window: a full-screen show, the «Send for approval» link and «Download PDF». The link opens the saved presentation without registration, and the client answers right on the page. The presentations themselves are still in beta, while links already sent work for everyone. Working together on the board needs an invitation to the team.

The client sees each frame as a card in the studio's brand style and answers «Like» or «Needs changes». The studio reads the answers in words on the project's «Client review» page. Access is set by the invitation to the project.

An inquiry tells a company you want to discuss a rental. Its status helps you follow how it is handled.

The profile holds your personal details, language and theme, studio and security. Money and prices are on the «Balance» page.

The AURA app on your phone sends push notifications beyond the chats: finished generations, AURA's questions, tasks, client answers and quotes, rental requests, the wallet and AURA news. You choose which ones come in your profile; at night some of them wait for the morning.

Money and prices now live on the «Balance» page. This article is about the «Prices» and «Generations and purchases» pages: the second shows remaining generations, team seats and purchases for those who still have a former subscription or old packages.

The «Active sign-ins» page (formerly «Active sessions») shows where your account is open and on how many devices it can be open at once, and helps you end sign-ins you do not need.

The logo, colors and contacts are used to design presentations.

The «Suggest an improvement» form: describe what to make easier in AURA and attach a screenshot. The AURA team reviews every idea and may credit pendants for an accepted one.

A website owner gets the code of the «Visualize» button for the pages of their catalog.

Lists saved from the widget and their visualizations are available in your account.

A project has its own workspace for the budget, the schedule, client questionnaires and AI suggestions, and each section has its own uploaded documents. It helps you move from a design idea to preparing the event.

The estimate is kept on category sheets, as in Excel: «Decor», «Technical support», «Decor rental» and sheets of your own that you can rename and delete. The «Summary» collects the sheet totals, markup, discount and tax by itself. The estimate opens full screen: it has one «Save» button and everything else is in «⋯». You can set up columns, save a studio method, show the client a version without costs and download Excel with formulas. Project editors have access.

The schedule helps you give the team the order of arrival, delivery, setup and teardown with exact times and the contacts of the people in charge.

Create a questionnaire with the questions you need, send the public link to the client and read the answers in the project's «Documents» tab → «Client brief».

The project's AI assistant suggests an action plan and questions for the client, and can take into account the project documents you select. Tasks appear in the task list only after you choose and confirm them.

The «Drawings» tool in an order of the «Production» section draws an A3 sheet with three views of a structure (front, top and side) and dimensions from your figures in millimeters. Templates: arch, circle, oval, wall with a niche, backdrop, podium and box. A drawing goes through the «Draft», «Checked» and «Approved» statuses, downloads as PDF and SVG, and goes into the estimate as a line with one button. Available in beta to everyone, no invitation needed.

The «Printing» tool in an order of the «Production» section prepares a file for the print shop from a project image or the designer's original: the order size with bleed, an effective resolution check, TIFF or PDF, RGB or CMYK with the print shop's ICC profile. Colour proofs are recorded with the designer's and the printer's decision, and «Approve for print» is available only after a proof confirmed by the printer. Available in beta to everyone, no invitation needed.

The «3D parts» tool in an order of the «Production» section builds small parts for 3D printing to exact millimetres: a wedge bracket, a plate with holes, a candle holder and a box. Sizes are changed in the options or in words, for example «enlarge hole 2 to 6 mm»: the change is shown first and saved as a new version only with the «Apply» button. A part can be started from photos: if no template fits, AURA says so and offers a 3D model from the photo. The STL can be downloaded in real millimetres or scaled to fit the printer bed. Available in beta to everyone, no invitation needed.

The «Calculator» (formerly «Decor calculator») prices drapery, a backdrop or banner (a press wall included), carpet, linoleum, artificial turf, a plastic floor and painting from the sizes and the studio price list. The result is a client total broken down by rows, a client PDF, rows for the project estimate and the decor drawn on the venue photo. Available in beta to everyone, no invitation needed.

The «Estimate» tool of a production order builds the production estimate by section: cost and client price with markup, a discount, the client budget and the difference from it. Rows come from the calculators, the decor calculator, the «Count what can be counted» helper, the floor plan and Excel, or are entered by hand. There are versions, variants for the budget and exports to Excel and PDF for the team and for the client. Available in beta to everyone, no invitation needed. A quick estimate without a composition by a rate or by an earlier order («rough» rows), repeating an earlier order at today's prices and checking the whole estimate against your Excel. A row's price and the norm of a product's composition line can be changed for this order only, and a waste allowance added to the quantity shows at once how many whole sheets that is. An item of the decor calculator comes in as one row with its composition, its installation as a row of its own; «⋯» → «Specification» opens the composition with the consumables. Delivery, removal, disposal and teardown are always in sight under the rows, and the end of the table has the «Taxes» line.

The calculators of the «Estimate» tool work out material consumption and labour from the sizes and the studio norms: fabric and drapery, frame, cladding and print, painting, sewing covers, sheet material, floor covering, crew, logistics and rows by norms. The numbers are calculated by a formula, not by a neural network; a calculation is saved together with its inputs. Available in beta to everyone, no invitation needed.

The «Count what can be counted» helper reads the client brief, PDFs and project renders and counts everything given in numbers, with the same calculators and the studio price list. With the «Studio products» key it matches the brief's items with products of your library, fills in sizes with a quote and page and asks only for what is missing. It does not write the estimate for you: it does not invent sizes or name prices. Only what you select goes into the estimate. Available in beta to everyone, no invitation needed.

The «Load from Excel» button in the «Estimate» tool moves your XLSX or CSV table into the project estimate or into the actuals of a reference project. A production table with the columns «Name», «Description (W×D×H)», «Specification», «Qty», «Price», «Amount» works. Before loading you can see what was read: sections, sizes, formula components and rows without a price. Available in beta to everyone, no invitation needed.

The «Price list and norms» page (formerly «Norms and materials») keeps the studio's consumption, prices and factors: how much profile goes into a square metre, what the assembly of a drapery is, how much a fabric or a crew's day costs. The norms are on the «Consumption norms» tab and the prices on the «Materials» and «Works and rates» tabs. Calculators and estimates count by these norms and remember their version. Available in beta to everyone, no invitation needed.

The «Materials» and «Works and rates» tabs of the «Price list and norms» page: what the studio buys and for how much (a sheet, roll, bar or pack with its sizes), the purchase price converted into the consumption price, work rates per hour, shift, piece, m² or running m, outsourced work with its lead time, a price list upload by the template and the price history. Available in beta to everyone, no invitation needed.

The order tools «Workshop task» and «Purchasing» (the «Prepare for the workshop» stage): a workshop task by work centre with part sizes, the sheet cut (DXF for the machine), paint layers and outsourced work without prices; the purchase for the whole order in whole sheets, bars and rolls with stock subtracted and the minimum batch; the check «are we on time» and mock-up approval by the client by link. Available in beta to everyone, no invitation needed.

You name the product yourself and count it by operations: plastic, milling, a metal frame, an LED strip, neon, painting, the designer's work and others, with a coefficient and a price from the studio price list. The «Studio products» tile of the decor calculator: a product made of your materials and works by a template, sizes in millimetres, the composition line by line with its formula and values, the cut of sheets with the kerf, sources (we make, from stock, rent, outsourced), the price by composition, by the price list or by a price table, rules and outputs for installation. Available in beta to everyone, no invitation needed. The «Bar counter» example and a line-by-line comparison of a product with your Excel. Five more platform products: a podium, a fabric arch, a backdrop on a frame, a round photo zone and steps, and quick estimate rates per m² or running metre. A product draft from a description in words, by voice or from a photo of an Excel sheet.

«Production» → «Products»: the studio assembles and edits products by composition itself. A parameter form, variables, a composition of materials and works from the library, formulas as in Excel checked with the place of a mistake, rules, data for installation and logistics, a check on test sizes and publishing. How to make a variant of the bar counter, how to write formulas, functions and examples. Available in beta to everyone, no invitation needed.

The «Installation and logistics» tool of a production order: the order conditions (floor and lift, access window, night, urgency, height works, teardown), installation by shifts from the estimate's products with factors, trucks picked by the volume, weight and size of the sections, a check of the carry-in path, fees by the studio's rules, overheads, the «Nothing forgotten?» check, and load and installation sheets without prices. Available in beta to everyone, no invitation needed.

«Reference projects» (formerly «Benchmarks») are the studio's closed orders with their real spending: the brief, sketches, sizes, the estimate with overheads and what was actually bought. «Check the calculation» recalculates the order's saved calculations with today's norms and compares them with the actuals by category. This way the studio sees how accurately AURA calculates materials and work. They are not drafts or product templates, and no model is trained on them. Available in beta to everyone, no invitation needed.

The «Actual» tool of an order (the «Installation and results» stage): spending by kind of cost with a receipt photo, plan and actual against the estimate, the deviation and the margin before and after. The «Order stock» tool in the same stage and the «Supplies and materials in stock» page (formerly the studio stock, the «Materials in stock» row in the left column): the studio's supplies and materials with names from the price list, frames and products that came back from the installation, booking for the order dates and the purchase less the stock. A closed order can become a reference project. Available in beta to everyone, no invitation needed.

The «Certificates» page in the left column of «Production»: the studio's material certificate files (PDF or photo) with their number, validity and materials from the price list. An order finds the certificates of its estimate and purchase materials by itself and shows which are missing, and «Send quote» attaches them with a checkbox: the client downloads the files by the quote's link. Available in beta.

«Production» is one of the three directions of AURA; you choose it with the switcher next to the logo. The header has three sections, «Orders», «Products» and «Calculator», and on the left are «Price list and norms», «Reference projects», «Materials in stock» and «Documents». A production order is created from a client brief without a project with visualizations, or sent from a project with the «Send to production» button. The order page is the «Overview» and four stages: «Count», «Agree with the client», «Prepare for the workshop» and «Installation and results». An order has a number, a stage on the «By stage» board, an assignee and a payment schedule, and the workshop and installers can work without prices.

The «Training order» walks you through «Production» on the example of a 3 m bar counter: the brief, the estimate, the calculator, the quote, the workshop task and the actuals. It is a real order marked «Training»: every tool works in it, but it does not count in the studio onboarding, takes no number, its quote never goes to a client, and it is deleted with one button. Available in beta.

In the «Quote» tool of a production order (the «Agree with the client» stage) AURA builds a quote from the order estimate: the studio logo and details, visualizations, zones with products and sizes, the total excluding and including VAT, the terms, the payment schedule and the validity. The client opens the quote by a link without an account, downloads the PDF, approves it or asks for changes, and you see whether the client opened it. A sent quote does not change; changes after approval go out as a new version. Available in beta to everyone, no invitation needed. The client can choose variants and options of rows, and a zone can go at an agreed price.