Use Eventive's seat map editor to design seat maps for each of your reserved seating venues!
Please note, your seat map must be created, properly labelled and added to the physical event editor BEFORE you begin issuing or selling tickets for the event. Changes to a seat map and its labels after an event has gone on sale can result in the loss of ticket reservations.
Table of Contents
Create your seat map
Select "Reserved Seating" in the Venue editor
Click "Create Seat Map"
Select a template to start building your seat map
Using the Seat Map Editor
When you first open the seat map editor you will be prompted to choose between two types of charts, "Simple" or "Sections and floors".
Simple seat maps are great for a venue with one floor.
A seat map with sections and floors would be appropriate to a larger venue with multiple floors, like a large theatre with an orchestra, dress circle, balcony and boxes.
Once you choose between "Simple" and "Sections and floors", you can't change the selection. To make an alternate selection, you would need to create a new venue.
When starting to build your seat map, you will be prompted to upload a reference chart, this is an image that will be hidden from your final seat map that can help you place your seats and theatre features. A reference chart can be added or changed at any time in the seat map builder, but if you upload it when you first start building your seat map, you will also be prompted to do a few calibration steps to set up the size and spacing of the seats so that the seat tools will be scaled properly to your reference chart.
A good image for a reference chart should be a PNG, GIF, or JPEG smaller than 10mb of your venue's seat map.
As you are working in the seat map editor changes are saved automatically.
To exit the editor at any time, Click the X in the top left corner to exit.
Drawing Tools in the Seat Map Editor
Section Tool
Only seat maps that use sections and floors will use the section tool. If you are building a Simple seat map without sections or floors, skip this tool description as this tool is not available in the simple seat map editor.
For seat maps that use sections and floors, use the Section tool to create a section to which you will then start adding your seats.
Once you draw a shape using the section tool, you can adjust the scale of that shape and refine the contours of that shape by smoothing the edges.
Row Tool
Use the Row tool to create rows (or individual seats) in various formations.
The multiple rows tool has additional settings to configure whether the seats are aligned or whether they are staggered.
When editing rows, you can adjust the number of seats in the row, the curve of the row and the seat spacing. These settings can be handy for drawing auditoriums with curved rows where the seat spacing varies as the curvature of each row increases.
Table Tool
Use the Table tool to create round or rectangular tables with a custom number of chairs.
Area Tool
Use the Area tool to create ticket allocations that aren't tied to traditional 'seats'. The area tool is really great for large areas like standing room only general admission sections, or small areas like a loveseat or sofa.
With the Area tool, you will use capacity settings to create the ticket allocation for this space.
Here is a sample configuration for a standing room only general admission area, with 1000 tickets.
Here is a sample configuration for a 4 seat sofa which requires a minimum order of 3 tickets to reserve the sofa.
Shape & Line Tools
Use the Shape & Line tools to add features to your venue that don't need to have seating allocations associated with them. Shapes can be used to add stages, bars, lobbies, vestibules, coat checks, etc.
Focal Point
Use the Focal Point tool to establish what the "best" seats are (decided upon by proximity to the Focal Point).
Text Tool
Use the Text tool to add important information to your seatmap. You can label the screen, or your stage, entrances, exits. You might also make a small note about your admission policy. Whatever you write, keep it brief - uncluttered text surrounded by active whitespace really stands out on this screen.
Image Tool
Use the Image tool to add images to your seat map. You might add your organization's logo, a venue logo or sponsor logos. Use images sparingly, your seat map still wants to be the star of this show.
Icon Tool
Use the Icon tool to add icons to your seat map to identify key features such as washrooms, stage, exits, emergency exits, stairs, concessions, bars, etc.
Categorizing and Labelling your seat map
Properly categorizing and labelling your seat map is the single most important step in building a seat map. The seat map builder has a validation tool on the top right hand side of the screen that shows whether all features are properly categorized and labelled. When all features are properly categorized and labelled, features on this list will appear in green. Yellow or red text on this list indicates that something is wrong and needs to be addressed. Never put tickets on sale before everything listed in the validation tool is listed in green. Before tickets on sale, make sure that your seat map is absolutely correct - changes to a seat map after tickets have gone on sale can result in the loss of ticket reservations.
When creating categories and labels, there is no particular order in which you need to categorize and label the seats. Whether you categorize first, or label first is up to you.
Categories
Categories, will become the ticket allocations in each of your ticket buckets when a venue is added to an event in Eventive.
To create a category, click "Manage" in the top right corner of the screen.
In the category creation dialogue box, click "Create new category"
When a category is created it is assigned a default colour in a circle displayed to the left of the category name, click that circle to open a colour picker if you would like to change the category colour.
If you would like to label a seat as being accessible, click the wheelchair icon to add a wheelchair icon to that seat.
To assign a category to a seat, row or section, use the selection tools to select the seats that you would like to categorize.
Once your seats are selected, select the appropriate category from the category drop down menu on the right side of the screen.
Categories can also be applied to sections, this can help colour code them to make your seat maps more visually appealing and navigable.
Labels
Labels need to be descriptive enough to be commonly understood by your audience and staff. Labels need to be short enough to display properly on all of the types of tickets you use (ie. ticket stock tickets, print at home tickets, tickets displayed on a mobile device, tickets displayed in custom apps). Most of all, labels need to be unique. No two seats should have the same label.
To label seats, use the selection tools to select the seats that you would like to label.
Once the seats are selected, row and seat labelling options will become visible on the right side of the screen. You may need to scoll down past the validation tool and the category selector to find the Row and Seat labelling sections.
Labelling Rows
If you are labelling more than one row at a time, row label options include:
A, B, C, ...
1, 2, 3, ...
I, II, III, IV, ...
When using letters to label the rows, beyond row Z the label generator will continue using AA, BB, CC and so on.
If you are labelling rows individually, you can label them whatever you'd like.
After selecting a label type, you can set where in the row labelling sequence the labels begin (ie. if your venue's front row is C rather than A, you can set the sequence to start at C).
When labelling rows, some venues don't include a Row I, O or Q, you, these rows can be omitted using the "Skip" buttons.
The direction of the row labels (ascending or descending, ie. A, B, C... to X, Y, Z or Z, Y, X... to C, B, A) can be reversed using the direction toggle.
The position toggles control where the row labels will be displayed on the chart. In this example (where both buttons are activated and highlighted black) labels are being displayed on both ends of each row.
Labelling Seats
When labelling more than one seat at a time, the label options are:
1, 2, 3, ...
1, 3, 5, ...
2, 4, 6, ...
1, 3, 5, ..., 6, 4, 2
5, 3, 1, ..., 2, 4, 6
A, B, C, ...
a, b, c, ...
When using letters to label the seats, beyond Z the label generator will continue using AA, BB, CC and so on.
If you are labelling seats individually, you can label them whatever you'd like.
After selecting a label type, you can set where in the seat labelling sequence the labels begin (ie. if your row starts with seat 5 rather than 1, you can set the sequence to start at 5).
The direction of the seat labels labels (from right to left, or left to right) can be reversed using the direction toggle.
You can also choose to display the seating type, so that your customers can make an informed choice based on their personal comfort level.
Labelling Sections
If your seat map uses sections, you'll need to set a label for each of your sections. The section label has very few parameters, you'll just need to set the label and configure the font size, position and rotation of the label.
Here's an example of a completed Eventive seat map without sections:
Here's an example of a completed Eventive seat map with sections and multiple floors:
The final step is to add this Venue to a physical event and create your ticket buckets.
More information on building seat maps and how to better use the tools introduced above, can be found in our article "Tips & Tricks: Building Seat Maps".
Want to create a seat map with social distancing rules?
Please message or email us at least 2 weeks before your event with a drawing or visual representation of the venue as well as details about the rules you wish to enforce, such as percent capacity and maximum group sizes.
We will then create your seat map and apply dynamic social distancing rules, which can be adjusted as audience members buy tickets!
Alternatively, you can follow the steps below to create your own seat map and enforce social distancing by manually disabling certain seats to control capacity and where your audience can sit.
Learn how here: Set Up An Event for Reserved Seating