Design Mode is the first half of the editor. It's where you turn a flat image into an interactive layout — adding areas, placing seating items, naming and coloring them, moving them around. You stay in Design Mode until the layout looks right; then you switch to Offers Mode to start selling from it.
The Design Mode Workspace
When you open a floor plan, you land in Design Mode. You'll see:
The map — your floor plan image, ready to draw on. You can pan by dragging and zoom with the toolbar buttons or pinch gestures
The bottom action bar — Add area, Add seating item, and the Design / Offers mode switch
The side toolbar — drawing tools (active when you're adding or editing an area), pan, zoom, undo, delete shape, and a Help button that opens the icon legend
The footer — auto-save status (Saving…, All changes saved, or Auto-save failed) and the Publish / Publish and exit buttons
The first time you enter Design Mode, a Welcome to Design Mode popup explains the basics. Dismiss it with Got it, let's go! or tick Don't show it again.
Add an Area
Areas are the named regions of your venue (VIP, Terrace, Front Row…). The area name is public — customers see it when they browse seating.
Click Add area in the bottom action bar
Enter the Area name in the modal
Click Continue
Back on the map, click points around the area to outline its shape. A notification at the top reminds you: "Click to add points — finish up on the first point to close the area."
Click the first point again to close the polygon
Click Save area
Need to start over? Use Undo last point in the side toolbar, or click Delete shape to wipe the outline and start drawing again (the area name stays). Hit Cancel to discard the whole area — you'll be asked to confirm with Discard changes?.
Watch the overlap warning — if your polygon crosses an existing area or sits too close to a seating item, you'll see "Cannot close area shape". Adjust the points to give everything a bit of breathing room.
Edit, Rename, or Delete an Area
Click an area on the map. A tooltip pops up with these actions:
Add seating — opens the add seating modal pre-filled with this area
Rename area — change the public name
Edit shape — re-enter drawing mode to adjust the polygon
Delete — opens the Delete this area? modal
Deleting an area also deletes all the seating items inside it. If any of those items have active sales, the modal lists the affected events and explains exactly what stays locked.
Add Seating Items
Seating items are the individual tables, sections, or spots customers can pick on the map.
Click Add seating in the bottom action bar (or from the area tooltip)
Fill in the modal:
Area (optional) — which area these items belong to
Quantity — how many to create at once
Name Prefix (optional, max 2 characters) + Start from — auto-names items like FR12, FR13, FR14…
Shape — Circle or Square
Color — pick from the palette, use Pick custom color, or use Pick from Floor Plan to sample a color directly from your image
Selection behaviour — Customers can select specific seating items (they pick the exact one) or Customers can only select seating areas (they pick the area, not a specific seat)
Click Add {count} items
The new items appear stacked on the map. Drag them to position each one where it belongs.
Move, Resize, Rotate, Recolor
Click a seating item to select it. A tooltip appears with quick actions:
Color — open the color picker
Shape — Circle or Square
Rotate clockwise / Rotate anticlockwise — 15° per click
Increase size / Decrease size
Rename seating item — opens Edit Seating Item Name
Group — appears when you have 2+ items selected
Delete
To select multiple items at once, hold Shift and click. A helper notification reminds you the first time. You can then apply actions to all selected items in one go.
To pick a single seat that's inside a group, double-click it. (A single click selects the whole group; the helper notification explains this too.)
Delete Seating Items
Single item: select it, click Delete in the tooltip, confirm.
Multiple items: Shift-click to select them all, click Delete, confirm in the Delete seating items? modal — which shows you how many are about to be deleted.
If any of the selected items have active sales, the modal switches to Some seating items won't be fully deleted. It lists the affected events and explains:
Items will be removed from the floor plan you're editing
They'll be removed from events where their offers haven't sold yet
In events with sales, the items stay visible and locked so existing bookings aren't broken
The Help Drawer
Click Help in the side toolbar to open the Seating item icons drawer — a legend explaining every icon you'll see on the map: specific seating item, grouped seating item, sold, private (access code / import-only offers), bottle service, ticket. Worth a quick look before you start assigning offers.
Good to Know
Area name is public, seating item name is too — both show up to customers, so write them as you'd want them to appear in the booking flow
Auto-save is always on — there's no Save button in Design Mode. The footer tells you when changes are saved
The prefix is capped at 2 characters — useful for short tags like FR (front), VP (VIP), T (table). Combined with Start from, you get sequential names automatically
"Pick from Floor Plan" samples your image — handy if you want a seat color to match a real-world section in your venue (e.g. red booths)
Shift+click to multi-select, double-click to pick from inside a group — these are the two shortcuts you'll use most. The editor reminds you the first time
Delete shape ≠ Delete area — Delete shape removes only the polygon you drew, keeping the area name and its seating items so you can redraw. Delete (from the area tooltip) removes the whole area
Sold items can't be deleted — if you try, the editor tells you which events are affected and only removes them where it's safe to do so
If you have any other questions, contact support@xceed.me