How to convert a floor plan into a digital seating chart

Updated 21 October 2026

Most venues already have a plan: a PDF from the architect, a CAD file, a printed chart at the box office or a photo of the wall map. Turning it into a seat map you can sell from is mostly careful redrawing.

Why you cannot just upload the PDF

A PDF or CAD drawing of a venue looks like a seat map, but to a booking system it is a picture. It does not know which shapes are seats, which seat is row F number 12, or which section it belongs to. Even a CAD file with every seat drawn as a block rarely has the row and seat labels attached as data in a form a ticketing system can use. A digital seat map needs every seat as its own object with an id, a section, a row, a number and a status.

So the job is not conversion in the file-format sense. It is redrawing the venue as data, using the existing plan as a guide, and then checking the result against the real room.

What to collect before you start

Gather everything that describes the venue as it is sold today. Most problems later come from something missing here.

The best plan you have. A vector PDF or CAD export is best, a clean scan is fine, a phone photo taken straight on will do for a small room.
The current seat chart used by the box office, if it is different from the architect's plan. It is often more accurate about what is actually sold.
A recent ticket or two, to see exactly how section, row and seat are written.
Row counts and seat counts per section, ideally from the box office system, so you can check your total against it.
Section names as buyers know them: stalls, circle, block 104, terrace.
Aisles, stairs, doors and exits, and anything that blocks a view.
Special places: wheelchair spaces, companion seats, restricted view seats, seats held for technical or house use.
Known differences between the plan and the room: seats removed for a sound desk, a row added later, a box that is now a camera position.

Keep the venue's existing numbering

The single most important rule: do not renumber the venue to make the drawing tidier. Seat numbers are printed on the seats, on the row ends and on season tickets, and regular visitors know them. If the old plan says row K has seats 1 to 18 with no seat 13, the digital map says the same.

Write down the numbering rules before you draw, section by section:

Where row A (or row 1) is, and whether rows run from the stage outward or the other way.
Which side seat 1 is on, seen from where: the stage or the audience.
Whether seats run straight across, split odd and even around a centre aisle, or restart after each aisle.
Skipped letters or numbers, such as no row I or no row 13.
Rows with their own names, such as a front row called AA or a box row called Loge.

Getting these right for one section and copying them to the others is faster than fixing them seat by seat afterwards. Common conventions are explained in theatre seat numbering, but where your venue differs, your venue wins.

Scale and proportions

You do not need survey accuracy for a seat map, but you do need the proportions right, so that the stage, the sections and the aisles sit where buyers expect them. If the plan has a scale bar or a known dimension, such as the stage width or the length of a row, use it to size your drawing. If it is a photo, check that it was taken straight on: a plan photographed at an angle makes the far side look smaller, and every row you trace from it will be off.

Seat spacing matters more than absolute size. Count the seats in a row on the plan and keep them evenly spaced along its length. If a row looks too crowded or too sparse against its neighbours, the count is probably wrong.

Redraw in a sensible order

Work from the big shapes to the small ones:

The anchor. Place the stage, screen or pitch first. Everything else is positioned relative to it.
The sections. Draw each section's outline and give it its name before any seats go in.
The rows. Add rows with the right seat count, straight or curved to follow the plan. Leave real gaps where aisles cut through.
The numbering. Apply the row and seat numbering rules you wrote down, then fix the exceptions.
Special seats. Mark wheelchair, companion, restricted view and not-for-sale seats.
Context. Add entrances, stairs, bars and toilets that help buyers find their way.

Resist tracing every irregularity of an old drawing. If a row is slightly bent on the plan because the draughtsman's pen slipped, draw it straight. If it is curved because the room is curved, draw the curve.

Check against the plan, then against the room

When the drawing is finished, check it twice. First on paper: total seats per section against the box office counts, first and last seat of every row against the old chart, and every special seat. Then in the venue: walk a few rows with the map on a phone or tablet, read the numbers on the seats and compare them. Pay most attention to the places where plans and rooms usually disagree: row ends near walls, the first rows, boxes, and anything that was changed after the plan was made.

A good test is to pick ten random seats from the digital map and find them in the room without help. If you can, so can a buyer.

Common mistakes

Trusting the architect's plan over the room. Plans show what was designed. Rooms show what was built and changed since.
Counting seats from the drawing only. Always check totals against the box office, which knows what was actually sold.
Mirroring the numbering. Seat 1 "on the left" means different things seen from the stage and from the audience. Write down which one.
Forgetting seats that are not sold. Technical, house and wheelchair positions still belong on the map, marked as such, so nobody sells them by mistake.
Drawing a new plan for every change. Edit one master plan, so seats that did not change keep their identity.

A worked example

A theatre has an architect's PDF from its last refurbishment and a box office chart that has been corrected by hand since. The PDF has the right shape; the chart has the right seats. You place the PDF as a background, draw the stalls, circle and boxes over it, add rows with the seat counts from the chart, and apply the numbering: rows A to S from the stage, no row I, seat 1 on the left as seen from the stage. Two seats at the end of row M were removed for a lighting position, so you delete them and keep the numbers of the rest. A walk through the stalls shows row A is actually two seats shorter than the PDF says, which the chart already knew. The digital map now matches the room.

Checklist

Plan, current chart, a sample ticket and box office counts collected.
Numbering rules written down per section, including skipped rows and seats.
Proportions taken from a scale bar or a known dimension.
Anchor, sections, rows, numbering, special seats, context: in that order.
Seat totals match the box office per section.
First and last seat of every row match the old chart.
A walk through the room confirms the map.

How seatorio helps

seatorio does not import PDF or CAD files, but you can trace over one. In the Background panel you upload an image of your plan (export the PDF page or the CAD drawing as an image first), then show or hide it and set its opacity, scale and rotation so it sits under your drawing. You draw sections, add rows of a set number of seats at a set spacing, bend rows and sections into curves, and number rows with letters, numbers or roman numerals, with seats numbered left to right, right to left or from both ends. You can rename a single row, renumber a selected group of seats from any start, and mark seats as wheelchair, accessible, restricted view or not for sale. The theatre seating chart template is a good starting point for a house with a stage.

If you would rather not redraw it yourself, the done-for-you service has seatorio's team draw the plan from your PDF, CAD drawing or photo and return it numbered. Either way, the finished plan exports as an SVG and a JSON file for your own booking or ticketing system. See seatorio for theatres.

Planning for theatres? See seatorio for theatres and the theatre seating chart template.