How to Create and Edit a Layout Overlay

A Layout Overlay hides or masks Seats on a Seating Plan, making the Seats unavailable for sale. A Layout Overlay can also display a background image for Reserved Seating Plan Areas or Overview Images.

A Layout Overlay is required when setting up Event Instances.

Before you read this article, make sure you’re familiar with:

• Introduction to Seating Plan Overlays

Why Create a Layout Overlay?

A Layout Overlay can be used to mask Seats or decrease capacity in a Seating Plan without having to request a new Seating Plan. This means that a single Seating Plan and its Seating Plan Overlays can be used flexibly across multiple different Events.

The masked Seats will be taken off sale in both the Sales Interface and online. Unlike locked seats, masked Seats won’t appear in Reports or count towards capacity or financial capacity.

A Layout Overlay is required for all Seating Plans. When Seating Plans are first uploaded or created in your system, each will have a default Layout Overlay, usually at maximum capacity.

For Reserved Seating Plan Areas, masked Seats won’t display in the Sales Interface or online.

You can upload and change the Seating Plan’s background image to display more details, for example, to show the location of the stage, label rows and distinguish different sections. You can upload different background images for different Layout Overlays to indicate changes such as removed rows.

For example, a Reserved Seating Plan can have a default Layout Overlay with all Seats available for purchase:

A different Layout Overlay can remove the first four rows and display an image with a larger stage:

For Unreserved Seatings Plan Areas, the total number of available Seats won’t include masked Seats.

For Multi-Area Seating Plans, each Area is configured based on whether the Area is Reserved, Unreserved or an Overview Image. Overview images can update their background images.

For example, a Multi-Area Seating Plan can have a Layout Overlay that shows an Overview Image with VIP and General Admission seating:

A different Layout can show that General Admission tickets are sold out:

Viewing Layout Overlays

Layout Overlays are specific to each Seating Plan. View all the Layout Overlays for a Seating Plan in the Admin Interface > Seating > Seating Plans.

TIP: To access the Admin Interface, you’ll need the General Administrator Role. If you don’t have this Role, ask the Settings Administrator in your organization to add this Role to your User Account.

1. From Seating Plans, click on the name of the Seating Plan:

   

    

2. Click on the Layouts tab:

   

You’ll see a list of all Layout Overlays, sorted by Name, for this Seating Plan on the green panel on the left side of the screen:

Creating a new Layout Overlay

To create a new Layout Overlay for your Seating Plan:

1. Navigate to Layout Overlays
2. Click +New
3. Give the Overlay a Name for internal use
4. Click Ok
5. Select your new Layout Overlay

You can mask Seats and/or upload background images.

Masking Seats

Follow the steps to mask Seats for your Seating Plan:

• Multi-Area Seating Plan
• Reserved Seating Plan Areas
• Unreserved Seating Plan Areas

Multi-Area Seating Plan

While a Layout Overlay covers all Areas, you must mask Seats in each Area separately.

1. Select an Area by clicking the Overview Image or from the dropdown:

   

    

2. Click Edit
3. Follow the steps to mask Seats based on if the Area has Reserved or Unreserved seating
4. Click Save for the Area
5. Repeat these steps for each Area in the Seating Plan

Reserved Seating Plan Areas

1. Click Edit.  
    
2. Select a Seat or multiple consecutive Seats to mask them. If you need to mask multiple Seats that are not near each other, mask the seats separately for each section. You can use one of the following methods to select multiple Seats at once:
   • In a Single Row: For Seats in a single row, hold the Shift key on your keyboard and click the first and last Seat . Any Seats in between will also be selected.
      

   • Multiple straight rows: For Seats in multiple straight rows, choose the rectangle icon for Rectangle Mode:

     

     Click and drag your cursor to create a rectangle around all the Seats to select.
      

   • Multiple curved rows: For Seats in multiple curved rows, choose the paintbrush icon for Paint Mode:

     

     Click and drag your cursor to “paint” over the Seats to select.
      

3. Masked Seats will appear as red X’s. Red X’s won’t appear in the Sales Interface or online:

   

    

4. Uncheck the Show Masked box to see the Layout Overlay without the masked Seats. This is how it will appear in the Sales Interface or online:

   

    

5. Reselect the Seats to unmask them. The red X’s will disappear and the Seats will reappear.  
    
6. Click Save.

Unreserved Seating Plan Areas

1. Click Edit.  

2. Under Masked, enter the number of Seats to mask. The maximum number you can enter is the number of Available Seats displayed:

   

    

3. Click Save.  

The total number of Seats for sale will be the difference between the Available Seats and the masked Seats. For example, from an Available 100 Seats, 50 Seats are masked. Therefore, 50 Seats can be sold:

Uploading a Background Image

If you edit your background image, your new background image should have the exact same dimensions as your Seating Plan’s original background image. The image file should be in a JPG, JPEG, GIF or PNG format and no larger than 4MB.

TIP: You can make edits to your original background image by downloading the image first. Right click over the background image (not a Seat) and select Save as to save the image to your computer. This should be a .gif file. Once saved, you can open and edit it in your preferred image editing software.

The clickable areas of your Seating Plan, for example, Seats and Overview Images, remain in the same location and cannot be changed or removed. For example, if you update an Overview Image to show that an Area is sold out, you cannot disable the link to that Area.

Follow the steps to upload a background image:

• Multi-Area Seating Plan
• Reserved Seating Plan Areas

REMINDER: You cannot upload a background image to an Unreserved Seating Plan Area.

Multi-Area Seating Plan

You can only upload Background Images to Reserved Areas or the Overview Image.

1. Select an Area, clicking the Overview Image or from the dropdown:

   

    

2. Click Edit  

3. Under Background, click Upload Image:
    

   

4. Upload your background image  
5. Use the Move button to adjust your image's position
6. Click Save for the Area  
7. Repeat these steps for each Area that can have a background

Reserved Seating Plan Areas

1. Click Edit.  

2. Under Background, click Upload Image: 
    

   

3. Upload your background image  
4. Use the Move button to adjust your image's position
5. Click Save for the Area

Editing an Existing Layout Overlay

You can edit your existing Layout Overlays from the Seating Plan or from a single Instance.

If you edit from the Seating Plan, the changes will apply to all new Instances. You can choose to apply the changes to any or all live or draft Instances using the Overlay.

You can also edit the Layout Overlay for a single Instance. Follow the steps in Editing Instances to update the Layout Overlay.

To edit existing Layout Overlays from the Seating Plan, follow these steps:

1. Navigate to Layout Overlays.
    
2. Click on the Layout Overlay you’d like to update.
    
3. Follow the steps to mask or unmask Seats and/or upload a new background image.
    
4. Click Save.
     

5. If you’ve edited a Layout Overlay that is used in live or draft Instances, a pop-up will appear:

   

   Select:

   • None: Updates the Layout Overlay for future use but won’t affect any of the Instances currently using it. Those Instances will retain the properties of the original Overlay. The Overlay name will change to include a version number and the last edit date. You may also see the text (old version).
      
   • All future live Instances: Updates the Layout Overlay for all live Instances currently using it and for future use. This will not update draft Instances currently using it. Those draft Instances will retain the properties of the original Overlay. The Overlay name will change to include a version number and the last edit date. You may also see the text (old version).
      
   • All future live and draft Instances: Updates the Layout Overlay for all live and draft Instances currently using it, and for future use.
      
   • Those selected below: Choose which live Instances to update. Instances not selected will retain the properties of the original Overlay. The Overlay name will change to include a version number and the last edit date. You may also see the text (old version)

   

6. Click OK.
    

7. An Update Instance Results Report will run. Download the Report to your computer and open the file to view any errors.

   The Report will list the Event Name, the Instance Start Date and Update Status. An example Update Status is “Updated successfully, but some seats are now both sold/reserved and masked. See the Sales Conflicts Report for details.”

   TIP:  If you have updated the Layout Overlay on an Instance that has already sold tickets, run the Sales Conflict Report to identify sold Seats that are now masked. What you decide to do with the newly masked Seat is up to your organization. You can contact Support for guidance.

Copying a Layout Overlay

To copy a Layout Overlay:

1. Navigate to Layout Overlays

2. Next to the Layout Overlay’s name, click the down arrow:

   

3. Select Copy

A copy named Name - Copy will be created. Click on the new Layout Overlay to rename, mask Seats and/or upload a background image.

Deleting a Layout Overlay

To delete a Layout Overlay:

WARNING: Deleting a Layout Overlay is permanent and cannot be undone.

1. Navigate to Layout Overlays

2. Next to the Layout Overlay’s name, click the down arrow:

   

3. Select Delete
4. From the pop-up, click Confirm

If any Instances use the Layout Overlay, they will retain the properties of the original Overlay. The Overlay name will change its name to include (deleted):

Renaming a Layout Overlay

To rename a Layout Overlay:

1. Navigate to Layout Overlays

2. Next to the Layout Overlay’s name, click the down arrow:

   

3. Select Rename
4. Enter a new Name
5. Click Ok

Instances using the Layout Overlay will use the new Layout Overlay Name.