Getting started

Set the real stage dimensions first; everything you place afterwards is in metres.

Quick start

1. Open Stage Plot Generator from the dashboard.
2. File → Templates and pick the closest starting point — for example 4-Piece Band. Templates carry a stage size, a channel plan in patch order and personnel rows, so the lists are usable at once.
3. Band → Stage settings: enter the real Stage width (m) and Stage depth (m), choose the venue type and load-in side, and set Stage left = performer's or audience's view. Save it as a venue profile if you will play here again.
4. Band → Show info & logo: type the band / artist name — it heads the PDF, names your export files and shows on the shared page — and add the date, venue, times and logo if you have them.
5. Add what is missing from the palette on the left: click an item to drop it at the centre, or drag it onto the canvas. Use the search field to find anything by name.
6. Click an element to open the Properties panel. Give it a label, a channel number and a provider (band / venue / shared). Press Ctrl+Enter to apply. A truss also lists its rigging points here: Add motor (the number is its working load limit) and Add point load (the number is the weight it hangs) feed the Band → Rigging report.
7. File → Export → Export PDF. Tick what to include and press Export.

The screen

• Menu bar — File, Edit, View, Align & Group, Band, Help — plus toolbar buttons for undo/redo, zoom, grid, snap, connections, measure and the input list.
• Palette (left) — element categories from vocals and drums to lighting, video, power, FX and architecture, plus Your equipment (see below) and saved group templates.
• Canvas (centre) — the stage, drawn as a rectangle at the size you entered, on a metre grid. A badge shows whether you are in Plan view or the Lighting elevation (View menu; it opens once something hangs at 2.5 m or higher). A truss from the palette hangs at 4 m; type its trim height in the Properties panel, or set Mounting to Ground-supported for totems and goal posts.
• Properties (right) — label, channel, channel count and sub-labels, provider, colour tint, layer, size, display mode, rotation, lock, and whether the element goes into the rider PDF.
• Input list — slides in from the right; see Build the input list.

Your own equipment

Something the palette does not have — a harp, a hang drum, your own pedalboard — can get its own element with its own icon:

1. At the bottom of the palette, under Your equipment, click Add your own (or Edit → Add your own equipment…).
2. Give it a name and, if you like, pick a picture: PNG, JPG, WebP or SVG, up to 10 MB. It is shrunk to a small icon, so a phone photo is fine.
3. Choose the look. Line drawing turns the dark lines of a drawing into the plot's own colour — white on the dark canvas, dark on the light canvas and in the PDF — so it sits with the built-in icons. Original colours keeps a photo or a coloured logo as it is. The two previews show both canvases; the tool picks the likelier look for you.
4. Save element. It now sits in the palette like any other item.

The ✎ next to an item (or a right-click on it) reopens the dialog to rename it, replace or remove its icon, switch its look, or delete it — deleting also removes it from the plot. Your equipment follows your login to other devices, and a plot you share or export carries the icons it uses, so the venue sees them too.

The metre grid

One grid square is one metre, with half-metre minor lines, at every stage size. Grid and snap are on by default; G toggles the grid, View → Snap to grid toggles snapping. The measure tool reports the distance between two points you click. A room width, length and ceiling height in Stage settings draws the venue envelope, and View → Reposition stage in venue room lets you drag the stage to where it sits in it.

Keys

Help → Keyboard shortcuts shows the full table in the app. On a Mac, Ctrl is ⌘.

Saving

The plot saves itself a couple of seconds after every edit and reopens where you left it. The pill in the menu bar tells you where your work is at any moment: Unsaved edits, Saved on this device, or Saved to account with the time the account confirmed it. If saving stops — you are signed out, the account storage is full, the browser refuses to write — the pill says so and stays that way until it is fixed; click it to see both sides and to save a copy or export the file from there. File → Save as… keeps a named copy; File → Open → Saved plots… brings one back. Plots, saved plots, venue profiles, group templates, custom elements and the band logo sync with your account, so the plot you built on the laptop opens on the tablet and tells you it came from the account. See Account sync.