Stage layout templates

Make the template fit your actual show

A stage plan is a shared description of where equipment goes and what the sound team needs to connect. It should make a small show easier to prepare, without pretending to replace a conversation with the venue. StagePatch keeps the stage, equipment, inputs and monitor mixes in one local project. The sample is a four-piece club setup with stereo keys and two vocal microphones. Its dimensions are 24 by 16 feet, or 7.3152 by 4.8768 metres. Its eight source rows produce the channel numbers on the diagram.

1. Choose the stage and viewing direction

Set the usable stage width and depth before arranging equipment. Internally, lengths are metres; switching the interface to feet changes the display rather than rewriting the geometry. One foot is exactly 0.3048 metres. This matters when you make several venue versions: a six-foot drum footprint should remain six feet wide even when the stage is smaller. The default view puts the audience at the bottom. Stage right is the performer’s right when facing the audience, so it appears on the left of that diagram. The view button mirrors the visual presentation only. It does not swap or alter saved physical coordinates.

The stage is rectangular. Curtains, stairs, wings and irregular edges are outside the first version’s geometry model. Use the measured space available for equipment, then add short equipment notes for constraints you need to discuss. A footprint conflict is an instruction to review placement, not proof that a stage is unsafe or unusable. Check the actual equipment dimensions with its owner; the library’s initial sizes are editable illustrations, not manufacturer specifications.

2. Arrange equipment with more than dragging

Select an item and change its label, centre position, width, depth and rotation in the property panel. Quarter-turn rotation changes the bounding footprint used for overlap and boundary checks. You can also drag a symbol or focus the stage and use arrow keys. An arrow moves the selected item five centimetres; holding Shift moves it twenty-five centimetres. Numeric fields are available on phones as well, so precise positioning does not depend on a small touch target. Undo and redo retain recent changes to the working project.

Adding equipment does not assume that it needs a particular microphone or phantom voltage. A keyboard may have two sources, a drum kit may have several, and a riser may have none. Add the necessary input rows for the selected equipment, then give each row its actual role. Duplicating a symbol creates a new equipment ID. Copying a venue version preserves the related IDs so the two layouts can still be compared. Labels are descriptions, while IDs are the stable comparison keys.

3. Keep input and monitor details explicit

An input row contains its channel, source label, equipment reference, Mic/DI, stand, phantom status, monitor mix, provider and notes. The diagram takes its channel labels from these rows. Reordering or renumbering the list therefore updates the drawing instead of leaving a second copy of the channel numbers behind. For 48 V power, choose “To confirm”, “Required” or “Not required”. “To confirm” is stored as unknown in the project and CSV: it says the requirement has not been checked. The default sample leaves all eight power requirements to confirm. Check the connected equipment specification and speak with the engineer before changing them.

Monitor mixes are separate records with a stable mix ID, a label and notes. Assign the appropriate ID to the source or wedge. Removing a mix does not silently assign its references to another mix; the missing references remain visible as checks. This is a documentation tool. It does not send commands to a mixer, calculate power requirements, establish electrical ratings or choose audio routing on your behalf.

4. Import only a format you can validate

Input CSV import is local and limited to UTF-8 text of at most 256 KiB and 64 input rows. The mapping dialog shows the first row and lets you select which column supplies each field. Map a channel and source label, then review equipment references. Unknown columns are shown rather than treated as hidden functionality. A project restore accepts only this tool’s .stagepatch.json schema, with up to eight venue versions, eighty equipment items per venue, sixty-four inputs and sixteen mixes. The JSON limit is 2 MiB. Invalid, oversized or incomplete imports leave the existing working project intact.

Arbitrary PDF, SVG, Office files, images, private rider documents and user fonts are not import formats. A PDF cannot reliably tell this tool which symbol is a piece of equipment or how two channel labels relate. Use the structured project or input CSV instead. CSV export protects text that begins with spreadsheet formula characters; this changes the spreadsheet representation while retaining the visible description in the editor.

5. Review and save complete files

Single-venue exports are free: a Letter or A4 PDF, vector SVG, PNG and separate input, monitor and equipment CSV files. The PDF includes the full input list, monitor list, equipment handoff and checks. Long tables continue on further pages with repeated headings; ordinary files have no watermark and no shortened input list. The SVG contains selectable equipment groups and editable labels. Save the local project as well if you expect to adjust it later. Restore that actual file through the chooser to confirm your handoff can be recovered.

Generated links stay on the page so you can download again if a browser opens a preview instead of saving immediately. A file being prepared is not the same as a file being saved. Open the final PDF, check all rows, and compare the picture with the equipment list before sending it to the sound team. The project contains equipment roles and a public show label; avoid putting personal names, contacts, private addresses or confidential rider information into its notes.

When a Show pack helps

You may create and edit venue versions and export them one by one free. A multi-venue Show pack collects the final files for two to eight venues into folders, adds a venue index and lists file hashes in a manifest. The adaptation proposes relative centre positions while preserving the physical equipment sizes. It reruns checks for each venue, and you can fix the placement or explicitly include the warnings. It does not simply scale a whole drawing and rename it.

A changeover pack compares a frozen baseline with the current version. It includes before and after diagrams, a factual change map, a repatch CSV, an equipment delta, machine-readable changes and a checklist with specific actions. A source that changes from input seven to input three appears as a channel change. A same-name item with a new ID appears as removal plus addition. When stage dimensions differ, the files identify each coordinate system separately. No difference means there is no changeover to package; use free export.

What does the Show pack include?

A Show pack costs $4.99 once plus applicable tax shown at checkout, with no subscription or account. One completed ZIP uses one credit. Prepared anonymous equipment snapshots are temporarily sent to this product’s server to generate the pack. The server does not store project bodies or delivered files. Generation failures preserve your credit. An identical successful prepared snapshot retried within 10 minutes uses the same receipt and consumes once; edited content forms a new pack. Save your ZIP and local project file. Preview/TEST uses sandbox cards with no real money. Refunds and delivery support explain how to recover access with a receipt.

Can the files certify a venue setup?

No. StagePatch describes a small rectangular stage and a sound handoff. It does not certify structural loading, fire safety, electrical compatibility, acoustics, venue access or working conditions. Its useful result is a clear document that makes the remaining questions visible to the people responsible for the show.