Hey Kevin,
We use Microsoft Visio for our diagrams. It does take a fair bit of setup work, as this really isn't the intended use for it, but it's really cheap, integrates well with the rest of Office, and has more uses than just room diagrams (org charts are a breeze in it, for instance).
Some of the setup required though:
- creating templates for each of your spaces, locking them as a separate layer, then each time you make an event diagram save-as as a new thing
- building up a 'stencil' of shapes that are specific to your venue (chairs, fast folds, stage pieces, etc). The real key with visio is making sure everything is sized and scaled correctly and that can be weird with some things like chairs that might have a bit of a slightly-off square base dimension
- to share with a client who doesn't have visio you have to export to pdf and email. Not a huge deal but definitely isn't as user-friendly as sending them a social tables link
- Some other things aren't great, like no option to auto-number tables, no 3-d view.
It's worked well for us and is pretty stable!
Hope that helps,
Spencer
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Spencer Desmarais
Assistant Director, Event Services & Operations
Washington State University
Pullman WA
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Original Message:
Sent: 11-04-2021 12:59
From: Kevin Jacques
Subject: Diagramming Software Recomendations
Hello! We are currently using the Optimum Settings diagramming software that was part of the old Scheduler Plus software. It has not been supported for a good bit, but is super easy to use and meets our needs (simple, easy to use, easy to follow). We are looking for suggestions for something similar. We are not in need of any 3-D rendering or the need for someone to draw our spaces, just a simple software that allows us to do our set up diagrams and the ability to share with a client via email (or at minimum download the diagram). If you have any suggestions on software that fits this bill, please let me know. Thank you in advance!
-Kevin
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Kevin Jacques, Ph.D.
Director of GUC Operations and Event Management
University of North Alabama
Florence, AL
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