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  • 1.  Diagramming Software Recomendations

    Posted 11-04-2021 12:59
    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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  • 2.  RE: Diagramming Software Recomendations

    Posted 11-05-2021 11:17
    Hello Kevin,

    Our department uses Social Tables for our room diagrams. It is user friendly and you are able to either print, or share the diagrams via a link. You can also make changes in real time while meeting with a client over the phone or zoom. 

    Hope this helps!

    Best,

    ------------------------------
    Nick Olivarria
    Sr. Events Manager
    University of California–Riverside
    Riverside CA
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  • 3.  RE: Diagramming Software Recomendations

    Posted 11-05-2021 12:53
    I unfortunately cannot make any recommendations as I am looking for the same thing for my office. I wanted to let others know that our experience with Social Tables software has been quite poor, and that we would encourage others not to use it. If the program always worked as intended it would be wonderful, however more often than not it is crashing, not loading correctly, and sometimes even deleting all of the diagrams we've made. About 2-3 times a week we find other miscellaneous errors, such as the seating templates loading wrong, saved items being dramatically resized, not being able to change the number of chairs at tables, etc. Fairly dramatic issues considering that's a core function of diagramming programs! We spend our days reloading and reloading hoping that the errors go away- and for anything we make, we also have to describe the setup in words due to not being able to rely on the diagram pulling up right later.

    Hope to hear from others what are some good (and reasonably priced) diagram options from others!

    ------------------------------
    Suzanne Turner
    Events Manager- AAIX
    University of Nevada Reno
    Reno NV
    ------------------------------



  • 4.  RE: Diagramming Software Recomendations

    Posted 11-05-2021 13:02
    Sorry to hear you are having that experience Suzanne. I have been using the free version of Social Tables for quite a few years without any of those issues and our department recently bought paid licenses and we also got them to come and do the room measuring package as well. They have been very efficient and professional with all of it.

    ------------------------------
    Filip Pongratz
    Associate Director, SFC Activities & Operations
    Temple University
    He/His/Him

    215.707.4362 (p)
    http://www.temple.edu/sfc
    ------------------------------



  • 5.  RE: Diagramming Software Recomendations

    Posted 11-08-2021 12:35
    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

    ------------------------------
    Spencer Desmarais
    Assistant Director, Event Services & Operations
    Washington State University
    Pullman WA
    ------------------------------



  • 6.  RE: Diagramming Software Recomendations

    Posted 11-08-2021 14:58
    Kevin,

    We're using Social Tables at my current institution and I'm not a fan. I know that other departments use the Attendee Management features, so I can't speak to that.

    At a previous institution, we purchased, configured, and implemented Room Viewer diagramming software.  I haven't used it in years, but I can say that I miss some of the simple features it had which Social Tables lacks (being able to 'bump' objects next to each other instead of having to play with the arrows or mouse). May be worth a look.

    Krisztina

    ------------------------------
    Krisztina Roder
    Event Services Manager
    George Mason University
    Fairfax VA
    ------------------------------



  • 7.  RE: Diagramming Software Recomendations

    Posted 11-08-2021 16:29
    Hi folks, and particularly Kevin and Suzanne,

    You should consider Ungerboeck Software for room diagramming. They are a longtime ACUI associate member - actually since the 1990s - and a regular at our annual conferences. I'd be happy to connect you with the appropriate contact there to discuss a demo!

    Regards,
    Steve

    ------------------------------
    Steve Chaplin
    Managing Editor - ACUI's The Bulletin
    Manager - College Union and Student Activities Evaluation Program (CUSA)
    ACUI
    Bloomington IN
    812.245.8075
    schaplin@acui.org
    ------------------------------



  • 8.  RE: Diagramming Software Recomendations

    Posted 11-09-2021 10:59
    Hello Kevin, 

    Over the course I time, I have used MeetingMatrix and Social Tables.  I really liked the options and available items I could place on the diagram quickly and easily with Meeting Matrix, but they were not keeping up with some of the wants I had.  I did not like that Meeting Matrix was PC based and needed to be installed on my machine.  Social Tables was quite new when we moved to that system, I loved that the system is Web Based and we could have multiple users creating diagrams all in one location.  It was very helpful in working with my staff.  The ability to share diagrams with event planners and both be looking and editing the diagram together from two locations is fantastic.  My one gripe is that the price of subscription has sky rocketed since we started with Social Tables.  I too have been looking for an alternative, but am having a hard time finding other web based solutions.  

    Your question is one that comes up often in both the Facilities & Operations and the Technology communities.  Here are some links to related posts over the past couple of years.

    Diagraming Software - https://mycommunity.acui.org/communitieslist/community-home/digestviewer/viewthread?GroupId=115&MessageKey=925db978-b487-45e4-852c-251316502229&CommunityKey=298ce16c-9af0-4ffe-aa50-cbffb8cc4b15&tab=digestviewer

    Amadeus Hospitality Room Diagramming - https://mycommunity.acui.org/communitieslist/community-home/digestviewer/viewthread?GroupId=115&MessageKey=5f23400a-29c2-47af-8a51-5d47a75e9b4e&CommunityKey=298ce16c-9af0-4ffe-aa50-cbffb8cc4b15&tab=digestviewer

    Diagramming Software Recommendations - https://mycommunity.acui.org/communitieslist/community-home/digestviewer/viewthread?GroupId=31&MessageKey=50189e58-1339-4584-bc2c-b0b0f75cb401&CommunityKey=1375588f-c522-4090-897f-688170ac6ce2&tab=digestviewer

    Room Diagraming Software - https://mycommunity.acui.org/communitieslist/community-home/digestviewer/viewthread?GroupId=31&MessageKey=6e0103f0-3e2f-47de-9eb0-4388d6c61dc9&CommunityKey=1375588f-c522-4090-897f-688170ac6ce2&tab=digestviewer

    Online Diagramming Software - https://mycommunity.acui.org/communitieslist/community-home/digestviewer/viewthread?GroupId=31&MessageKey=68aa8c67-b578-46d7-967a-1fb1030787d7&CommunityKey=1375588f-c522-4090-897f-688170ac6ce2&tab=digestviewer

    Room Diagramming Software - https://mycommunity.acui.org/communitieslist/community-home/digestviewer/viewthread?GroupId=31&MessageKey=5a864c80-688f-4be9-9453-83e01bba2c18&CommunityKey=1375588f-c522-4090-897f-688170ac6ce2&tab=digestviewer

    Social Tables - https://mycommunity.acui.org/communitieslist/community-home/digestviewer/viewthread?GroupId=31&MessageKey=bdb4cbc8-c203-4f26-91c0-31a551af4400&CommunityKey=1375588f-c522-4090-897f-688170ac6ce2&tab=digestviewer

    I realize I put in many links, but it shows just how popular this topic is for many people.  From what I can see in most of the posts, many people have either gone to Visio or are with Social Tables.  Some of us with Social Tables are not necessarily happy with the service or support of the product after it was purchased by Cvent. I know I feel a bit stuck with my history of diagrams there, but am truly unhappy about the price. 

    I am sure there are more, but here is a listing of the options I can remember seeing in all of the various posts.

    Microsoft Visio - https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/visio/flowchart-software
    Social Tables - https://www.socialtables.com/
    All Seated - https://www.allseated.com/
    Meeting Matrix - https://customers.meetingmatrix.com/
    Room Viewer - http://www.roomviewer.com/
    Amadeus - https://www.amadeus-hospitality.com/distribution-diagramming-software/hospitality-diagramming/
    Ungerboeck - https://ungerboeck.com/products/room-diagramming 

    ------------------------------
    Braden Kuznia
    Assistant Director of Event Services
    Minnesota State University Moorhead
    Moorhead MN
    braden.kuznia@mnstate.edu
    ------------------------------



  • 9.  RE: Diagramming Software Recomendations

    Posted 11-10-2021 09:08
    We used for Social Tables for many years and were generally happy with the product, but as others have said, had issues with customer service after the Cvent buyout.  We ended up not being able to get on the same page with contract terms when ours expired 2 summers ago, so we looked for other options.  We tried Visio but were not happy with it given that we have multiple users and the room objects didn't transfer over between users/computers.  We searched many of the threads Braden posted above for recommendations and looked at many of their websites.

    We landed on AllSeated due to pricing, being web based, multi-user interface capabilities, and ease of use.  They've generally been pretty easy to work with and flexible.  The original quote we received was rather high but I negotiated a lower cost.  It has some advanced features we may add in the future.  It's not perfect and has some hiccups on days (one day, it re-aligned everything I added to the middle of the room).  The big thing we're not a fan of is only one person can be in the diagram AND editing at any time.  Kind of like a Word document - one person can edit and the other person(s) can only view. It's not a huge issue, but can be frustrating.  Oh, and it kicks you out after 30 minutes after inactivity.

    ------------------------------
    Stephanie Box
    Director, University Center
    Texas A&M University–Corpus Christi
    Corpus Christi TX
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  • 10.  RE: Diagramming Software Recomendations

    Posted 03-21-2022 11:57

    We use AllSeated and it works fine. A little finicky but I like that I can bring up old drawings and re-use them. 



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    Julie Eatley
    Events Coordinator
    West Texas A&M University
    Canyon TX
    ------------------------------