– Seating group

– Seating group

This is where things really start getting interesting. The Seating group tool is what turns your blank chart into an actual venue layout filled with rows and seats. Each group can represent a section of your venue — for example, Front Left, Middle, or Balcony Right.

Creating a new seating group

Open the Seating group pane by clicking the chair icon in the toolbox, then click anywhere on the seating canvas where you want your group to appear. The panel on the right will show a few basic options.

Give your seating group a name (for your own reference) — for instance, Front Left or Balcony.
If you don’t need a label, you can even leave the name field empty.

Next, set the number of rows and columns this group should have. You can either move the sliders or enter the exact numbers manually.
Once you’re happy with it, hit the Create button, and your new seating group will appear on the canvas.

Nice, right? You now have a group of seats, but at this point, it’s just a visual block — not yet connected to any ticket type. Let’s fix that.

Assigning ticket types to seats

Click and hold your mouse to select one or more seats you want to assign to a specific ticket type.

You can select seats in two ways:

• Lasso select: Click and hold the left mouse button, then draw a loop around the seats you want to select. When you release, all seats within that loop will be selected.
• Multiple seat selection:
  • On Mac, hold the Command (⌘) key while clicking additional seats to select multiple non-neighboring ones.
  • On Windows, use the Ctrl key instead.

You can even combine both methods — for example, lasso-select the first row, hold Command/Ctrl, and then lasso-select another row or even seats in a completely different group. This makes it easy to assign one ticket type across multiple areas.

Adding seat labels

After assigning ticket types, you can also add seat labels — this is what attendees will actually see printed on their tickets.

To do this, select one or more seats again. A new menu will appear, allowing you to customize the seat labels.

You can:

• Use the Letter field to add a prefix (for example, “A” for Row A).
• Adjust the From and To number fields — these are automatically suggested, ensuring unique numbering for each selected seat.
• Click Assign to apply.

For example, if you select the first row and add the prefix A, the seats will be labeled A1, A2, A3, A4, and so on. You can repeat this process for each row, giving you a structured and readable seat numbering system across the chart.

These labels are not just for your reference — they appear on the actual ticket, next to the ticket type name, so the attendee knows exactly where to sit when they arrive at the venue.

If you need to redo your labels, simply reselect the seats and click Unset. That will remove the existing labels so you can start fresh.

Important: Don’t skip this step! Seat labeling defines the exact seat numbers and names. Without it, you won't be able to save the seating chart. 

Pro tip – automate odd/even seat numbering

Some venues have alternating seat numbering patterns — like odd seats on one side (1, 3, 5, 7, …) and even seats on the other (2, 4, 6, 8, …).
If your layout works this way, Tickera can automate that numbering pattern for you.
Check out the solution guide: How to create odd/even numbers for seats in seating charts automatically

Editing and positioning the seating group

Once your seating group is created, you can freely move it around the canvas by dragging and dropping.
Hover over the group and you’ll notice three purple icons appear at the bottom:

• The pencil icon opens the Seating group pane again, where you can rename the group or change its number of rows and columns.
• The trash can icon deletes the selected seating group entirely (use with caution — this removes all its seats and assignments).
• The rectangle icon brings the selected group to the front, above other overlapping elements or groups on the canvas. This is handy when multiple groups or decorative elements overlap, and you need one to appear on top visually.
• The rotate icon lets you freely rotate the group to match your venue’s layout.

Tip: Hold the Shift key while rotating to snap rotation in larger, cleaner increments — super useful for aligning angled sections.

Pro tip

If your venue layout includes several separate zones — for instance, balcony, main floor, and side seating — it’s much easier to create multiple smaller seating groups rather than one giant one.
It keeps the chart lighter, easier to manage, and visually clearer for buyers.

Creative use cases

Although seating groups are most commonly used to represent chairs and rows in a venue, they can also serve other purposes.
A great example is parking management — several Tickera users successfully use seating groups to represent parking spaces, with each seat acting as a numbered spot.

In such setups, each “seat” is essentially a parking slot, and you can even change the icon to display a car instead of the circle, rectangle or seat.

This kind of creative repurposing makes Seating Charts incredibly flexible — it’s not just for theaters, but also for drive-ins, expos, and even marinas.

Next step

Your seats are now visible, interactive, and connected to real ticket types — not bad!
Next, let’s add a standing area for zones without specific seats, like general admission pits or open floors or tables that display a round or rectangle table circled by assignable seats.