#Audience Builder

Place hundreds of chairs in seconds — and sit in any of them to check the sightline.

The Audience Builder is one of EVT3D's signature tools. Define a section once — rows, seats per row, layout style, aisles — and it generates the whole bank in an instant. Every chair carries its own row and seat metadata, so you can long-press any one of them and snap the camera into Chair View at seated eye-height. Nothing else on the market lets you walk the room as a guest before load-in.

#What it does

• Automatic chair sections. Pick a chair, set the dimensions of the section (Chairs Wide × Rows Deep), and a fully populated section appears. Hundreds of chairs in one motion.
• Ten layout styles. Layout Style offers Grid, Chevron, Curved, In the Round, Offset (staggered rows), Banquet Grid, Banquet Offset, Crescent Rounds, Classroom (rows of tables with chairs facing forward), and Rectangular Banquet. Mix layouts in the same event for theater seating up front, rounds for dinner in the back, and a chevron VIP pod off to one side.
• Rake and row angle. Rake (in) lifts each row above the one in front of it, so the back rows rise. Rotate Rows (deg) angles the rows; turn the whole section like any other object so it faces the stage from any angle.
• Aisles and cross-aisles. Aisle Every (Seats) breaks each row into blocks with an aisle after a given seat count. Cross-Aisle Every (Rows) adds a cross-aisle every N rows.
• Tables and place settings (table layouts). The banquet styles populate tables with chairs around them, and Audience Assets adds optional centerpieces and place settings. Free Move Tables lets you pull individual tables off the grid for head tables and VIP pods, and Aim Tables At… turns every table to face a target such as the stage. Rectangular Banquet seats both long sides (Chairs Per Side) plus an optional chair at each end (End Chairs), turns each table so one end faces the stage (or keeps the long side to the front), and — like Crescent Rounds — has a Turn Chairs to Front (%) control to angle guests toward the show.
• Seat metadata on every chair. Every chair carries its section, row, and seat number — shown on screen when you sit in it in Chair View.
• Delete selected seats. Need to remove a chair for a camera position, a wheelchair space, or a pillar? Click Enter Delete Mode (Enter Remove Mode for table layouts) and click the seats to remove; the section keeps everything around them. Reset Deleted brings them back.
• Refresh in place. Change the chair model, the dimensions, or any setting and click Refresh to rebuild the section on the existing footprint. With the Audience Manager selected, Refresh All Sections rebuilds every section at once.
• Chair View (Guest POV). Long-press any chair in view mode. The camera snaps to seated eye-height at that chair's exact position, facing the stage. Walk the room as a guest.

#Chair View — the part nobody else does

Chair View is what makes the Audience Builder a sales tool. Instead of looking at the room from a designer's-eye orbit camera, you sit in row F, seat 12, and look at the stage the way the actual guest will. Scroll to narrow the lens. See if the IMAG screen reads. See if the sponsor sign is being blocked by a truss leg. See if the keynote slide is legible from this far back.

• Long-press to enter. Hold the cursor (or your finger, on touch) on a chair for half a second; a purple swirl shows the timer.
• Seated camera height. Camera snaps to roughly eye-height for a seated guest, oriented toward the stage.
• Zoom your view. The mouse wheel adjusts your lens angle, not your position — narrow it down to read a far screen, widen it back out for full peripheral vision. Range goes from a tight 25° telephoto to the natural 55° starting view.
• Tap-out. Exit Chair View returns the camera to the original preset you came from.

#How you use it

1. Open the Audience Builder. Click + (Add) in the toolbar; under Add Builder, pick Audience Builder. The Build an Audience window asks what kind: Theater, Rounds, Classroom, or Rectangular Banquet.
2. Add a section. Pick your chair (and table, for table layouts) from the prop library. The chairs spawn instantly; set the basic shape (Chairs Wide × Rows Deep, Layout Style) in the properties panel.
3. Tune the layout. Under Layout Settings, adjust seat width, Row Gap, Rake (in), aisles, and Rotate Rows (deg). The section regenerates in real time as you drag.
4. Add tables (banquet). Switch the Layout Style to a banquet style. Set the table size and Chairs Per Table (Rectangular Banquet uses Chairs Per Side plus an End Chairs toggle). Choose the table orientation — End to front points one short end at the stage, Side to front runs the long side across — and use Turn Chairs to Front (%) to angle guests toward the show. Tables and chairs spawn together; add centerpieces or place settings for a more populated render.
5. Drop center aisles. Set Aisle Every (Seats) to break the section into blocks. Cross-Aisle Every (Rows) splits it horizontally for ADA paths or general flow.
6. Delete specific seats. Click Enter Delete Mode and click the seats you want gone — front-row centerline, a wheelchair space, a camera position. The section keeps the seats around them intact.
7. Walk the room. Switch to view mode, long-press any chair, and Chair View takes over. Look at the stage. Scroll to zoom. Move to other seats by exiting and long-pressing the next chair.
8. Iterate. Found a sightline problem from row D? Adjust the rake, click Refresh, walk back to that seat, verify it's fixed.

#Why it matters

In live events, the question "can the audience actually see the show?" gets answered late — usually during the tech rehearsal, sometimes during the show. Audience Builder + Chair View answers it during design. You build the section, you sit in seat 12, and you find out before any chair is on the truck whether the IMAG placement, stage height, signage position, and rake work for the people you're selling tickets to.