#Stage Builder

Design the deck your event lives on — sized, shaped, and branded to spec.

Every event has a stage. The Stage Builder is where you make yours. Draw the outline, set the deck height, and the stage paves itself with real stock decks — plus custom-cut plugs wherever a curve or an angle won't take a full deck — and regenerates in real time as you tweak it. It's purpose-built around how stages actually get spec'd in production — deck heights, stock deck sizes, fascia, skirting, and rails you'd recognize from any load-in sheet.

#What it does

• Outline-first decks. The stage is an outline you shape — rectangle, circle, oval, half circle, or any freeform shape with curves and corners. The decks, plugs, fascia, and skirt are all worked out from it, so a reshape never means re-modeling.
• Real stock decks. The outline is paved with 4' x 8', 6' x 8', or 1m x 1m stock decks. Decking counts the stock decks and custom plugs as you go — useful for cross-checking against a vendor quote or a build sheet.
• Simple or Custom. Simple keeps the stage to whole stock decks — drag a side and it jumps to the next deck size. Custom opens up freeform nodes, curves, fillets, chamfers, and custom plugs.
• Tiers. Raise any part of the deck into its own tier (or recess it) by typing a height in the scene.
• Underside and skirting. Choose an open deck, a leg grid, a solid box to the floor, or a fabric skirt with real fullness, fold depth, and floor pool.
• LED edge trim and railings. Light any stage side with LED trim, or rail it with a guardrail built to the height you set.
• Per-surface materials. Deck Top, Stage Fascia, Understructure, Stage Skirt, and Stage Railing each take their own material — carpet on top, black on the fascia, branded skirt across the front. Paint selected deck panels with their own named material when part of the deck needs a different finish.
• Steps and ramps. The Stage Builders menu also holds the Step Unit Builder and the Ramp Builder, and both dock straight onto a stage side.
• Props ride the deck. With Solid surface on, a chair, podium, or monitor dragged over the stage rides up onto the deck top instead of floating or clipping.

#How you use it

1. Create a stage. Click + (Add) in the toolbar; under Add Builder, open Stage Builders and pick Stage Builder. Choose a Shape (Rectangle, Circle, or Half Circle), set the Width and Depth, pick the Deck Height (inches) (6, 12, 18, 24, 32, 36, 42, or 48) and the Stock Deck Module, then click Create Stage. A rectangle starts in Simple mode; uncheck it for Custom.
2. Size it. In the properties panel, Dimensions has Width, Depth, Deck height preset, Deck height, and Deck band (fascia). Extend adds one row of stock decks on any side — hover an arrow to preview it.
3. Reshape it. Click Edit Stage (reshape outline). The edit toolbar has three modes: Shape (the outline — nodes, curves, and corners, plus a level picker once the stage has tiers), Sides (pick a section side to extrude it, add LED trim or a railing, or dock steps and a ramp), and Surfaces (select deck sections to raise them into a tier or paint their material).
4. Tune the decking. Under Decking, set the Stock module and Lay direction, turn Deck seam grooves off for a flat carpeted look, and use Auto-optimize deck grid (all tiers) to find the layout with the fewest custom plugs.
5. Finish the edges. Under Structure, pick the Underside. Choose Skirt (fabric drape) to set Drape treatment (By Perimeter or By Tier), Fullness, Fold depth, and Floor pool. Arm LED Edge or Railing in Sides mode and click the sides you want; the Lighting and Railing sections in the panel set the trim's color, glow, and animation and the rail's height, profiles, uprights, crossbars, and toe rail.
6. Add the way up. In Sides mode, select a side and click Steps or Ramp — the unit docks against that side at the stage's height. The step unit's Steps (linked) section keeps Step Unit Height, Number of steps, and Step height (rise) in step with each other and flags a rise over code. The ramp's Slope (ADA) section checks it against the 1:12 maximum, and Make ADA compliant (extend run to 1:12) lengthens the run to get there.
7. Skin and brand it. Open Materials and set each lane. Turn on Allow image drop, then drag a logo or graphic onto the deck, fascia, or skirt to set that lane's texture.
8. Repeat it. Use Clone and Turn in the Transforms section to spin off a side stage, a B-stage, or a matching thrust.

Overhead truss frames come from the separate Truss Builder, and scenic flats from the Stage Flat Builder in the Scenic Builders menu.

#Why it matters

Stages aren't generic boxes — they're spec'd builds with real decks, real fascia, and real surfaces that need real materials. The Stage Builder treats them that way, so what you design in EVT3D maps directly to what shows up on a load-in day.