Venueforma · 3D event design and sales platform

3D event design and sales software for venues and planners

Show clients what their event could become. Recreate your venue, arrange your inventory, and present event options with images, prices and a clear next step.

Venueforma is in development. This page describes what it does; there is nothing to sign up to yet.

A venue in plan - rooms, walls, and the doors, windows and columns a layout has to work around. Drawn by the platform itself, at the dimensions it was given.

What is Venueforma?

Venueforma is a browser-based 3D event design and sales platform for event professionals: you recreate a venue at its real dimensions, arrange real inventory inside it, price the result as you design, and present priced alternatives a client can approve.

One event, one model. The quote, the seating plan and the setup sheet are three readings of the same layout rather than three documents that have to be kept in step, so they cannot drift apart between the proposal and the morning of the event.

How an event proposal goes from enquiry to setup

Seven steps, and the software follows the sale rather than the other way round. Each one produces something the next depends on, so the quote, the approval and the setup pack are readings of the same layout instead of three documents somebody keeps in step by hand.

Capture the brief
Client, event type, date or date range, guest count, budget, style, preferred venue and the decision deadline. Anything still unknown stays marked provisional rather than quietly becoming a fact.
Choose a venue and a starting layout
Open a venue you have already modelled and start from a banquet, ceremony, reception or conference template. One proposal can compare several venues, each with its own design and its own price.
Build and price the offer
Arrange furniture and decor, choose actual inventory, and add venue hire, catering, staffing, transport and setup as price lines that have no shape in the room. Quantities come from the layout, so the equipment list cannot disagree with the drawing.
Present two or three options
Named options with matching camera views, stated inclusions and exclusions, and a visible price difference between them. They stay separate: alternatives never sum into one total, and nothing is committed until one is held.
Revise and approve
The client comments, asks for changes, or approves one revision. An edit produces a new revision rather than overwriting the approved one, so what was agreed stays available exactly as it was agreed.
Confirm the booking
Availability, contract and deposit are the business's own process, and visual approval is not a substitute for any of them. Proposal status, booking status and payment status are stored separately, because they diverge.
Hand over the setup
The approved layout becomes the setup pack: equipment quantities, timing, access notes and supplier responsibilities, exported from the approved data rather than rebuilt from it.

The pipeline board carries the states an event actually moves through: New inquiry · Preparing · Sent · Changes requested · Design approved · Booked · Delivered · Lost. Proposal, booking and payment status are separate fields, because a design can be approved while the deposit is still outstanding.

What it looks like in practice

A wedding coordinator, 120 guests

A couple ask for a wedding for 120. The coordinator opens a partner venue and starts with fifteen tables of eight. Option A is the venue's standard package. Option B upgrades chairs, linen and lighting. Option C adds a lounge and fuller ceremony decoration. Each option shows its complete scope, its own price, and the difference from the base.

The couple prefer B, with the lounge from C. The coordinator duplicates B, adds the lounge, checks the quantities and sends a new revision. A separate wet-weather design sits beside it, labelled as the alternative scenario it is.

A venue sales team, company dinner

A venue takes a company dinner enquiry. The sales manager opens the venue's saved dinner package, changes the headcount and the company's branding, and has a proposal ready without drawing anything.

The same venue model and the same actual furniture serve the next prospect, and the one after that. That repeat use is the whole argument for modelling a room properly once.

How much space does each guest need?

It depends on the layout, and on which question you are asking. A seated dinner on round tables is planned at roughly 1.02-1.58 m² per guest by the event trade, while the occupancy factor in the building code allows 1.4 m². Those are different numbers answering different questions, and Venueforma shows both.

Floor area per guest by layout. Planning ranges are what the event trade allows; the occupancy factor is the code maximum.
Layout	Planned per guest	Code factor	Typically
Banquet, round tables	1.02-1.58 m²	1.40 m²	Seated dinner, rounds of 8-12
Banquet, long tables	0.84-1.39 m²	1.40 m²	Seated dinner, trestles
Cabaret	1.30-1.67 m²	1.40 m²	Rounds with a side left open to the stage
Theatre	0.56-0.84 m²	0.65 m²	Rows of chairs, no tables
Classroom	1.30-1.67 m²	1.40 m²	Rows of chairs at narrow tables
Standing reception	0.50-0.84 m²	0.46 m²	Drinks, no seating plan
Conference, boardroom	2.79-3.72 m²	1.40 m²	One table, everyone at it

In 5 of these 7 layouts the trade plans tighter than the code factor allows, which is why a single number would mislead in either direction. Both are planning aids. Lawful occupancy is set by the authority having jurisdiction against a plan that shows egress, fixtures and construction - not by software.

IBC Table 1004.5, maximum floor area allowances per occupant - The same figures appear in NFPA 101 Table 7.3.1.2.
Planning densities: the event trade's own guidance - Ranges rather than constants - the same layout varies by up to 2x between vendors, so both ends are carried rather than averaged.

Who is event design software like this for?

Businesses that sell events in the same group of rooms all year. Modelling a venue and entering inventory is work you do once; every later enquiry for that room starts from something that already exists.

Independent venues - a house, a hotel, a restaurant or an estate selling events in a familiar set of spaces.
Event planning businesses - planners working the same venues repeatedly who need a proposal a client can decide on.
Rental companies - furniture and equipment suppliers pricing what a layout actually calls for.
Everyone the event touches - clients, guests and suppliers each see a view scoped to them, without an editor seat and without seeing what is not theirs.

How do I get my venue into it?

Two ways, and a floor plan is an input to both rather than a third option. Either start from a standard shape and correct it yourself, or send what you have and have the model built for you.

Build it yourself

Choose the shape your room is closest to - a rectangular hall, an L-shaped hall, a hall with a foyer, a clear-span marquee - set the dimensions you have, then correct the rest: move a wall, put the doors where the doors are, add the columns you work around.

Send it to us

For a room that is not a shape - a listed house, a vaulted cellar, a curve. Send the floor plan, the dimensions and photographs, and the model comes back built and reviewed against those references.

Standard recreation scope is up to 500 m² of modelled event area per venue, on one level, with ordinary architectural detail; several connected rooms or indoor and outdoor areas can make up one venue within that total. Larger areas, extra levels and elaborate historical detail are quoted separately, and the figure itself is being validated in a pilot rather than published as settled. A venue carries a visible status - concept, dimensions supplied or dimensions reviewed - because photographs give appearance, not scale, and a model nobody has measured does not get an accuracy badge.

Who sees what

Four audiences, four views built separately rather than one view with fields switched off. A supplier sheet has no field that could carry a client price, which is a stronger guarantee than remembering to hide one.

What each audience receives, and what it is structurally unable to receive.
Audience	Receives	Never receives
Client	Invited options, images, scope and budget, comments, and approval of one revision.	Your internal supplier cost.
Supplier	Its own setup requirements, the measurements that concern it, and its equipment lines.	Other suppliers' pricing, or any guest data.
Guests	A published venue guide, directions, the schedule and optionally their table.	The budget, or anything the planner has not deliberately published.
Public visitor	An owner-approved demonstration of the venue itself.	Any private event data.

Are the images the same as the plan?

Three ways of looking at one scene, and only two of them are measurements. An AI-enhanced image is atmosphere generated from a chosen view - it cannot change the inventory and cannot supply a figure for an equipment list.

Live preview

Fast rendering in the browser while you work. Rotating the camera or moving a table costs nothing - no generation credit is spent on looking at your own room.

Accurate presentation image

A higher-quality render of the saved scene that preserves its actual geometry and placements. Where things appear is where things are.

AI-enhanced concept image

Optional atmosphere and polish, generated from a chosen view and reviewed before publication. It never changes the inventory and never supplies the measurements for an equipment list, and an image whose layout has since been edited is labelled an earlier version.

What Venueforma will not do

Software that sells events is software people make promises from. These are enforced in the product, not aspirations for it.

It will not invent a number. Dimensions are stored in metres and shown in your units. Capacity and clearance figures carry their source, and where the trade and the code disagree you are shown both rather than an average of them.
It will not certify a room. Overlap and clearance checks help you catch an aisle nobody can walk. Lawful occupancy is not something a layout tool is in a position to state, and it does not.
It will not add up options that are alternatives. A and B are two answers to one question. Neither stock nor budget is committed until one of them is actually held.
It will not change what a client approved. An approval is bound to the exact revision that was published. Edit afterwards and it asks you to republish rather than silently moving the agreement.
It will not show the wrong person your margin. Client, supplier and guest views are built separately. Internal cost is not a field any of them could be shown by accident.

Questions about Venueforma

Do I need a floor plan to start?

No. A floor plan makes the model more accurate and is worth sending if you have one, but a standard shape plus the dimensions you can measure is enough to lay out an event. A model nobody has measured is labelled a concept rather than presented as accurate.

Does it tell me how many guests a room holds?

It shows two figures and the distance between them: the occupant load the code factor gives, and the headcount the event trade actually plans for that layout. It does not certify a capacity - lawful occupancy is set by the authority having jurisdiction, against a plan that includes egress and construction.

Can clients see the design without an account?

Yes. A published option opens on a phone with no app and no sign-in, showing images, scope, budget and one clear next action. Viewing can be low-friction; approving requires a verified identity, because approval is a commitment.

What happens if I edit a design after a client approved it?

The approval stays bound to the revision that was approved, and the platform asks you to republish. The prior approved version remains available, and a change request opens a new draft rather than overwriting it.

Does approving a design reserve the date or the stock?

No, and that separation is deliberate. Visual approval is the client agreeing to a design; availability, the contract and the deposit are the business's own process. Proposal, booking and payment status are stored separately because they routinely disagree.

How big a venue can be modelled?

The standard recreation scope is up to 500 m² of modelled event area per venue, on one level, with ordinary architectural detail. Several connected rooms or indoor and outdoor areas can make up one venue within that total. Larger areas, extra levels and elaborate historical detail are quoted separately, and the figure itself is being validated in a pilot.

Are the AI-generated images the same as the plan?

No, and they are never treated as the same thing. An enhanced image is atmosphere generated from a chosen view; it cannot change the inventory and cannot supply a measurement. Equipment lists and setup packs come from the 3D scene, and an image whose layout has since changed is labelled an earlier version.

Does it work on a phone or tablet?

It runs in a browser with no installation. The design canvas is built for a laptop or a tablet with a keyboard; the client-facing presentation is designed to open on a phone.

What does Venueforma cost?

Pricing is not published. Subscription tiers with an allowance for custom venue and element modelling are planned, and the figures are being validated in a paid pilot before they are put in front of anybody.

Is it available now?

Not yet. Venueforma is in development and there is nothing to sign up to on this page. It is being built against a real venue rather than demonstrated on an empty rectangle.

Event layout terms, defined

The words a venue and a planner use with each other, in the industry’s sense rather than ours.

Banquet round: A round dining table, most often 150 cm or 180 cm across, seating eight to twelve. The default table of a seated dinner, and the unit most banquet capacities are quoted in.
Cabaret: Round tables with the side facing the stage left unseated, so nobody has their back to the speaker. Costs roughly a third of the seats a full round would give.
Theatre style: Rows of chairs facing one direction with no tables. The densest seated layout, and the one where aisle width rather than floor area usually sets the limit.
Load-in: Getting equipment into the room: the dock, the door dimensions, the lift and the route between them. A stage deck that will not fit through the door is the classic layout that works on paper only.
Clear height: Floor to the lowest fixed obstruction, not floor to ceiling. What decides whether a truss, a screen or a tall centrepiece fits.
Net area: Floor area excluding what is permanently occupied - built-in bars, stages, columns. Occupancy factors apply to net area, which is why a room's gross size overstates what it seats.
Setup pack: The document the floor team executes from: what goes where, how many, in which room, with tables numbered in the order the room reads.
3D asset: The geometry and materials used to draw an object. One asset can appear hundreds of times in one room and in any number of saved designs.
Inventory product (SKU): The actual sellable or rentable item, which references an asset. Material variants can share one geometry, but independently stocked colours need separate SKUs because they are counted separately.
Stock pool: A quantity of one SKU held by one business at one location. Two hundred identical chairs are one asset, one SKU and two hundred physical units.
Placed instance: One use of an asset or product in one layout. Placing a chair a hundred times creates a hundred instances and no new stock, which is why quantities are counted from the room rather than typed into a list.