Lesson 8 of 21 · 2:14
Auto-Fill & layout templates
Fill a room in one click — around whatever's already there.
Written guides for this lesson
- How many tables fit in my ballroom?
Set the table, the chairs per table and the spacing you actually use, and the capacity calculator returns the real number for your space before you place anything.
- How do I fill a room with tables around a stage and dance floor?
Auto-Fill has two modes: a grid block you can keep editing, and a flow mode that places tables individually and routes around whatever is already in the space.
Transcript
0:03Placing tables one at a time is fine for a handful. For five hundred seats, it isn't. That's what Auto-Fill is for.
0:10Here's the Grand Ballroom with the fixed pieces already in: a stage, two screens, a dance floor, and a bar on each side. The seating hasn't been touched.
0:20Auto-Fill Setup is the fourth icon down the rail.
0:24Start with the layout. There are eight engines — staggered, aligned, theater, classroom, conference, U-shape, hollow square and trade show. Each lays out the way that setup actually gets set.
0:37Then the table, how many chairs go on it, and how much room you want between rows and columns.
0:43Before committing to anything, ask the room what it will hold.
0:47Sixty-five tables, five hundred and twenty seats. That settles a capacity question before you've drawn a single thing.
0:54Fill the active area.
0:58Sixty-five numbered tables, in one click. And it stays a live block — change the rows, the spacing or the chairs per table on the right, and the whole thing regenerates in place.
1:08But look carefully at what it did. The grid ran straight through the stage, and right across the dance floor. A block is a grid — it doesn't know what's already in the room.
1:19Which is exactly what this checkbox is for. Flow around obstacles.
1:26Fill it again, and now every table is placed individually, routing around everything already there. Nothing on the stage. Nothing on the dance floor. Nothing inside a bar.
1:37The trade-off is written on the label: loose tables, rather than one editable block. Use the block while you're still tuning the numbers. Switch to flow once the room has furniture in it.
1:48Either way, Number the tables gives you a numbered set, the counters at the bottom right tell you what you actually ended up with, and one undo takes the whole fill away.
1:58And if it's a setup you run every week, save the settings as a preset and it's one click next time. Next: numbering, notes and measuring.