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Folding Seating Bank


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Good morning all!

 

Wondering if anyone can advise and/or assist!!

 

Recently working in a venue that has a new seating bank, one of those lovely motorised collapsible ones, and there are obviously no drawings available anywhere useful that I can access so I've been attempting to build my own of the venue. Does anyone know how to replicate said types of seating banks? I can't seem to find appropriate VW symbols for it. Has anyone had any experience with this?

 

Cheers in advance!

 

Jazz

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Morning!

 

I'm sure there is indeed somehwere some manufacturer details.... where though is another question.

 

Let me try and track that down. I don't know if its an 'off the shelf' version that happily fitted in the space or whether its been built specifically. I've got the seating layout, but not make and model. I'm getting one of the in house peeps to check, but it'll probably be next week.

 

Cheers for that fella!

 

Jazz

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Seems like the question might be, what is it you are wanting to accomplish with your drawings?  When I’ve encountered this in the past I’ve modeled the seats in the “out” position in one class and then “retracted” in another. Takes just a few minutes to do and would accomplish pretty much anything I would think you would need to do. Perhaps I am missing something? 

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Hi Scott,

 

The venue is mostly used in the out position, when it's retracted it pulls under an overhang, effectively creating a full wall. A retracted model is quite easy to replicate, it's the out position that I'm having difficulty with. I didn't know whether there was a specific tool for creating seating banks, much like the seating layout tool, but actually creates a raked format. I've seen accurate seating banks on other drawings but not sure how they were created... I can't seem to find a model of a suitable seating bank seat to even start building a rough model...

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Hi Jazz

 

i haven’t seen anything that’s a one step process/plugin for what it sounds like you are looking for.

However, there are certainly tools available to reach your goal.

 

For the riser decks, the Stage Deck tool could be used and duplicated. Drop in a deck, enter the width, depth and height for the front row. Duplicate and offset by the depth, change the height, rinse and repeat to the last row. 

 

The Seating Layout tool does have a rise per row input value (i.e. raked per row). The Duplicate Array command also includes Z values per X or Y iteration. 

 

The amount of work required has a lot to do with the real world layout of your venue (i.e. riser dimensions, rows per rise, seats per row,  etc. basically tape measure time). Not a one step process but the tools exist to make this a relatively straight forward project.

If there are any more specifics you can offer up as each challenge has its best approach. 

 

 

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The seating tool does allow for raking. I frankly don’t use the tool as I generally need something quite accurate and I find the tool gives me something “close” which leaves me spending far too much time adjusting parameters when I could have just drawn what I wanted.  Someone else might be helpful with that tool. 

 

For me, I would draw a simple polygon for each flooring level and then duplicate them in place. That way you can extrude one instance and leave the other for creating a hybrid symbol. Of course, you need to set your elevations correctly. Then add your seating symbols, move them to the correct elevation and you are done. 

 

Once you get the hang of it, this kind of direct modeling is pretty simple and extremely worthwhile. 

 

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In the out position, you can basically treat these like building seating out of Wenger-like platforms; either use the stage deck tool or manually use rectangles and extrudes, as the two above options indicate.

 

These configurations often allow for a few options of house size. You can use classes for each configuration, including full open and full closed. Also, some systems allow for moving the entire section and other are attached to the wall, with the movable seating adding some complexity, as the seating will migrate a bit between installs. Generally the most important things to get right are ends of the first and last rows and any railings that may cause obstructions. 

 

Also don't forget the potential for a row of seats on the floor.

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Evening all! (or whatever time it may be in your respective places)

 

Yep, I started with using polygons, but couldn't find a suitable chair model in the resources. I need to take more measurements and pictures of the actual bank if I'm going to get it anywhere near close. I've definitely mucked up something somewhere.

 

I just wondered if there was an actual 'seating bank' model section somewhere, rather than building from scratch!

 

The venue has 'conference' style seating that can be put out as extra seating in the front. THat's actually pretty easy using the models from the resource browser. With the bank retracted it can be put into cabaret style seating, or meetings etc.

 

I appreciate all the advice, once I get it looking anywhere near the actual venue I'll post up a couple of shots.

 

Cheers guys,

 

Jazz

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Hi Rob,

 

Lovely to hear from you!

 

Trying to track down the manufacturer, I'm not near the venue at the moment, waiting on confirmation from them.

 

Very much appreciate this. There is no major rush for the symbols, just trying to get ahead of the game!

 

Cheers,

 

Jazz

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