Floor plans

An interactive floor plan enables your employees to easily locate, view, and book the right spaces. With deskbird, you can upload your office layout, place areas and desks in a single editor, assign desks to users directly on the map, and publish a clear visual map.

---

1. Upload your floor plan image
2. Edit the floor plan image
3. Place areas and resources
4. Assign desks on the floor plan
5. Editor tools for fast and precise placement
6. Publish your floor plan
7. FAQs

---

1. Upload your floor plan image

To get started, go to Admin > Workplace > Floors & spaces and click + Add floor plan, or open an existing floor plan.

Upload a background image of your office layout, ideally with desks and other resources visually marked.

Supported formats: .svg (recommended), .pdf, .jpg, .jpeg, .png
Max size: 15 MB
Max dimensions: 4096 × 4096 px

The upload runs in three steps:

1. Uploading – select your file. No prior compression is needed.
2. Processing – deskbird optimizes the file automatically, which usually reduces its size substantially and improves loading times for your users.
3. Confirm – a colored label shows how well the floor plan fits: green means it is ready to use, orange means it works but may load more slowly, red means it is at the limit and a lighter file is recommended. The choice is yours – confirm to use the plan as it is, or go back and upload a different file.

💡 PDF floor plans are converted automatically on upload. No need to convert them to another format first.

💡 Especially for larger floor plans, we recommend using .svg files. They stay sharp at every zoom level and can be edited directly in deskbird (see below).

---

2. Edit the floor plan image

Floor plans from architects often can't be changed without going back to the architect. In deskbird, you can now make simple edits to the floor plan image yourself – for example move or rotate a desk after an office reshuffle.

Open the floor plan and switch to the Edit floor plan image tab. Editing is available for .svg files and PDFs imported into deskbird; raster images (.jpg, .jpeg, .png) can't be edited.

Supported edits are deliberately simple: select an element in the drawing, move it, or rotate it. Complex redraws are not supported – for those, upload a new version of the floor plan.

💡 The Enhance with AI tab (experimental) generates an enhanced version of your floor plan. If the result doesn't match your office exactly, edit the underlying floor plan image first and then run the enhancement again, rather than trying to fix desks in the generated version.

💡 Editing the image does not affect placed areas or desks. Check the Areas and resources tab afterwards to make sure the placed desks still match the drawing.

---

3. Place areas and resources

Areas and resources are placed in one combined editor on the Areas and resources tab – there is no longer a separate tab for each.

The sidebar

The sidebar on the right lists all Desk areas and Meeting rooms of the floor, each with its color and the number of desks it contains. Warnings show what still needs to be placed:

• Area not on map – the area exists in your office configuration but hasn't been drawn on the floor plan yet.
• X resources not on map – the area is on the map, but some of its desks or other resources haven't been placed yet.

Click an area to open its list of desks. From there you can Place individual desks or use Place all to add every unplaced desk of the area at once, then drag them to the right spots.

💡 Areas and desks themselves are created in your office configuration. Use the office configuration link in the sidebar to add more areas, or the area configuration link in an area's desk list to add more desks.

Placing workflow

1. Draw the area on the floor plan as a rectangle or a custom shape. Select an area to move its corner points and reshape it.
2. Place the desks of the area using Place / Place all, or add resources straight from the toolbar with Add resources (⌘ A).
3. Adjust – drag single desks, or hold ⇧ to marquee-select several desks and move them together.
4. Repeat for every area and meeting room, and Save regularly.

💡 Desks, parking spots and other resources can only be placed within an area.

💡 Areas should not overlap or be placed on top of each other.

---

4. Assign desks on the floor plan

If many of your desks are assigned to specific people, you can (re)assign them directly on the floor plan instead of editing each desk individually. This is the fastest way to map a whole team to its desks and gives you an instant overview of who sits where.

💡 A desk must be placed on the floor plan before it can be assigned here. Unplaced desks show a Place button in the sidebar instead of the ⋮ menu.

Open the assignment

Go to Admin > Workplace > Floors & spaces, open the floor plan, and switch to the Areas and resources tab. Then use one of these options:

• Assignment tool – select the assignment tool (people icon) in the left toolbar, then click any desk on the map.
• Context menu on the map – click a desk on the map and select Edit assignment (people icon) in the menu that appears above it.
• Sidebar – open an area in the sidebar, click ⋮ next to a desk and select Edit assignment.

Assign, reassign or remove a user

1. Assign – for a desk showing No assignment yet, type a name in Search to assign and select the user.
2. Reassign – for a desk that is already assigned, type a name in Search to reassign and select the new user.
3. Remove – click Remove assignment to free the desk again.
4. Click Save (top right) to apply your changes.

Once assigned, the desk shows the user's profile picture on the map and in the sidebar. With the assignment tool selected, the user's name is also displayed below the desk.

Let others book an assigned desk

In the assignment menu of an assigned desk, turn on Allow others to book this space if the assigned user is not in the office to make the desk bookable for other users while the assigned user is away. If the toggle is off, only the assigned user can use the desk.

Drag and drop assignments

With the assignment tool selected, you can drag and drop assignments on the map to quickly move users between desks.

⚠️ Drag and drop only changes assignments while the assignment tool is selected. With any other tool, dragging a desk moves the desk itself on the floor plan.

---

5. Editor tools for fast and precise placement

The editor includes a set of tools designed to help you build clean, accurate layouts quickly – even when working with hundreds of desks.

Toolbar

• Select – click any area, desk or label on the canvas to select and move it.
• Marquee select (hold ⇧) – drag a rectangle to select several desks at once.
• Add resources (⌘ A) – add resources to the selected area.
• Assignment tool – assign users to desks directly on the map and drag and drop assignments (see Assign desks on the floor plan).
• Undo / Redo – step back and forth through your changes.
• Zoom in / Zoom out and fit to view – navigate large floor plans.
• Map items size (+ / −, top of the sidebar) – scale the desk markers so they match the size of your drawing.

Snapping & alignment

• Global snapping (on by default): resources automatically snap to nearby items with cross-area alignment, so you can build pixel-perfect layouts without being restricted by area boundaries.
• Persistent free drag toggle: need full control? Toggle free drag to bypass snapping for as long as you need it.
• Dynamic grid reference: enable a visual grid overlay with customizable pixel density for structured, consistent spatial planning.
• Keyboard arrow nudging: select any resource and use the arrow keys to nudge it 1px at a time.

Labels & readability

• Custom label positioning: drag and drop area labels anywhere on the map, independently of their parent area – no more overlapping or unreadable text.

Editing in context

• Contextual area editing: click any area directly on the canvas to edit its shape and settings.
• Direct resource selection: click a desk to configure it immediately, without leaving the canvas.

💡 Combine snapping, the grid overlay, and arrow-key nudging for the cleanest results: rough-place with snapping, align to the grid, then fine-tune with the arrow keys.

---

6. Publish your floor plan

When your layout is finalized, click Publish (top right corner) to make it visible to users.

💡 Floor plans remain hidden until they are published and at least one area and desk, or one meeting room, is marked as active.

---

7. FAQs