What's in a Technical Drawing? A Visual Guide For Non-Technical Event Planners

by PORT on Jan 18, 2026 3:09:52 PM

Event planners know the importance of cohesiveness between all of the vendors to ensure a seamless show day. When vendors, planners, and clients have a full comprehension of how set up, show day, and take down is going to play out, it makes all the difference. From event lighting to drapery, technical drawings show every vendor exactly where they need to be and what they need to do. For event planners, this means an absolute elimination of unknowns.

Technical Drawings and Their Importance

Technical drawings are typically 3D models that show every part of the venue from its basic form to where all of the vendors will go. They are very important for clients as they get to see the scale of the space and what is going on. It is the best way to represent the real-time in-person feel of the space of the room, and visualize what it will be before, during, and after setup. Technical drawings are important regardless of the size of the show, whether it is a small-scale lighting rig or a large-scale arena show. The technical drawing ensures that everybody is working together as efficiently and successfully as possible, by enabling different vendors to collaborate on one software, and establish that all elements are cohesive.

Components of a Technical Drawing

The pieces of a technical drawing include:

All of the production-relevant information from the ground up
Rigging
Lighting fixtures
Audio locations
What kind of gear is specked
Floor Plans

These details really help to get an idea of how everything is laid out on site before you get there, and make sure that the proper gear and designs are congruent and will come together cohesively on site. Specifically with lighting plots, it not only shows rigging and fixture placement, but gives all the information possible to technicians on site, to be sure that loading is efficient and successful. This eliminates any guesswork and ensures everyone goes in with a solid plan.

Benefits of Technical Drawings for Event Planners

The excitement of technical drawings for event planners is that everything is laid out beforehand. This gives the freedom to adjust to any unknowns and focus on telling the story of the event without getting bogged down by the setup and technical components. Event planners can focus on their creative vision while seeing how every piece makes sense together.

For event planners, technical drawings give something to show clients exactly what the event is going to be, and the piece of mind and confidence to know that the vision of the event is being realized on every end. It can be compared to seeing a complete 3D layout of your house from the structure to the furniture, aesthetics and more!

Collaboration and Technical Drawings

Technical drawings help coordinate between departments as it clearly lays out the plan where each element is going and they are able to figure out how to best support each other to make sure the audio, video, lighting, scenic, rigging, and any other vital parts of the story are being told. Everything is laid out in exact placements with exact dimensions. It also makes sure each vendor has the space and freedom to make their element the best it can be for the event.

Technical Drawing Example

This drawing shows placement of upstage lighting towers and gives information to the programmer and electricians for circuiting and fixture addressing; it also gives information to the riggers on placement.

Want even more details on your event before set-up? At PORT, we offer as an additional service, 3D pre-visualizations of the event, depicting every detail of the venue in a virtual space. Read more here about the benefits of pre-visualizations for event planners.