Master Your Dining Room: Complete Guide to Floor Plan Layouts 🗺️🍽️
A great floor plan makes table management effortless for your front-of-house team! In NX Restaurant POS, the Floor Plan Layout feature provides a visual map of your dining area on handheld terminals, tablets, and host stand stations.
Instead of searching through text lists, servers and hosts can instantly see open tables, running check totals, customer names, and order times at a glance—and tap directly on a table to start an order! 🚀
What is a Floor Plan Layout? 🤔
A Floor Plan Layout is a visual, interactive map that mirrors your venue's physical dining space—including table shapes, sizes, rotations, room partitions, and shortcut buttons.
- Custom Rooms & Sections: Create separate layouts for different venue areas (e.g., Main Dining, Patio, Bar, or Rooftop).
- Real-Time Order Indicators: Track order totals, floor staff ownership, open durations, and guest details right on the table icons.
- Tailored View Options: Configure independent display settings for handheld devices versus large tablets.
Where to Find Layout Settings 📍
Log into NX Portal, choose your venue in the top selector, and navigate to Layouts. Click on an existing layout to edit it, or click New to design a brand-new floor plan!
The Layout Editor at a Glance 🎨
The Layout Editor is split into three main working zones:
- Left Panel (Palette): Contains your unplaced venue tables and custom visual objects (labels, lines, boxes, and action command buttons).
- Center Canvas: Your visual floor plan workspace where you arrange, resize, and position your tables and objects.
- Right Panel (Properties): Displays detailed settings (dimensions, font sizes, area assignments, and layering) for whatever element is selected on the canvas.
Step-by-Step: Designing Your Floor Plan ⚙️
1. General Layout Settings 🛠️
At the top of the editor toolbar, you can manage core layout options:
- Layout Name: Edit your layout title directly in the text field.
- Active Toggle: Switch On to make this floor plan live on POS terminals, or Off to hide it.
- Tablet & Handheld Display Options: Open device-specific display toggles.
2. Adding Tables to the Canvas 🪑
The Tables list on the left panel displays all tables configured for your venue:
- 🔴 Filled Dot: Indicates the table is already placed on the active layout.
- ⭕ Empty Circle: Indicates the table has not yet been placed.
To Add/Remove: Click any table in the list to drop it onto the canvas. Click it again in the left list if you wish to remove it from the layout. Once on the canvas, drag the table into position, adjust its size, or rotate it!
3. Adding Non-Table Objects & Shortcuts 🧱
Customize your layout by adding structural dividers and quick-action buttons from the Objects section:
| Object Type 🎨 | What It's Used For 💡 |
| Label | Custom text overlays for section headers, room names, or emergency exits.
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| Line | Straight partition lines for walls, room boundaries, or bar counters.
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| Box | Plain rectangular shapes for marking out service stations, kitchens, or stages.
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| Circle | Plain round shapes for decorative pillars or round non-table areas.
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| Command | A labeled quick-action shortcut button tied to a specific Area and Order Type, allowing staff to start orders directly from the floor map!
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4. Editing Object Properties & Precision Alignment 📐
Click any item on the canvas to open its settings in the right-hand Properties Panel:
- Shape & Label: Toggle between Rectangle or Circle shapes, and customize label text.
- Font & Size: Adjust text size, width (W), and height (H).
- Area & Order Type: Assign target areas and order channels for Command shortcut buttons.
- Arrange (Layering): Use Send back or Bring front to adjust overlapping shapes.
- Rotation: Rotate labels in 45° increments.
Keyboard Precision Shortcut!
Need to align tables perfectly? Select an item on the canvas and use your keyboard Arrow Keys to move it 1 pixel at a time. Hold Shift + Arrow Keys to nudge it 10 pixels at a time!
5. Canvas Navigation & Zoom Tools 🔍
- Quick Table Search: Use the dropdown menu above the canvas to jump directly to any placed table without searching manually!
- Refresh Button: Tap Refresh next to the search bar to reload the canvas back to its last saved draft.
- Zoom Controls: Use the + and – buttons at the bottom of the canvas to zoom in and out on large dining room maps.
Configuring Tablet & Handheld Display Options 📱
Different screen sizes require different levels of detail! You can set independent display preferences for Tablets versus Handheld Devices.
Click Tablet Options or Handheld Options in the header to open the display toggles:
| Toggle Setting 💡 | What It Displays on the Table Icon 📊 |
| Display Owner Name | Shows the staff member who opened/owns the table check. |
| Display Order's Total | Shows the current running bill total for the table. |
| Display Order's Time Duration | Shows how long the order has been open. |
| Display Order's Customers | Shows customer names attached to the order. |
💡 Default Settings: New layouts default to having Owner Name, Order Total, and Time Duration turned ON, and Customers turned OFF.
Handheld vs Tablet
The floor plan is rotated 90° on NX Handheld view so staff doesn't have to scroll around to find tables. Floor plan sizes and scaling may cause a small variance in NX Tablet vs NX Handheld view. This is normal, and you can tweak your Floor Plan Layout in NX Portal to find the ideal combination.
Saving Your Layout 💾
When your floor plan is complete, click Save in the top-right toolbar. This saves your table placements, canvas shapes, command shortcuts, layout names, and device options all at once!
Clicking Cancel discards any unsaved canvas changes made during the session
Troubleshooting & Need Help? ❓
- 🔴 Layout isn't showing up on handhelds or host terminals?
- Check the Active switch in the top toolbar of the Layout Editor to ensure it is turned ON.
- Verify that your POS terminals are connected to the correct venue area.
- ❓ Changes aren't reflecting on the floor?
- Remember that layout edits do not go live until you click Save in NX Portal! Log out and back in on your POS app to pull the latest sync.
- 💬 Still Need Assistance?
- Reach out directly to NX Restaurant Support or consult your manager for quick guidance on setting up your floor plan layouts! 🌟