What layouts are for
The Layouts editor lets you build a visual floor plan of your space inside Deskie. You upload an image of your floor (or start from a blank canvas), draw walls, doors, and windows on top of it, and drop in the things you manage: resources, assets, printers, screens, and access doors. Once a resource or asset is placed, the layout shows its live state, so you can glance at the floor plan and see which desks are occupied and which meeting rooms are in use right now.
Layouts are an admin tool. You need the workspace-management permission to open the page, and the editor requires a desktop or large tablet. On a phone you see a message asking you to switch to a larger screen, because the canvas needs room to work.
Important: where your layouts are saved
Be aware of how layouts persist before you invest time building one. Right now, layouts are stored in your browser's local storage on the computer you are using. They are not saved to a Deskie server and they do not sync between devices or between team members.
What this means in practice:
- A layout you build on your office desktop will not appear when you open Deskie on your laptop, or on a colleague's computer.
- Clearing your browser data, or using a different browser, will lose your saved layouts.
- Uploaded floor-plan images are stored inline in your browser as part of the saved data, so the editor caps uploads at about 4 MB. Larger images are rejected with a message.
The placed resources, assets, and doors themselves are real Deskie records, and the live occupancy you see is pulled live from your actual bookings and assignments. It is only the floor-plan drawing (the image, the walls, and where each item sits) that lives in your browser.
Creating a layout
When you first open Layouts you see a prompt to build your first one. Choose New layout and you have two ways to start:
- Upload an image. Pick a PNG, JPG, or SVG of your space, up to about 4 MB. You get a thumbnail preview and a chance to name the layout before adding it. The name defaults to the file name, and you can change it any time later.
- Start with a blank canvas. Skip the image entirely and get a plain white canvas you can draw walls, doors, and rooms onto from scratch.
After you confirm, the new layout opens and drops you straight into edit mode so you can start placing items. You can keep several layouts (for example, one per floor) and switch between them from the layout selector at the top left of the toolbar. That same menu has per-row icons to rename or remove a layout, and removing one asks you to confirm first because it cannot be undone.
Placing items on the canvas
Use the Add Item button in the toolbar to place things. The menu is organized into two groups.
Workspace entities
These are backed by real Deskie records and are status-aware:
- Resource (such as a meeting room or hot desk)
- Asset (such as a dedicated desk or locker)
- Printer
- Screen
- Access (a door from your Deskie Access relay)
Each of these opens a searchable list so you can find the exact item even if you have hundreds. Pick one, then click on the canvas to drop it, or drag to draw it at a specific size. You can also right-click an empty spot on the canvas and use Add resource or Add asset to drop one right where you clicked.
Structure and images
These are drawing primitives with no backing record and no status:
- Wall drawn endpoint to endpoint. After selecting a wall you can chain another wall from its endpoint to trace a perimeter quickly.
- Door rendered with a swing arc. You can flip a door horizontally or vertically from its right-click menu to change which way it opens.
- Window
- Miscellaneous shape for anything else.
- Image overlay, where you drop an additional image on top of the base layout.
When you arm an item for placement, a short on-screen hint tells you to click or drag on the canvas to drop it. Press Escape at any time to cancel placement.
Editing and arranging items
The editor behaves like a lightweight design tool. Double-click an item, or right-click and choose Edit, to select it and reveal its handles. From there you can:
- Move an item by dragging it. Hold Shift to lock movement to a single axis. Items snap to neighboring edges and shared alignment lines as you drag, and walls get a slightly wider snap so corners line up cleanly.
- Resize by dragging the corner and edge handles. Doors stay square automatically, and holding Shift while resizing an image keeps its proportions.
- Rotate items. Holding Shift while rotating snaps to 15-degree increments. Holding Shift while drawing a wall or window snaps the angle to 45-degree increments.
- Reshape a resource, asset, printer, screen, access door, or miscellaneous shape into a non-rectangular outline. Right-click and choose Add point here to add a vertex, then drag vertices to carve odd-shaped rooms.
The right-click menu on an item also offers Duplicate, Bring to front, Send to back, and Remove. Removing an item asks for confirmation and can be undone with the undo shortcut.
Keyboard shortcuts and history
The editor supports the usual editing shortcuts. Cmd/Ctrl+C copies the selected item and Cmd/Ctrl+V pastes it (each paste is offset slightly so repeated pastes stagger instead of stacking). Cmd/Ctrl+D duplicates. Cmd/Ctrl+Z undoes and Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+Z (or Cmd/Ctrl+Y) redoes. Backspace or Delete prompts to remove the selected item. The toolbar also has dedicated undo and redo buttons. Pressing Escape exits edit mode.
Navigating the canvas: zoom, pan, and layers
You can pan the canvas by dragging the empty space around the image, and zoom with the scroll wheel or a trackpad pinch (zoom anchors to your cursor). The toolbar has plus and minus buttons that show the current zoom percentage, plus a fit-to-screen button that resets the view. Each layout remembers its last zoom and pan position so you return to the same view next time.
The Layers menu lets you toggle the visibility of each kind of item independently: resources, assets, printers, screens, access doors, walls, doors, windows, miscellaneous shapes, images, and the base floor-plan image. Hiding a layer removes it from view so you can focus on, say, just the resources, or hide the base image to see only your drawn structure. A small badge on the Layers button shows how many layers are currently hidden.
Live occupancy
This is what makes a layout more than a static drawing. Placed resources and assets reflect their real, current state on the canvas, color-coded against the legend at the bottom: green for available, violet for occupied.
- Assets show as occupied when they have an active assignment. The canvas renders the assigned member's name, and an avatar when there is room, right on the shape. See Assignments for how asset assignments work.
- Resources show as occupied when a confirmed booking covers the current moment. The canvas shows the current booker's name and avatar. See Booking a resource for how bookings drive this.
Occupancy is calculated live from your real data, so the floor plan stays in step with what is actually happening without any manual updating.
Item details and quick actions
Click any placed entity (when you are not in edit mode) to open a detail panel tailored to that kind of item. Each panel pulls fresh data and gives you the most relevant information and shortcuts:
- Resource: whether it is in use or available right now, upcoming bookings, capacity, pricing, and booking rules, with links to edit the resource or book it.
- Asset: the currently assigned member (with a link to manage the assignment) or an empty state with a Create assignment prompt when no one is assigned, plus past assignments and details.
- Printer: live online or offline status, color support, last-seen time, and pricing, with links to view or edit the printer. See Printers and printing.
- Screen: the public viewer link and an edit shortcut. See Screens.
- Access door: whether the door is locked or held open, recent door activity, and buttons to Buzz in or Lock the door directly from the layout. See Deskie Access.
Because these panels link straight to the relevant Deskie pages, the layout doubles as a visual launch point for managing the things in your space, not just a picture of where they sit.