Keep the DWG as your source drawing, and stop emailing PDFs that go out of date a week after you send them.
Free to start
Build and test your plan before you pay
7-day trial
No credit card required
DIY from $149/mo
Organizer builds the map in FP Designer
No app needed
Attendees open the map in any browser
AutoCAD is one of the best drafting tools there is. Venues, architects, stand builders and general service contractors use it to produce precise, to-scale drawings: column grids, fire exits, rigging points, utility drops, hall dimensions. When a convention center hands you a hall plan, it very often started life as a DWG file, and AutoCAD LT gives smaller teams the same 2D drafting core for less money. If you need to know whether a 3x3 m booth fits between two columns and a fire lane, nothing beats a CAD drawing.
The trouble starts once that drawing has to work as an event floor plan. In most shows the venue or decorator owns the master CAD file. The organizer asks for an updated PDF, marks up booth numbers, and sends it to exhibitors, sponsors and the website team. From then on the PDF is a snapshot. Booth status lives in a spreadsheet, every sale or swap means asking for a re-export, and the version on your website is rarely the version in the sales team's inbox. Attendees can't search a PDF for a company, filter by category or get directions to a booth, and exhibitors can't reserve or pay for a space from it.
This page is for organizers who draw their floor plan in AutoCAD (or receive a DWG from their venue or decorator) and are looking for an AutoCAD alternative for trade show floor plans: something that keeps the CAD drawing as the accurate base layer while handling live booth availability, online booth sales, exhibitor profiles and attendee wayfinding without the export-and-email loop.
| Feature | ExpoFP | AutoCAD / AutoCAD LT |
|---|---|---|
| Purpose-built for event floor plans | Yes. Interactive floor plan platform for trade shows, expos, conferences, fairs and venues | No. General-purpose 2D/3D CAD for architecture, engineering and drafting |
| Drawing / editing booths | Drag, drop, merge and resize booths in the browser with FP Designer; changes go live instantly | Precise drafting with full CAD tools; requires CAD skills and a desktop license |
| Import an existing plan | Upload an existing floor plan file or image and the ExpoFP team builds it, or draw it yourself in FP Designer | Native DWG; can export PDF and images |
| Live booth availability | Yes. Exhibitors see availability on the map in real time | No. Status has to be shown manually (colors, layers) and re-exported |
| Booth reservations | Exhibitors reserve directly on the map; organizer approves and tracks in one place | Not available; handled by email, forms or spreadsheets |
| Online booth payments | Exhibitors can purchase by credit card on the map (not on the Light plan) | Not available |
| Exhibitor profiles & directory | Logo, description and contacts attached to each booth; searchable directory | Text labels in the drawing only |
| Exhibitor self-service updates | Personal auto-login link; exhibitors fill in their profile, organizer approves | Not available; organizer edits the drawing |
| Attendee search & filters | Search by company, booth or category; category filters; bookmarks | Not available in an exported PDF beyond basic text search |
| Wayfinding / routes | Turn-by-turn routes, accessible routes across floors and buildings; blue-dot, GPS and QR positioning available | Not available |
| Mobile experience | Browser-based, mobile-ready; no app, no sign-in | PDF or image viewed on a phone; pinch and zoom |
| Sharing & website embedding | Custom URL (yourevent.expofp.com), embed in websites and event apps, kiosks | Email or upload a PDF/image; Autodesk viewers for DWG |
| Updating after changes | Edit once; every link, embed and kiosk updates instantly | Edit DWG, re-export, re-send, re-upload |
| Sponsorship / monetization | Sponsored listings, featured placements, banner ads, logos in booths, booth extras, packages | Not available |
| Analytics | Included on every plan: searches, booth views, routes, exhibitor activity, per-kiosk analytics | Not available |
| Cost | Free to start (7-day trial); DIY $149/mo; Light $990, Standard $1,500, Pro $2,100 one-time (≤100 booths; scales with booth count) | Annual subscription per user; full AutoCAD is commonly listed at roughly $1,800–$2,000/yr in the US, AutoCAD LT considerably less. Check current pricing on autodesk.com |
Picture a typical mid-size expo. The venue's CAD team or your decorator holds the master DWG. Three months out, you get a PDF with booth numbers and send it to your sales team and your returning exhibitors. A week later, two 3x3 booths are merged for a sponsor, an island is shifted to clear a fire lane, and a corner booth is sold. The sales lead updates the booth-status spreadsheet, but the PDF on the website still shows the old layout. Someone asks the decorator for a re-export, which arrives three days later, and by then two more booths have changed.
Meanwhile, two salespeople are working from different versions of the spreadsheet. Both offer booth 412 to different companies, and one of them has to make an awkward call. Exhibitors email asking whether their logo will appear on the map, and the answer is "only on the printed one, if we get it in before the print deadline." On show day the printed maps and the lobby signage reflect the layout from two weeks ago, attendees can't find the late additions, and you have no data on which areas actually got traffic.
None of this is AutoCAD's fault. It's doing exactly what it was built for. The cost comes from using a static drawing as the live system of record for sales, exhibitors and attendees.
| Step | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| Sharing the plan | Export PDF from DWG, email it, upload it to the website. | One live link at yourevent.expofp.com, embedded on your site and in your event app. |
| Selling a booth | Email back and forth, update the spreadsheet, request a re-export. | The exhibitor sees live availability, reserves (and can pay by card) on the map, and you approve it in one place. |
| Changing the layout | Wait for the CAD owner to edit and re-export, then resend everything. | Drag, merge or resize booths in FP Designer and the change goes live everywhere instantly. |
| Exhibitor details | Collect logos and descriptions by email and paste them in yourself. | Each exhibitor gets a personal auto-login link, fills in their profile, and you approve it. |
| Show day | Printed maps that are already out of date. | A searchable, mobile map with turn-by-turn wayfinding, kiosks with "you are here", and analytics on what people searched and visited. |
Upload your DWG, PDF or image and get an interactive floor plan with live booth sales, exhibitor profiles and wayfinding. Free to start, 7-day trial, no credit card.
Ask your venue, decorator or CAD team for the current hall drawing as a DWG, PDF or high-resolution image. The CAD file stays the reference for dimensions, columns, exits and utilities.
On the Light, Standard or Pro plans, upload the exported file and the ExpoFP team builds the interactive map for you. On the DIY plan ($149/mo), use the drag-and-drop FP Designer to place, merge and resize booths over your plan in the browser.
Bring in your exhibitor list, or connect ExpoFP to your registration, ticketing or CRM system so exhibitor data flows both ways (JSON API and developer docs are available). Send each exhibitor their personal auto-login link so they can add their logo, description and contacts for your approval.
Turn on booth reservation so exhibitors can see live availability and reserve or purchase booths by credit card directly on the map (online payments are not on the Light plan). Add sponsorship options like featured placements, banner ads and logos in booths.
Publish at your custom URL, embed the map on your event website and in your event app, and set up kiosks for show day. If the venue sends a revised DWG later, update the affected booths in FP Designer and every link updates at once. Next year, copy the map and exhibitors to the new event.
AutoCAD remains the right tool for the work it was designed for: permanent building drawings, venue architecture, CAD-accurate engineering plans, fire and life-safety layouts, rigging and electrical plans, and the detailed stand drawings that builders and contractors work from. If your venue or decorator maintains a master DWG, keep it. It should stay the authoritative source for dimensions and approvals, and AutoCAD LT is a sensible, lower-cost option if your team only needs 2D drafting. ExpoFP doesn't replace that drawing. It sits on top of it and turns the layout into something exhibitors can buy from and attendees can navigate, so the CAD file can go back to being an engineering document instead of a sales and visitor tool.
Yes. Export your drawing as a DWG, PDF or image and upload it; on the Light, Standard and Pro plans the ExpoFP team builds the interactive map from your file. On the DIY plan you can draw booths yourself in the drag-and-drop FP Designer using your plan as the reference. Either way, your AutoCAD file stays the master drawing.
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Information on this page is based on publicly available product materials and may change over time. AutoCAD is a trademark of its respective owner. This is ExpoFP's own comparison and reflects our perspective based on publicly available information and user-facing product research.