Parking draws the arrival plan for one place (a venue, a hotel or any address): where the bus, the trucks, shore power and the gate actually go, true to scale on a satellite. NOT a "nearby bus parking finder": for bus-friendly hotels, lots or fuel stops near a venue, that's ATOM Intel or the Hotels & Bus Parking directory.
WHERE ARE WE PARKING? (the start screen):
Opening Parking never drops you into an old map. It starts on one question, Where are we parking?, with one search box that Google finishes as you type: a venue, a hotel, or any street address. Under it are three shortcuts: Tonight (or the next show), Hotels on this tour, and Recent plans, plus Open a saved plan. A place you search can be linked to a show or a tour hotel nearby, or kept as just a place. If that show or hotel already has a plan, ATOM offers to open it instead of starting a second one. Picking a place while another plan is open starts a new plan; the other one stays saved.
THE FOUR STEPS:
The bar across the top shows the plan's name (click it to rename), what it is for (like "OCT 9 · ACL LIVE AT THE MOODY · AUSTIN"), whether drivers can see it yet (Draft, Published, or Unpublished changes), the steps, and the next action. You can click any step to go back. Plans opens a new plan or a saved one.
- 1 Place: the start screen above.
- 2 Map: choose what to build on. A satellite of the place (position and zoom it, then Lock this view; that goes straight to Plan), a map from this show's Files, an upload (photo, screenshot, iPhone photo or PDF), or a blank canvas, then Lock map and start planning.
- 3 Plan: a small tool bar floats over the map: Vehicle, Place (bus, truck and crew parking, gate, load-in door, load dock, shore power, water, security, no parking; All places shows the full library), Route (arrows, turns, drawn lines), Note, Undo and Redo (they say what they undo, like "Undo: Move Bus 1", and the history survives a reload of the same tab), Street View, More (measure, labels, lines and shapes, grid snap, copy, paste, center and fit, crop an uploaded map, reposition the satellite, the Clear buttons) and More tools (approach directions, ATOM tools, map options, that day's Advance schedule and contacts). Click anything on the map to edit it in its own panel. Markup opens a tool rail like Skitch: arrow, text typed on the map, box, rounded box, oval, line, highlighter, pixelate (blurs part of an uploaded map, like a phone number) and stamps (OK, No, Careful, Question, Star), in any color and thickness. Drag a mark to move it, its top dot to turn it, an arrow end to aim it.
- 4 Publish: ATOM first lists what a driver would miss (no entrance marked, no name on a bus, no shore power marked). These are suggestions and never block publishing. Preview as driver is here. Then Publish makes this version the one drivers see.
BUILDING:
7 real vehicle types and 30 markers and zones, true to scale on a satellite. Multi-select, align, undo/redo and duplicate work. Lock an object to protect it from moves and deletes; it stays clickable to unlock. Approach directions you type or generate are saved with the map. Draw boxes and lines to mark where to park, not to trace the map: Google does not allow copying its satellite.
USING A MAP FROM FILES OR A PDF:
If the show's day already has a file tagged Map or Parking on its Files tab (including a PDF the venue sent), the Map step offers it: Use this map, Preview, or Not relevant. Nothing is imported until you click Use, and the original file stays where it is. For a PDF, ATOM picks the page with the map picture and, when that page also has typed text (like a bus parking sheet), cuts out just the picture. The typed words are read exactly as written (no AI) into the plan's approach directions, unless you already wrote some. A PDF that is only a picture (a venue map with the words drawn on it) is used whole and nothing is read from it.
PUBLISH & REVISION HISTORY:
Autosave keeps your draft current, but what a driver sees does NOT change until you hit Publish. Each publish is a permanent, numbered revision. After you publish, the top bar shows Unpublished changes whenever you edit again. History lists every revision (who, when, note); Restore puts an old one back into your draft without re-publishing.
SHARE LINK (no ATOM account needed):
In Publish, Link for drivers makes an expiring link (1 to 30 days) that opens a read-only copy of the map with no login. It always shows what is published right now, so a fix you publish later reaches the same link. Turn a link off any time.
DRIVER VIEW (inside ATOM):
A view-only driver sees the published version, not your draft. A lead driver promoted to edit works on the draft like a TM.
MOBILE:
The four steps are on desktop and tablet. A phone opens the map in view mode; Markup there has the same markup tools plus vehicles and markers: drag on the map to draw, drag a mark to move it.
DRIVER (FLEET) CONNECTION: In a vehicle's editor, link it to a bus or truck in your Fleet roster; it then shows the real driver, phone and plate. Drivers themselves are added in Fleet (Production, Driver).
PARKING ZONES: Bus, Truck and Crew Parking mark where a vehicle IS allowed (plain teal fill); No Parking and Fire Lane are hatched.
MARKER DETAILS: Shore power (amperage, confirmed or not, who confirmed), gate (open and close time, security contact) and dock (height, width, load-in) are filled in by hand in the marker's panel, never pulled from Advance. Never present them as a confirmed venue fact.
FROM ADVANCE (read-only): When a map is tied to a real show (via Pick a Show), the More tools panel (during Plan) shows that day's Advance schedule rows and day contacts, read-only, so the TM isn't retyping what's already in Advance. Editing happens on the day sheet, not here.
DRIVER RESPONSES: Drivers can tap Arrived, Running Late, Gate Blocked or Need Help (plus a note) on a vehicle, from the share link or their driver view. You see them in the Publish step. Not live: nothing notifies you; open the map or tap Refresh.
DRIVER DAY SHEET (the one driver document):
Parking has no PDF, picture download or email of its own any more; the Day Sheet driver pack is where a driver's copy comes from. Publishing also saves a print-size picture of the plan. Google does not allow its satellite to be stored, so that saved picture (Day Sheet, a driver's offline copy) uses USGS aerial imagery in the US, the venue's own map for an uploaded map, and a plain background elsewhere for now. A plan turned on the live map prints turned, with a north arrow. The AI tools (auto-arrange, Smart paste, AI review, the arrival brief) see that same picture, never Google's, so auto-arrange works in the US only. On screen you always see Google's live satellite with its logo and credit in the corners. The Day Sheet's Driver and Crew copies pick up the published picture and the gate, shore power and load dock facts from the markers automatically, so there is no second place to type them. Draft changes never reach a sheet until you publish.
TIES INTO:
A vehicle can link to an Asset Manager truck or trailer for its true cargo size. Venue Parking Memory recalls anonymized notes (gate codes, "don't block the dock") left by any tour that parked there before.
SAVED ELSEWHERE:
If the plan is saved on another screen or device, ATOM never writes an older copy over the newer one: the open screen switches to the newest copy and says so.
HOTEL PARKING:
Pick the hotel under Hotels on this tour, or search its name. A plan linked to a hotel starts with the bus-parking instructions typed on that hotel's card, and the hotel's Bus parking card opens the same plan. Saved "fleets" inside Parking are gone: link a vehicle to the tour's real Fleet instead.