Build a table: edit mode, pieces, decks and spawners
Turn on edit mode in a Virtual Table room, add decks, dice, pieces, zones and holders, and set their properties.
Last reviewed October 11, 2026
This article is for the person setting up the room before a playtest. In edit mode you put every deck, die, piece and zone on the table and tell each one how to behave.
What this page helps you do
- Enter and leave edit mode.
- Add decks, dice, pieces, notes, zones, holders, counters, labels, timers, scoreboards, turn trackers, seats and buttons.
- Fill a deck with cards and set zone and holder behaviour.
- Make a supply of pieces with a spawner.
- Import a playingcards.io (.pcio) room.
You'll start inside a room (Prototypes > Virtual Table, then Open a room).
Before you start
- Beta, rolling out to teams. If Prototypes is missing from your sidebar, your team is not in the rollout yet.
- Plan: Pathfinder plan and up. Teams without it see "Virtual Table is a Pathfinder plan feature" with Upgrade to Pathfinder. Automate with AI is Oracle and LaunchBoom only, 50 builds per team per day.
- Roles: Collaborators cannot use the Component Designer or 3D Mockups. Guests can play in a room but never edit it.
Turn on edit mode
Click Edit in the toolbar. The add buttons appear, along with Undo and Redo. Click Done editing to go back to playing.
Helpful details
- Key areas: The add buttons: Add deck, Add dice, Add piece, Add note, Add zone, Add holder, Add counter, Add label, Add timer, Add scoreboard, Add turn tracker, Add seat, Add button, then Automate with AI, Add image and Import .pcio.
- What you can do: Drag anything to place it. Select several and move them together. Lock a widget so nobody drags it by mistake.
- Good to know: A room holds up to 2000 widgets. Only members edit; guests see the table but not the edit tools.
Fill a deck
Add a deck, select it, and open Properties. Under Cards, click Edit Cards.
Helpful details
- Key areas: In the cards editor: Upload images (one card per image), Import CSV and Export CSV, All +1 to add one copy of every card, and a quantity per card with Increase and Decrease. Import from a component fills the deck from a Component Designer render (see Send a component to the Virtual Table).
- What you can do: Tick Face down so the deck shows its back. Turn drawn cards face up decides whether a drawn card flips; off, a face-down deck deals face-down cards. Show card count (off by default) tells everyone how many cards are left.
- Good to know: A deck holds up to 500 cards. Click a card's name to rename it.
Set up zones and holders
A zone is an area that arranges whatever is dropped in it. A holder is a slot that snaps one or more widgets into place.
Helpful details
- Key areas: Zone Layout: Pile, Horizontal, Vertical, Grid or Splay (with an Overlap slider). Private hides everything inside from non-owners. Holder Allowed widgets restricts what snaps in (Cards, Tokens, Dice, Counters, Decks, Notes).
- What you can do: Make a holder a Player hand: everyone can put cards there and each player only sees their own. Tick Hide the frame while playing for slots drawn on a board image.
- Good to know: Any widget can have an Owner seat and can be marked Private, so only the owner sees its front.
Add pieces, dice and images
Add piece offers built-in pieces (Meeple, Pawn, Cube, Puck, Pin, Marble, Poker Chip, Checkers, King Checkers, House, Building, Pig, Hex Flat, Hex Point and flat 2D versions) or a Piece image you upload.
Helpful details
- Key areas: Dice take Custom faces: each face can show text, a Game Icon or an image, and a double-click rolls the die. Tokens take a comma-separated list of Faces ("alive, dead, stunned") and a double-click cycles them.
- What you can do: Add image puts a picture on the table; tick Use as background to make it the backdrop, with Fit, Fill or Pattern and an Opacity. That is how you put a board under everything.
- Good to know: Images must be PNG, JPEG, WebP or GIF and 5 MB or smaller.
Make a supply with a spawner
Select a piece and tick Spawner in its properties. The hint reads: "A supply of this piece. While playing, dragging it pulls out a new copy, and dropping a copy back on it puts the copy away."
Helpful details
- Key areas: Limit is the most copies out at once. Leave it empty for no limit.
- What you can do: Drop a whole selection of copies back on the spawner to put them all away at once.
- Good to know: One spawner replaces a pile of 40 identical cubes and keeps the table tidy.
Import a .pcio room
In edit mode, click Import .pcio. The dialog Replace this table? warns that importing removes everything on this table, for everyone in the room. Click Choose file.
Helpful details
- Key areas: Progress runs through "Parsing .pcio file...", "Uploading assets", "Mapping widgets..." and "Import complete".
- What you can do: Read the import report. It names objects of unsupported kinds, stock images that could not be brought over, text printed on cards that was left out, and automation steps that use features the table does not have yet.
- Good to know: Do this in a fresh room; the import cannot be undone.
Use the right-click menu and the view
Right-click any widget for its actions: Flip card, Roll dice, Draw card, Shuffle deck, Search deck, Start timer / Pause timer, Increment / Decrement, Cut (edit mode), Bring to front / Send to back, Group / Ungroup, Delete.
Helpful details
- Key areas: View controls: Zoom in, Zoom out, Reset zoom, Fit to view. A toggle decides whether scrolling zooms or moves the table.
- What you can do: Turn on card preview so resting the pointer on a card enlarges it.
- Good to know: Search deck lists every card in a deck with a search box; click one to draw it.
Tips & common questions
How do I put a game board under the pieces? Add image, upload the board, tick Use as background, and pick Fit so the whole board shows.
Can players see each other's hands? Not if the hand is a Player hand holder, or a Private zone owned by their seat. Cards elsewhere are visible to all.
Why can't my playtesters add a deck? Only team members can edit. Guests play with what is on the table. Set everything up before you share the link.
What does the import report mean by "left out"? The .pcio file used a widget type or automation the Virtual Table does not support yet. The rest of the room came through.