All you need to know about shell scheme panel sizes

A shell scheme stand looks like a simple box of white walls, but the walls are made of separate panels held in an aluminium frame, and the frame takes a bite out of every measurement. In three of the four recent Australian show manuals we checked, the walls are 2.5 m high, and in the most detailed one the posts sit just under a metre apart, so a "3 m" wall is really three panels with posts between them.

Get those numbers wrong and your graphics won't fit between the posts. Here are typical panel sizes, where they come from, and how to measure before you order wall graphics.

If you're still choosing a stand size, start with our guide to the standard exhibition stand sizes.

Typical shell scheme sizes

The show's official stand contractor builds the shell scheme, so the figures come from your show's exhibitor manual, not from the venue or from us. Here's what four recent show manuals say:

• Sydney Build 2025, held at ICC Sydney: walls 2.5 m high, made of panels 990 mm wide in an aluminium frame. The manual adds: "The panels are not exactly 1m wide!"
• National Education Summit Melbourne 2026: 2.5 m high white melamine walls in an aluminium framework, with an aluminium fascia 30 cm high on every aisle frontage. The same page later calls 2.4 m "the standard Pre-Built Stand wall height".
• Supply Nation Connect 2026, held in Perth: a 2.5 m high frame with white wall panels.
• Sydney Royal Easter Show 2026: "All shell scheme stands must not exceed 2.4m height."

So 2.5 m is the usual height, but not the only one. Always check your own manual before you size anything.

Panel heights and widths

The most detailed figures we found are in the shell scheme drawings published with the Sydney Build 2025 manual. They show a typical 3 m x 3 m stand, and they're a good guide to how these systems measure:

The inside of a 3 m x 3 m stand is 2,930 mm, not 3,000 mm, because the posts and rails take up space. And even one contractor's pack gives two heights for an overlaid panel, so confirm sizes in writing before you print.

Visible area vs panel size

There are two ways to put print on a shell scheme panel, and each one has its own size:

• Inserted into the frame. The printed panel replaces the white one, so it's slightly bigger than what you see. In the Sydney Build pack that's 970 mm x 2,360 mm, with 10 mm hidden behind the posts on every edge. Keep logos and text well clear of the edges.
• Laid over the white panel. The graphic sits on top and all of it shows, so it's sized to the visible area (950 mm wide in the same pack), with the aluminium frame showing around it.

For a full wall, the posts break your artwork into panels. A 3 m wall in that pack is three panels, so you get 3 x 950 = 2,850 mm of panel face, split by posts. Design so that no face, headline or logo runs across a post.

Fascia and name boards

The fascia is the board along the top of each open side, carrying your company name and stand number. Plan around these limits:

• Character limits. Sydney Build 2025 and National Education Summit Melbourne 2026 both allow a maximum of 30 characters on the name board.
• No extras on the fascia. The Sydney Royal Easter Show 2026 manual says exhibitors may not "hang items from fascia boards", and "No extra signage or products to be added to fascia boards."
• Removing the fascia changes the walls. At Sydney Build 2025, the name board supports the walls of corner stands. Take it out and the contractor adds support nibs at the corners and every 3 m on long walls, which "will reduce by a few mm the linear length of your walls." Check with the contractor before you order graphics for those walls.

How to measure before ordering

#1 - Get the manual's drawing, not just the stand size

Your floor plan gives the footprint. The contractor's shell scheme drawing gives panel sizes, post positions and wall height; ask for it if it isn't in the manual.

#2 - Count panels, not metres

Measure each wall as a run of panels between posts, and note where the corners and any support nibs fall. A 3 m wall and a 2 m wall need different panel layouts, not just narrower artwork.

#3 - Decide inserted or overlaid

Inserted panels need the full panel size plus the hidden edge. Overlaid graphics are sized to the visible area. The two sizes are different, so tell your printer which one you're ordering.

#4 - Measure on site if you can

At a show you do every year, measure the built stand at bump-in, between post centres and to the inside of the rails, and keep the numbers.

#5 - Check the height under the fascia

Anything you stand inside the shell has to clear the fascia and stay under the show's height limit. Most of the portable display walls we sell are 2.25 m high, sized to stand inside a standard shell scheme against the back or side walls. Keep tall walls back from the open front: in the Sydney Build drawings the fascia hangs 300 mm down from the top of the frame there. Our guide to exhibition stand sizes and shell schemes shows what fits in each stand size.

Fixing graphics: what's allowed

Fixing rules change from show to show, even at the same venue. Three 2026 show manuals, two of them for shows at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, say quite different things:

• National Education Summit Melbourne: Velcro, Blu Tack, double-sided tape or wall-mounted shelving and hooks may be used. Pins, staples, screws, nails, bolts, glue and paint may not.
• The Australasian Association for Clinical Biochemistry and Laboratory Medicine's 2026 conference: only "blue tac, double sided tape, 3M tape". The manual says no Velcro.
• Supply Nation Connect 2026, held in Perth: tape, hooks and double-sided Velcro are allowed "only if masking tape is applied first", and Blu Tack is not allowed.

Damage is charged back to you. Sydney Build 2025 warns that shell scheme exhibitors "will be charged for any damages through inappropriate fixings, painted panels etc." If your show doesn't allow the fixing your graphics use, a free-standing wall inside the shell, such as a SuperWall backdrop, stands on its own feet and needs nothing stuck to the panels.

Ordering infill graphics

Our Graphics 2 Go wall-mounted graphics are made for shell scheme walls:

• Format: one-piece printed fabric, or folding laminated boards in 1 m wide sections.
• Fixing: industrial-strength Velcro on the back for carpeted walls. For smooth walls we supply mounting blocks with adhesive on one side and Velcro on the other.
• Height: finished at 2.35 m unless you ask for another size. That standard was set for 2.4 m walls, so for the 2.5 m walls in most of the manuals above, send us your panel drawing and we'll size them to it. Panel widths can be made to fit almost any stand.
• Set-up: one person should take no more than 20 minutes to apply them to a 3 m wall with carpeted walling.
• Lead time: 1.5 weeks from order and print-ready artwork. Allow extra time for delivery.
• Price: from $1,063 plus GST and freight, for one wall of a 3 m x 3 m stand.

Because they fix with Velcro, check your manual's fixing rules first. For other options, see our exhibition wall graphics range, and set up your files to our artwork specifications.

Send us your shell scheme drawing and panel measurements, or call 1300 240 250, and we'll size and quote your wall graphics.