Templating measures the room you actually have. Seams follow the slab you actually bought.
Templating gets treated like a formality, and it is actually the step that decides whether the finished countertop fits. Skipping it, rushing it, or doing it at the wrong point in the project is where most fit problems start.
A template records the real dimensions of the installed, leveled cabinets — every irregularity a wall or a cabinet run picked up during installation. Template off a floor plan or cabinet drawings instead, and the countertop is built to a version of the kitchen that does not quite match the one that got built. That is why templating is scheduled after cabinets are set and leveled, never before.
Some fabricators template with a physical pattern — thin strips or a template material laid directly on the cabinets and traced. Others use a laser or digital measuring system that maps the room directly. Both are legitimate; what matters is that it happens against the actual installed cabinets.
Seams are placed based on slab size and the layout of the counter run, not based on where a homeowner would put them given free choice. No material comes in one piece long enough for every kitchen, so a run over a certain length needs a seam somewhere. Fabricators generally try to keep seams out of high-visibility areas and away from the sink where practical, but slab dimensions set the real limits.
A fabricator working in good faith will show you where the seams are planned to fall before fabrication starts, not after the slab is already cut. If the plan does not work for you, that is the moment to raise it — not during install, when the slab is already shaped.
There is normally a gap between templating and install while the slab is cut to the template, which is unavoidable — nothing gets fabricated before the exact measurements exist. Edge profile and cutout locations get finalized at templating too, so decisions on both should be settled before that appointment, not after.
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