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If you manage office moves and track computer equipment and furniture on a printed copy of a CAD floor plan, you have another option: You can insert an electronic copy of the CAD floor plan into Visio, convert the spaces into Visio shapes, and then use the Space Plan template to track people and other assets electronically.

Converting a CAD floor plan drawing involves three steps:

• Prepare the CAD floor plan for conversion
• Insert it into Visio
• Convert spaces in the CAD floor plan into Visio shapes
• Set up the Visio shapes to work with the Space Plan template

Prepare the CAD floor plan

To ensure you can use the CAD floor plan as a space plan, you must prepare it before inserting it into Visio.

1. Open the floor plan drawing in the CAD program where it was originally created.
2. Outline each space (office, cubicle, and other room) with a polyline, and then assign the polylines to a separate layer.

   Note  You must outline spaces with polylines to convert them into Visio shapes.

3. Before you save the CAD drawing, make sure the whole drawing is visible by zooming to the drawing's extents.

   Tip  It's also a good idea to remove all unused blocks, layers, linetypes, and other objects from the CAD drawing.

Insert the CAD floor plan into Visio

1. In Visio, on the File menu, point to New, point to Building Plan, and then click Space Plan.
2. Click Cancel to close the Space Plan Startup wizard, and then, on the Insert menu, click CAD Drawing. Locate the CAD drawing you want to insert, and then click Open.
3. In the CAD Drawing Properties dialog box, on the General tab, clear the Lock size and position check box.
4. Compare the drawing units under Custom Scale with the CAD drawing units. If the units in don't match, change the units in the CAD drawing units box to match the ones in Custom Scale, and then click OK.
5. To make the CAD floor plan you inserted as large as possible, drag a green selection handle at one of the drawing’s corners until the drawing content extends almost to the edges of the drawing page.

   

6. Save your floor plan.

Convert the spaces in the CAD floor plan into Visio shapes

After you insert a CAD drawing into Visio, you’re ready to convert the spaces (offices, cubicles, and other rooms) on the drawing into Visio shapes so you can work with them using Visio tools.

1. Open the Visio drawing that contains the inserted CAD floor plan.
2. Right-click the CAD drawing, point to CAD Drawing Object, and then click Convert.
3. In the Convert CAD Object dialog box, under Layer name, select the layer to which you assigned the polylines in the original CAD drawing, and then click OK.

   If you don’t see a polyline layer, you might have missed a step in preparing the CAD drawing for conversion.

4. To lock the rest of the CAD drawing so you don’t inadvertently select it, on the View menu, click Layer Properties. In the row for the CAD Drawing layer, click the column under Lock, and then click OK.
5. To format the spaces you converted to Visio shapes, on the Edit menu, click Select All. On the Formatting toolbar, click the Fill Color button, and then click the white square. Click the Line Color button, and then click the black square.
6. To protect the shapes representing spaces from being resized, on the Format menu, click Protection. Select the Width, Height, X position, and Y position check boxes, and then click OK.
7. Click the drawing page to cancel the selection of the shapes representing spaces. If you don’t see separate spaces outlined on the floor plan, click the plan to select it. On the Shape menu, point to Order, and then click Send to Back.
8. Save the Visio drawing.

Set up the Visio shapes to work with the Space Plan template

Before you can take advantage of the people- and asset-tracking capabilities of the Space Plan template, you'll need to convert the CAD spaces into special Space shapes.

1. Open the Visio drawing with the converted CAD spaces.
2. To select all the shapes representing spaces, on the Edit menu, click Select All.
3. On the Plan menu, click Assign Category.
4. In the Assign Category dialog box, under Category, click Space, and then click OK.
   If you have a large number of spaces in your floor plan, this step can take a fairly long time.
5. Some information for each Space shape displays in the drawing. To hide the information, on the Plan menu, click Set Display Options. Click the Spaces tab and set the Labels to *Disabled* for any information you don't want to show, and then click OK.
6. To make the text in the shapes smaller so room numbers and other information fit within the office and cubicles, select the shapes and on the Format menu point to Text. In the Size box type 5 pt and then press Enter.
7. To add a room number to a Space shape, select the shape you want to add the number to, and then, on the View menu, click Custom Properties Window. In the Name and Space ID fields, type the room number.

   Information you type in the Name field displays on the shape. By typing the room number in the Space ID field, you make it possible to associate people and other assets with each Space shape.

8. Repeat step 7 for each Space shape in the drawing, and then save the drawing.

With your floor plan in place and your office spaces converted to Visio shapes, you'll be able to use your space plan to track people, computers, printers, furniture and other assets.

With your space plan, you can now:

• Quickly populate offices and cubicles with people and equipment by importing information from a spreadsheet or database.
• Reassign assets to new offices and cubicles simply by dragging shapes from one space to another.
• Assign unassigned assets to appropriate spaces.
• Automatically update the space plan drawing when information in the spreadsheet or database changes.