Show All

Hide All

You can automatically create a Visio space plan from a list of room numbers for the offices you want to plan.

Then, you can use the space plan to:

• Allocate space by department.
• Handle office moves.
• Track computer equipment and furniture.
• Generate asset reports.

Take these steps to create a space plan:

• Prepare a list of office numbers you'll use to build your space plan.
• Run the Space Plan Startup Wizard to import the office information into a new space plan.
• Drag spaces from the Explorer to the drawing page.

Prepare and import the office number list

Create a list of office numbers as a column in a Microsoft Office Excel® spreadsheet. To include more information in your space plan, such as the department or space type of each office, add more columns to your spreadsheet.

After you type all the office numbers and other information into the spreadsheet, save it, and then import it by running the Space Plan Startup Wizard.

You can also skip right to the wizard and fill in the information there.

Run the Space Plan Startup Wizard

1. On the File menu, point to New, point to Building Plan, and then click Space Plan.
2. On the first page of the wizard, if you want to use an existing floor plan as a background, select its file type. Otherwise choose None, and then click Next.
3. If you're importing an existing floor plan, browse to it, and then click Open.
4. On the second wizard page, choose where the room numbers for your space plan will come from. If you choose:
   • From an existing spreadsheet, click Next, browse to the spreadsheet, and then click Open.
   • From a new spreadsheet, click Next. Excel opens with a sample spreadsheet you can fill in. Save the spreadsheet and close Excel. This will return you to the wizard.
5. Click Finish.

Build a space plan

When you import your office number information into the space plan, Visio creates one space for each office number. The spaces appear on the Spaces tab of the Explorer window under the Unplaced Data category.

Click the plus sign (+) next to the Unplaced Data icon to check your data.

Add spaces to the page

1. From the Categories tab of the Explorer window, drag a space that represents an office number onto the drawing page.

   As you drag spaces onto the drawing page, Visio moves them from the Unplaced Data category in the Explorer window to the Page-1 category.

2. To change the size or shape of a space, drag one of the space shape's green selection handles.
3. Continue adding and arranging spaces until you have created a space plan.

Tip  You can hide the size label that appears by default on the space shapes. On the Plan menu, click Set Display Options. On the Spaces tab, set the label containing Calculated area to *Disabled* and then click OK.