Create a Floor Plan of Your Office

A simple guide on how to create a floor plan of your office, using freely available tools.

A common question that the OfficeMaps onboarding team is asked is "What is the best way to create a floor plan of our office"?

Here are a few tips and tricks we've picked up over the years to help you quickly and easily build a floor plan or layout plan for your office. You can use this process to create your floor plan for your OfficeMaps account, or you can use it to quickly create a simple seating chart or diagram.

Step 1: Where possible, start with a fire escape plan or building evacuation diagram

The vast majority of offices in the world will have a fire escape diagram available. Typically you will find these plans on display next to the fire stairs or emergency exit. 

Provided that you don't need your floor plan to be millimeter perfect, you can save yourself a lot of time with a measuring tape by taking a photo of your pre-existing building evacuation diagram. While these don't typically include furnishing information, they do normally include major structural elements like walls, doors, columns, elevators, and staircases. 

If you don't have a building evacuation diagram, that's okay. Just sketch out a rough plan on a blank sheet of paper. It doesn't have to be neat, we can fix that up later. Make sure to include all of the doors and windows. Once you've finished take a photo on your phone and upload it to your computer.

Pro tip: If you're unsure how wide something is and don't have a tape measure handy, look around for a nearby single swing door. These are normally 900 millimeters (or 36 inches) wide.

Step 2: Create a free account with LucidChart

Lucidchart is a browser-based diagramming application. However, they have a series of libraries which make them an ideal option for building a basic office plan. Additionally, they offer a free plan, which allows users to create 3 free diagrams or floor plans. 

To create an account - simply navigate to lucidchart.com, click on "Sign Up Free", then select the free plan from the list of options. You'll be prompted to nominate a few details about yourself/company and then you're in.

Step 3: Creating your office floor plan file

The fastest way to create a floor plan is to use a prebuilt floor plan template as demonstrated in the video below. 

1. Click on "+ New".
2. Click on "LucidChart", then "Create From Template".
3. Search for "Floor Plan".
4. Select "Office Floor Plan" from the list of templates.

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Step 4: Import your evacuation diagram image and trace it

The video below will guide you through how to :

1. Import your evacuation diagram or hand-drawn floor plan
2. Trace over your exterior and interior walls
3. Add in your doors, windows and other fixtures.
4. Add in any desks and furnishings that you would like on your plan.

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Step 5: Remove the dimensions from the plan, then export your files as a PDF or PNG file.

The final step before we export the file is to remove the dimensions from the plan. To do so follow the steps below or watch Part 2 of our creating a floor plan video:
1. Click and drag to select everything on the plan.
2. Then right-click on an external wall, select "Wall Options" and click on "Remove Dimensions".
3. Once this is done, your plan is ready to export. From the "File" menu, select "Export", then choose either PNG or PDF.

For importing the file to OfficeMaps we recommend a PNG.