Visio® 2007 Bible

Chapter 27. Laying Out Architectural and Engineering Plans

IN THIS CHAPTER

• Working with walls

• Adding doors, windows, and other openings

• Adding cubicles and furniture

• Creating HVAC and reflected ceiling plans

• Creating electrical and telecom plans

• Creating plumbing plans

• Documenting security and access systems

• Creating site and landscaping plans

• Drawing directional maps

• Labeling and numbering shapes

Whether you're planning the remodel of a house, reorganizing office cubicles, or designing a major manufacturing facility, Visio floor plan templates get you started. Although Visio Standard provides only a few shapes for laying out office space, Visio Professional includes templates, stencils, and shapes for a variety of architectural and engineering plans.

Visio Professional plan templates start with the building shell—walls, doors, and windows—and continue with furnishings, electrical service, plumbing, HVAC, and other building services. The template list moves outdoors to include site and landscaping plans, security and access plans, and maps.

Unlike CAD programs, which come with oodles of drafting commands for drawing plan contents, Visio architectural and engineering capabilities stem from the shapes on the many architectural and engineering stencils. If you're familiar with basic Visio techniques including dragging control handles and setting shape data values to implement special behaviors, you already know most of what you need. Although Visio plan templates provide the tools you need to draw ...