I work in an office with several different computer systems and we need a software that can be used to create simplistic maps of the offices to track several things including:
- Room number.
- Occupant name/s.
- System identifiers & auxiliaries.
This means that the program must have the ability to integrate text and utilize various colors.
The primary end use of this is as a 2D printed reference map (preferably letter sized 8-1/2"x11"), which makes it challenging because some rooms have single occupants/systems while others have 10-12 systems, so the ability to scale text to fit the space while keeping it legible when printed is also necessary.
This program would preferably be available for both Windows and Linux computers and would work well on both.
We do have access to the actual plans of the building, so if a program can use those as a starting point but allow editing of the image, that would be save us some time but is not required. This map does not need to be perfectly representative of our space, which is all straight lines (no curves) so it's relatively simple to create from scratch.
This is an image I found on the internet of something similar to what I would like but it's more detailed than I need - I don't need to be able to show doors, stairs, elevators, and toilets, for example.
Click for full size
Programs we are aware of that are purpose-built for this and capable of what we need:
- Microsoft Visio - Not Linux-compatible.
- LibreOffice Draw
- Dia Diagram Editor
- AutoCad (and other free versions of the same) - Way more technical than needed.
Programs that could probably work for this but aren't designed for it:
- Microsoft Publisher - Not Linux-compatible.
- Adobe Illustrator - Expensive, probably not a good match.
If one of the above is something you believe fits our needs well, I'm happy to hear about it. I do not have any particular experience with any of them, I've just heard about them.
