Creating Area Plans in Revit: Step-by-Step Guide and Best Practices

The foundation of any effective area plan lies in its initial creation. Navigate to the Architecture tab where you'll find the area option—your gateway to comprehensive space planning. Selecting this launches the area plan creation process, presenting you with a strategic decision point that will shape your entire workflow.

The dialog box that appears offers two critical choices: the type of plan you're creating and the base level for your calculations. For this example, we'll select "Gross Building" as our plan type. Here's a productivity tip that can save substantial time: when you need gross area plans for multiple levels, hold down CTRL to select additional levels simultaneously. By selecting both Level One and Level Two, both plans generate in a single operation—a small efficiency that compounds across large projects.

Upon clicking "OK," the system prompts whether to automatically create boundary lines associated with exterior walls. While this automated approach seems appealing, experienced practitioners know it's a double-edged sword. The automatic boundary generation can produce inconsistent results, often requiring extensive manual corrections that ultimately consume more time than the manual approach. The professional recommendation: decline the automatic option and maintain full control over your boundary placement from the start.

You'll receive the same prompt for each plan you're creating—maintain consistency by declining automatic boundary creation for all levels. Once complete, notice that your newly created plans don't appear in the standard views section of the Project Browser. Instead, they're organized under their own category: "Gross Building Area Plans," with separate entries for Level One and Level Two. This organizational structure becomes crucial as your project scales and you manage multiple area plan types.

With your plans created, the next phase focuses on establishing accurate boundaries. Beginning with Level One, access the area boundary tool through the Architecture tab. The interface offers two primary methods: drawing lines manually or picking existing lines. While the pick lines option leverages existing geometry, the manual drawing approach provides superior precision and control—particularly valuable when dealing with complex geometries or when slight adjustments are needed for calculation accuracy.

For most commercial projects, building footprints approximate rectangular shapes with minor variations. In this case, we're working with an essentially rectangular structure featuring one geometric deviation. Given the limited complexity, manually tracing the building boundary proves both efficient and accurate. This approach ensures every boundary line aligns precisely with your calculation methodology, eliminating potential discrepancies that could affect area totals.

With the boundary established, you can now place the area element itself. Return to the Architecture tab, but this time select "Area" rather than "Area Plan." Placing the area element within your defined boundary automatically generates the square footage calculation, displayed through the area tag that's pre-loaded in your project template. This creates your Level One gross area calculation—the foundation for space programming, lease calculations, and building efficiency metrics.

Level Two requires a more sophisticated approach due to vertical spatial relationships. Begin with the same boundary creation process, but pay careful attention to areas that are "open to below." These spaces—such as atriums, stairwells, or double-height areas—should not be double-counted across levels. Modern space planning standards emphasize accurate area attribution to prevent inflated calculations that could affect project budgets or lease agreements.

For areas like stairwells that were already counted in Level One's gross area, create exclusion boundaries using the rectangle tool to block out these spaces. This ensures each square foot is attributed to only one level, maintaining calculation integrity. The same principle applies to any portion of the building that's open to below—whether for mechanical systems, architectural features, or circulation spaces.

Areas bounded by curtain walls or other glazing systems require particular attention. Include these spaces by drawing boundaries that follow the interior face of the glazing, ensuring consistency with industry-standard gross area calculation methods. Close out any openings by connecting boundary lines to create defined spaces that accurately reflect the buildable area.

The final step involves strategic naming conventions that will prove invaluable during documentation and scheduling phases. Default "Area" labels become problematic when generating schedules that include multiple levels—distinguishing between identical names creates confusion and potential errors. Rename each area with clear, descriptive labels: "Level One" and "Level Two" provide immediate clarity and professional presentation in all project documentation.

Your gross area setup is now complete for both levels, providing the foundation for space programming, building efficiency analysis, and regulatory compliance documentation. This methodical approach ensures accuracy while establishing a framework that can accommodate future design changes and refinements throughout the project lifecycle.