Viso is adequate for floor plan wiring maps, but has enough shortcomings that it is worth looking for something better.
(Floor plan wiring maps are what I call maps of each building floor with marks indicating where each CAT5/6 outlet is located.)

Does anyone know of better software than Visio for this?
These are the things about using Visio that make it cumbersome:

  • Adjusting outside walls causes inside walls to skew
  • Adding a background image is clunky (for overlaying drawn walls to scale)
  • Jack icons snap to the inside of the wall instead of the outside of the wall
  • Labels on jacks require manually adjusting to the appropriate location
  • Label fields require manually fiddling with the size (especially if the label is long)
  • Would be nice if label fields automatically added call-out lines if they are moved over X pixels away
  • Would be really nice if it would automatically generate a CSV report listing all the jacks, assigned rooms, and wall location (e.g. West wall, center; or North wall, East)

Does anyone know of any software that improves on Visio in one or more of the above areas? (Or is there a better way to use Visio for floor plan wiring maps that I’m not aware of?)

Thanks in advance for any advice.

3 Spice ups

Proper architectural drafting software is what comes to mind. Like Autodesk AutoCAD, Revit, etc. But those are not cheap and have a big learning curve.

you could try draw.io (we use it instead of visio) but I am not sure if it would do better than visio or not in this use case.

1 Spice up

All software has a learning curve.
Inkscape is the open source vector equivalent to Illustrator.
You can import CAD drawings, then add your port map indicators.
Is it easy to learn? Takes a bit of time.
I used it because I worked in graphic design before moving to IT.
I like it because I can isolate the base floor plans as separate layers, then add IT (and electrical) as designated layers.