A fire escape plan is the one drawing in a building that has to be right when it matters most. It shows people the quickest safe way out, marks the assembly point, and gives the responsible person a record that escape routes were actually checked. This guide walks through drawing a clear, compliant-looking escape plan on your iPhone or iPad - capture the layout, add the exits and route arrows, then export a clean PDF you can post on the wall or hand to a client.
Escape plan or zone plan - what's the difference?
They look similar but answer different questions. A fire alarm zone plan tells an engineer which detection zone a panel signal came from. A fire escape plan tells an occupant how to get out: routes, final exits, and where to gather. If you fit and maintain alarm systems you will often produce both, and RoomPlot draws each from the same underlying floor plan. For the detection side, see our guide to the fire alarm zone plan.
Step 1 - Capture the floor
Start with an accurate shell. On a Pro device with LiDAR you can scan the space and RoomPlot detects walls, doors, and windows automatically. On any other iPhone or iPad, draw the walls by hand from a room-shape template - smart snapping and a 20 pt grid keep corners square. Either way you finish with a fully editable 2D plan, not a flat picture. For a multi-storey building, add a floor for each level so every storey gets its own escape sheet.
Step 2 - Mark the escape routes and exits
This is the heart of the plan. From the object library, open the Fire Safety category and drop the symbols that matter for evacuation: emergency exit signs at every final exit, escape-route arrows along each corridor, fire doors on the protected route, a refuge point where one is provided, and an assembly point outside. Rotate each arrow so it points the way people should travel, and place a defibrillator (AED) or fire extinguisher symbol where the real equipment lives.
Keep the route colour consistent with the signage people already follow. Under ISO 7010 and BS 5499 in the UK, green is the "safe condition" colour, so escape arrows and the running-man exit signs are green. US evacuation diagrams (NFPA 101 / NFPA 170) use the same idea - a clear "You Are Here" marker, a bold primary route and a marked assembly point - though exit signs there are often red. Drawing the arrows in green keeps your plan readable against the exit signs already on the wall.
Tip. Add a "You Are Here" callout at the spot where the printed plan will be displayed, then orient the rest of the drawing so the route reads naturally from there. A plan that matches the viewer's real-world position is far easier to follow in a hurry.
Step 3 - Label, orient, and add a title
Make the sheet unambiguous. Add a north arrow so the building's orientation is clear, give each space a zone label with its name, and use a banner title - the export banner can read something like "Fire Escape Plan" so anyone glancing at it knows what they are looking at. Keep the styling calm and high-contrast: a clean template reads better on a wall than a busy one.
Step 4 - Export the plan
When the routes are in, export. Options include:
- Single-page PDF or PNG for a quick handout or to post by an exit.
- Multi-page Report PDF (fixed A4 portrait) with a cover page, a symbol legend, and a page per floor - ideal for a building with several storeys.
- DXF if a colleague needs to open the geometry in a CAD package.
The automatic legend builds a "Symbol / Name / Count" table of every symbol you used, so an assessor can see at a glance how many exits, extinguishers, and refuge points are on the plan.
Keep it current
An escape plan is only useful while it matches the building. When a layout changes - a new partition, a blocked corridor, a relocated exit - reopen the plan, move the affected walls and arrows, and re-export. Because the drawing is fully editable, updating it is a five-minute job rather than a redraw.
Ready to draw yours? Open RoomPlot, capture the floor, and drop in the exits and route arrows - you'll have a clear, postable fire escape plan before you leave site. Browse more trade guides on the guides index.
