Did you know you could use the Space Tools to track the floor areas in a conceptual block model? Here's how....
Use the solid modeling tools to create a block model. I use a different Family/Part for each Building or Use in the project. In this example I have below grade parking, hotel, and service apartments. I use the Families/Parts I set up for the Space Catalog (See Creating A Datagroup Space Catalog That Matches Your Project Program ). Each Family (associated with the Building Use) has a part defined called "Block Model". These Parts have symbology assigned that will produce a block model that is colored by use, and plan and section drawings that have similar colored fill assigned to each part.
Start with simple solids that resemble the basic blocking/stacking of your design.
Before Creating the Spaces you will want to set your active ACS to the floor height of the space you are creating. I used the Floor Selector to do this. I used the Floor Manger to set each floor of the project at a certain "z" elevation, then used the Floor Selector to set the floor ACS prior to placing each Space.
Once the Floor was defined, I used the Create Space tool (Architecture Task > Floors > Create Space) to create the floor space. I started with the hotel areas, setting my Family to 0_Area_Hotel, and then selected the Space Type as "Gross Floor Area" (which sets the Part to "Gross Floor area") Prior to placing the Space, fill in any Attributes that you want to track with this area, such as "Building", "Floor", etc. You must use Flood as the placement option and check on "Associate Flood Spaces" under Flood Options in order for the Space to associate with your block model. Then create the space by selecting a point within your block model and accepting it. (Turning Locate off on any reference files will keep them from being considered when determining the Flood Region) Repeat this step for each floor in the project making sure to reset your ACS to the correct floor height before placing each space.
Tip: Since the blocks were stacked on top of each other in the model shown here, I had trouble getting the Spaces to associate with the correct solid. I solved this by placing each solid block on a different Level and then turning the display off on the levels I did not want as I was creating the space for each floor plane. Once I did that everything associated properly. Interestingly enough, I tried to use Display Sets to do the same thing, but that did not work.
Your block model should now look something like this with a floor plane for every floor.
You can check the Areas by opening the Datagroup Explorer (Architectual Task > Schedules and Reports > Datagroup Explorer).
If you want to customize the Schedule Layout and set up your own Excel Template for tracking the areas see Creating A Customized Space Schedule.
Now you can begin to push and pull on the block model to create the actual design massing and the floors (Spaces) will be adjusted automatically as the block model is adjusted (make sure Association Lock is on), tracking the areas as well.
This takes a little time in initial setup, but just think how impressed the "boss" will be when you can show floor by floor, building by building, Area Tabulations along with every design change.