Does anyone perhaps know of software for this sort of situation: I need to calculate the floorspace of a warehouse and figure out how many rows can fit, how wide rows can be, how big sections in the rows can be etc.
Any other ways that can achieve this without me spending a lot of time walking around a warehouse with a measuring tape…?
Microsoft Visio has pretty good floor plan tools. You can scale the drawings and easily move the items around.
Are you talking about rows of racking? or rows of boxes or pallets on the floor?
Google Sketchup is a very simple 3-d package that will help you determine floor space and all kinds of dimensions.
Surely it doesn’t matter what tool you use to make the plan, whether it’s software or pencil and paper - you’ll still have to measure the actual space so you can draw the plan to scale!
Of course, you don’t need to use a measuring tape: you could use a laser distance-finder. (But you won’t then have the satisfaction of holstering the metal tape measure at your hip by pressing the button to reel it in with a ssssccccchhhhhhlllllooooowwwwwwwummmmmmppp sound.)
Correct on both points. In addition, you can take the measurements of the space, and send them to suppliers of storage systems, along with your needs, and they will do the calculatations for you and select the sizes and types of shelves, bins, etc., for you.
And you need to know what type of equipment you will be using. If using wire-guided equipment then the aisles can be narrower, for example.
Don’t forget to calculate the weight of the materials being placed on the floor and the subsurface’s ability to bear the load without sinking. I have been to this mall dozens of times since the week it opened I lived quite close to it. I have watched year after year as fresh asphalt has been poured into the underground garage, because immense sinkholes and other fractures appeared- notably near columns going down into the ground. Not hardly an urban myth.
Go with laser measuring devices. They remove the chance you could fall and allow you to do a huge number of measurements alone. Remember to check the calibration now and again. 
I’m trying Sketchup now and it looks brilliant! Just what I was looking for, thanks.
I’ll still have to do some legwork for basic dimensions of course but this will save me a ton of time. 