topic Re: Rotating project true north in Modeling

Rotating project true north

Anonymous — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 04:15:00 GMT

Lets say I start modeling my building, a box for all intents and purposes. The box is parallel to the screen. This means my north is to the top of my computer screen. What is I now decide the my box (project) need to be rotated 20deg E. ? How is this done in Archicad?

I am presuming this is something that is done in the model viewports since it is the TRUE orientation of the model.

Re: Rotating project true north

Anonymous — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 04:19:04 GMT

In AC11 (13 may be slightly different) go to 3D Projection Settings, and click on the "More Sun" button. Set North here relative to project 0.

Re: Rotating project true north

Anonymous — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 04:23:32 GMT

Thanks for your reply, but I think what you are showing is my how to rotate the project north which different than rotating the entire project / building isn't?

Re: Rotating project true north

Anonymous — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 04:26:48 GMT

If you physically want to rotate your model turn all layers on and select everything with the thick marquee (multi- storey). Then rotate as necessary.

This will have an effect on text items too, and may do funny things to your elevations if you have added any 2D elements over the 3D model. I accept no responsibility for this.

Personally I would rather rotate relative North, and keep the building orthogonal.

Re: Rotating project true north

Anonymous — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 04:46:24 GMT

noted 😉

The thing is that I would like to show the building on a site plan with north showing to the north of the page / screen. So I think rotating the entire project would be the solution correct? Otherwise, with your method, the north would be 20 W from north on my scenario right?

Re: Rotating project true north

SeaGeoff — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 05:04:29 GMT

Keep your building orthogonal to the screen. You will be much happier. In AC13 you can rotate any view, in this case your site plan, using the little control at the bottom of the plan window with the icon of a rectangle with curved arrow attached. This rotation will be saved with the view settings making it easy to switch back and forth. Alternately (and with previous versions) you can simply rotate the drawing on the layout

Re: Rotating project true north

Barry Kelly — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 05:07:31 GMT

Or keep your site plan as a separate file and hotlink your box in at the correct rotation.
Barry.

Re: Rotating project true north

David Maudlin — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 12:57:36 GMT

s2art wrote:
In AC11 (13 may be slightly different) go to 3D Projection Settings, and click on the "More Sun" button. Set North here relative to project 0.

Moved to the Levels window (part of the changes needed for TeamWork2).

David

Re: Rotating project true north

SeaGeoff — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 21:35:54 GMT

Barry wrote:
Or keep your site plan as a separate file and hotlink your box in at the correct rotation.
Barry.

This is a great suggestion, and probably the way to go if multiple buildings are involved, but I find it unnecessary for single structures, even more so now that TW2 makes it easy for one person to work on the site and one (or more) on the structure.

Re: Rotating project true north

Greg D — Thu, 27 May 2010 23:14:02 GMT

I'm going a bit backwards on this topic, but here goes:

Am I correct in that the arrow in the 3D settings dialogue is showing the black end to the north, being toward the right, and that this corresponds to the top of the screen?

I confess I am a bit confused about how to rotate this so it corresponds to my model, which is oriented so that north is directly down on the screen (I know, I know). And, is this true or magnetic? Do I need to adjust for location?

Thanks to anyone who can straighten me out!

Re: Rotating project true north

vistasp — Fri, 28 May 2010 05:36:41 GMT

Yes Greg, the black end is north so if you want it to point downwards, drag it there or type 270 in the box below the compass.

I've always assumed this is the solar north and not the magnetic north...

To adjust for location, go to the sun dialog box that Stuart mentioned earlier and select your city & time zone. If it doesn't exist, you can add the latitude/longitude manually.

Re: Rotating project true north

Greg D — Fri, 28 May 2010 22:15:54 GMT

Thanks vistasp. My confusion has to do with the relationship of north in the dialogue box with north in the plan window. (Why doesn't north in the dialogue box point up, like a map?)

So, is zero degrees on the compass dialogue north or east? Is north toward the right on the dialogue, but toward the top on the plan window? And, if that is true, then when I want the sun to come from due south, I set it at 180, which on the plan window is to the bottom?

Or am I completely off base?

Re: Rotating project true north

Dennis Lee — Sat, 29 May 2010 00:21:21 GMT

If you want North to be top of your drawing (pointing up like how it should be 99% of the time), then the black end of the arrow should also be pointing up. (90 degrees). If you want your north arrow to be pointing down, your black arrow should be set to 270 degrees (point down).

Re: Rotating project true north

Barry Kelly — Mon, 31 May 2010 03:45:40 GMT

Greg wrote:
Thanks vistasp. My confusion has to do with the relationship of north in the dialogue box with north in the plan window. (Why doesn't north in the dialogue box point up, like a map?)

So, is zero degrees on the compass dialogue north or east? Is north toward the right on the dialogue, but toward the top on the plan window? And, if that is true, then when I want the sun to come from due south, I set it at 180, which on the plan window is to the bottom?

Or am I completely off base?

It is all a bit confusing if you start thinking about the angles.
North is at 90° and East is at 0° by default.
But when you rotate the compass North will be pointing exactly in the direction you want it.
The angular co-ordinates on your plan will not alter.
90° is still up and 0° is still to the right.
It is just these will not be North or East anymore.

In the case you describe North will be to the bottom of the screen which is 270° in Archicad co-ordinate speak - exactly where you should have the north arrow pointing.

Barry.

Re: Rotating project true north

Anonymous — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 03:06:40 GMT

Hi,

Does anyone have an issue with north point objects that are linked to Project North. Currently if I change project north, any north point objects linked to project north do not automatically update in the layouts. I have to manually refresh the layout for the direction of the north point to change. Any ideas?

Re: Rotating project true north

Barry Kelly — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 03:11:24 GMT

Maybe you have the drawings in your layouts set to "manual" update rather than "auto" update.
Have a look in the settings for the drawings.
Barry.

Re: Rotating project true north

David Maudlin — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 12:46:38 GMT

GeorgeC wrote:
Currently if I change project north, any north point objects linked to project north do not automatically update in the layouts. I have to manually refresh the layout for the direction of the north point to change. Any ideas?

Object placed directly on the layout updates immediately. Object placed in plan that is part of the placed view needs an "Update".

David

Re: Rotating project true north

Anonymous — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 02:31:01 GMT

Thanks David. That fixed the issue.

Re: Rotating project true north

Barry Kelly — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 02:53:27 GMT

Oddly enough all other objects placed in the plan update automatically.
Only the auto-rotation of the North point does not.
I guess this is because you are not actually opening the North point object and making a change to its settings.
However if you slightly move the North point object after changing the Project North then the layout will update automatically.
Barry.

Re: Rotating project true north

Mats_Knutsson — Mon, 13 Nov 2017 08:06:16 GMT

Would like to slightly bump this. I'm not really sure what the north direction is for? I always model in x-y and rotate the views ona layout or to ifc/dwg via hotlink. I haven't figured out how to use the North Direction for renders... so I think I really don't understand how to use it!?