The world should rotate around my project!

[Anonymous]

Don't we all feel that the world should bend, and revolve our project? I think so to. . .
I'll cut to the chase. . .I've usually been setting up my projects with the main or ground floor and level 1, and then I use the layer settings to set up my foundation at level -1, and I've been putting my plot or site plan in at level -2. Usually, I just cut and paste what I need from the foundation for a 'footprint' on my site plan, and just shove it over way off from my elevation and section lines. Here lately however, I've been thinking. . .doesn't ArchiCAD have an option that allows me to change where north is? What if I wanted to draw my lot on level -2 directly underneath my foundation plan, so that if I change my foundation, I don't have to cut and paste for every change? Is there a setting that would allow me to say that up on my screen isn't north. . .this time up is N 89D 48' 32" E? Or even better perhaps a library part that allows me to simply rotate the North arrow in my project? I know that this can be done in the sun settings dialog, but am I the only one that thinks that a bit easier 'orientation' (for lack of a better word) might be a great idea?

And. . .for those of you that say, "Bah! Just cut and paste man. . .it's not so bad. . ." I DID cut and paste a lot in a CAD program once. . .it was called AutoCAD. . .

[Thomas Holm]

Is there a setting that would allow me to say that up on my screen isn't north. . .

Maybe I misunderstood you, but both under Camera adn Perspective settings, there's a button called More Sun or something, and there you set Project North (I'm at home, maybe I remember wrong, but it's definitely there somewhere...

[Anonymous]

Yes, I have used this setting in the past, I was just curious if there was a more stream-lined process for this.

[Anonymous]

Thomas,

Yes, the north arrow settings are accessed through the "3D Projection Settings" by clicking the button "More Sun". I have always found this a strange place for an important setting, but since it only needs to be done once per project it has never bothered me too much.


Chad,

I don't understand your need to cut and paste things between your Floor Plans, Foundation Plans and Site Plans (at least not as a standard practice - I do it often for occasional needs). This has somehow to do with project north?

[Richard Morrison]

Another good approach is to create the site plan in another PLN file, and hot link the floor plan as a module. And it makes it a little easier to use decimal dimensions from the surveyor in the site plan, when the main floor plan is using feet & inches.

[Aussie John]

Copy and pasting part of your plan to another storey=BAD, BAD BAD
SAve a view set from the storey in question and place with the 2nd storey in the layout. If you feel the need, you want you could rotate there.
To see your plotview in CAD use the ghost storey settings.
Well Thats my way of doing it. This technique works well for using another storey for your ceiling plans insteasd of lots of extra layers.

[Anonymous]

Another method I am playing with for site plans and north orientation for layout purposes is rotating the site plan to north in the layout book and adding site plan specific notes in the layout book versus in the site plan view. Advantages of this is I don't need a separate file for my site and don't have to deal with linked modules. Since I have all the noting tools available in my layout book and snaps are enabled I can place these notes without issue. The biggest obstacle is layer management. I am hoping some day that layout sheets can reference layer combinations. I have resorted to drawing layout related items (masters) on the Archicad layer if I never need to control their visibility. On the one project where I rotated the site and noted in the layout I also put my notes on the Archicad layer to prevent the possibility of the a note layer being turned off during output.

[Anonymous]

Matthew wrote:
Chad,

I don't understand your need to cut and paste things between your Floor Plans, Foundation Plans and Site Plans (at least not as a standard practice - I do it often for occasional needs). This has somehow to do with project north?

I use a custom library part for my surveyor line annotations. I can just drop this object, rotate, and stretch it, and I have an automatic annotation for my boundary lines. i.e. S 0D 31' 1" W 79.89' is generated automatically; thus if I simply rotate my Plot to match my project, my automatic data would change, so I wanted an easier way to rotate the world around my project. I am aware of the More Sun dialog, and I was simply curious if there was an easier and *GASP* productive way of doing this.

[Brad Elliott]

I use a custom library part for my surveyor line annotations. I can just drop this object, rotate, and stretch it, and I have an automatic annotation for my boundary lines. i.e. S 0D 31' 1" W 79.89' is generated automatically

This sounds like a useful library part where did you get it, or did you make it?

[Stress Co_]

chad.lawson wrote:
Or even better perhaps a library part that allows me to simply rotate the North arrow in my project?

I know there is a North Arrow library part that rotates to "North" as set in the 3D settings..... But it doesn't work the other way around.

Where did you get your custom survey line "part"?