Automatic North Angle on a Layout Sheet

[Andras Bognar]

It would be beneficial to have an object that automatically reads the floor plan's north orientation from the model and can then be placed on either a layout sheet or a master layout.

If the north arrow object in model space is hidden by a layer combination or located outside the drawing boundary, a layout sheet object should be able to read the placed view's orientation information directly and automatically display the correct north angle. This would ensure the north arrow remains accurate regardless of the model view's visibility and rotation settings.

Operating system used: Windows 11

     

 

[Mathias Jonathan]

@A21_Ma_Si : Drawing rotation is considered bad practice in our office, we only use saved view rotations, and this info is not accessible to GDL (drawing title & labels)

[Andras Bognar]

@Mathias Jonathan

I agree that drawing rotation is not best practice. We try to maintain the model at an orthogonal 0° orientation and rotate the site mesh and north angle instead; the site drawing should still be shown in its true north orientation on the sheet though. 

 

 @Laszlo Nagy  Thanks for the update!

[Lachlan Green]

Ahhh, this old one.  Just leaving some links here to older posts on the same topic to help boost this wish and give some history that I know of.  If a view's orientation was accessible through GDL to the drawing title, the north point could be 100% foolproof accurate. 

- 2026 April: View Settings - Orientation Angle Visibility (Settings, Index & GDL) 

- 2025 Dec: Layout Bar with North Point 

- 2012 Sep: One of my early posts asking if this was possible.

Edit: Just wanted to say I agree drawings shouldn't be rotated, but they can.  Systems shouldn't be designed around what should happen, but what can. 

[Andras Bognar]

@Lachlan Green thanks! I hope that in the near future, either an object or a drawing title —or perhaps both—will be available.