Has anyone used 2D rotate to place model in real-world orientation?

[Christiaan]

In the context of architectural construction drawings, has anyone been using the 2D rotate mode to place their model/plans in their real-world orientation to north?

If so, how has this process worked out? Have you found VectorWorks buggy at all in this regard? What about co-ordination with AutoCAD-using engineers and the like?

[go2greece]

we are creating a viewport reference which gets a separate layer .

this is rotated and placed on utm grid (north/east)

export to dxf or dwg.

never had complains from any engineer.

peter

[Christiaan]

Yeah this is different though Peter. What you're doing is rotating the object to suit the north east co-ordinates. What I'm talking about is rotating the north east co-ordinates to suit the object.

One advantage is that site plans can then be drawn/placed without the need for marrying up the floor plans with the site plan (because they're already aligned). The other is that you can point to any point on a floor plan and get a correct GPS co-ordinate.

[Tom G.]

I've been using it on a project that just went on hold. Here's what I've found:

?Automatic wall dimensioning does not work on a rotated plan. The dimension tool does not rotate with the model.

?If you use old-school Cut 2D Section, that action causes the plan to un-rotate back to zero, forcing you to re-rotate the plan by inputting the correct rotation amount. Using Create Section Viewport does not cause rotation failure.

?Working in rotated mode, pulling straight lines and walls is a little bit harder. I found myself having to be especially on guard. The Shift key doesn't seem to ensure a perfect line.

?If you print a rotated plan, you get a slightly jaggy output. Just prior to my trying to convert my Layer views to Viewports to Sheets, the project went on hold. It is quite likely that making a Viewport would solve this jaggy issue. You could test this easily, of course.

To reduce the issue of lines being drawn slightly askew, and the jaggies when printing, you may want to get to Viewports as quickly as possible and then do as much work in Annotations as possible.

This seems to be a great tool for the project I was working on which had a residence on an irregular lot. We had VERY tight lot coverage and setback issues. By importing the survey, and rotating the model to fit the surveyor's footprint, I could be very assured that our new work would be in compliance. I'm hoping we get back to this project as I'd love to take it through completion to test the concept fully.

[CipesDesign]

Christian, I have used the new plan rotation on a couple of projects and have found it to be mostly reliable (more so in the current build than previously). Here's one brief example: began with a surveyors ACAD file of an oddish shaped lot, so true north was plan 'up'. The main house orients fine (in other words it is true x/y and needs no rotation) but the detached garage is another story. It is 7? off. I drew/modeled the house the regular way, then rotated the plan 7? to draw the garage. Worked out quite well and was a huge time saver. I then created VP's of the garage from the rotated view which also worked out fine. Are there other specific questions you have in this regard? P