Rotated Top/Plan question

[Tom G.]

What is the best protocol for using this tool? (Vwks Designer 2013)

I have a house plus property set on a slight diagonal. I've drawn the plot plan (site plan) showing buildings and setbacks to match the survey. My Main Story layer derives the house footprint and lot outline from the Plot Plan layer.

I'd like to rotate the model + linework on this layer to a square-to-the-page orientation. I see that having used the Rotate Top/Plan tool to square the drawing, my original Plot Plan drawing has also rotated which was unexpected. I see also, in reading up on the tool, that all subsequent layers (and assumed prior layers) will display as rotated.

Am I on a path to a problem or can I proceed to build my model and build out my planset in this manner, with the caveat--and a big one--that the site plan needs to be un-rotated prior to printing?

If I can't effectively use the rotate tool in the above fashion, then what is it's true function?

Thanks

Tom

Edited October 4, 2013 by Tom G.

[CipesDesign]

Rotated Top/Plan is a temporary setting which allows you to draw in the x/y planes as if everything was true to those axes. I always use it with plans that are not "square" to the x/y world. And I use it in what seems to be the exact way you describe.

Basically all it is doing is rotating everything (all layers) to a user set angle.

I generally create a saved view for each needed angle of rotation (think of a house with a couple 30? wings, for example).

Hitting the "0" key on your numeric keypad rotates everything back to the original orientation.

VP's can also be rotated using the Rotate command. And you can create a VP for your Site Plan from the unrotated (True Top Plan) view.

HTH's

[Tom G.]

Thanks, Peter, for the reply, especially your last tip.

Tom

[PVA - Admin]

There were a few tweaks to this in Vectorworks 2014:

However the above tips are still excellent for more control.