> Does anybody know if there is ANSI (or other) standard for orienting the
> North Arrow. I've always been taught, formally and informally that id
should
> always point up or to the right or any angle in between.
This has been beaten to death at least once, though I can't find the thread
now.
As far as I know, there isn't a universal rule on this. If you're trying to
win an argument, you might eventually find some rule that covers your
specific discipline, but I'm quite sure there isn't any law that covers all
drafting.
I've been practicing architecture for about 25 years, and every set of
building plans I've ever seen have been squared up with the sheet, with the
front of the building at the bottom of the sheet. Nobody cares where north
is. If an arrow is included, for orientation on a large project, it nearly
always shows true north vs "plan" north -- so that the elevations can be
labeled north, south, etc even though they aren't exactly oriented that way.
The contrary school of thought comes from surveyors or mapmakers, who aren't
drawing anything but undeveloped ground. Some of them will tell you that
north "MUST" be straight up in all cases. But my buddy the highway engineer
says he's never seen engineering drawings for a highway done that way --
they're drawn with north generally pointing to the upper right, as you say,
and the sheet aligned to that section of road.
It depends on your discipline. If you're drawing a map, people expect north
to be up. If you're drawing man-made objects like buildings, people expect
the object to determine the orientation, with no regard at all to where
north is. You don't draw the object that you're designing all cockeyed just
because of compass directions. You draw it to fit on the sheet nicely and --
mainly -- to be understandable.
On large scale built developments, the normal practice is to orient whatever
is the major axis of the development -- usually the principal highway --
horizontally on the sheet, with the "entrance" to the development at the
bottom. If that puts north pointing down, so be it.
