North Arrow from Layout Tools incorrect with an assigned coordinate system

[jensdragonfly]

I am starting to add North Arrows from the layout tools tab in AutoCAD and Civil 3D.  It seems when I have a coordinate system assigned to the drawing, the rotation of the north arrow is slightly off.  When I turn off the coordinate system it comes in correctly, pointing straight up when I do not have the viewport changed.  Is there a way to fix this "bug"?  

[pendean]

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@jensdragonfly wrote:

I am starting to add North Arrows from the layout tools tab in AutoCAD ...

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Where's that?

[Pointdump]

Hi Jen,
"...the rotation of the north arrow is slightly off."
Not a bug. That's normal and expected. It's called Map Convergence.
Dave

[TomBeauford]

North Arrows are a Map 3D layout tool. If a moderator is viewing this please move this thread to AutoCAD Map 3D.

Very useful as it displays the North direction in Model Space even though it's placed in Paper Space.

Never had an issue with them, why would you assign a different coordinate system to a Map 3D drawing?

[jensdragonfly · Accepted solution]

I am using the layout tools in Civil 3D.  I only have coordinates assigned within Civil.  When my viewport is assigned to have no rotation, the north arrow should point straight up for my plans.  

I might have found the solution MAPNORTHARROWDEFAULTNORTH.  At least I hope.

[TomBeauford]

All the drawings I've ever done were in the same coordinate system so I never had an issue.
I didn't like that inserting most of their North arrows added text styles. I redid all of them replacing text with multiline text using the Standard text style but overrode the fonts and set the background color to Use drawing background color to make it more readable with aerials in the background.
The Symbols folder for the "Map - North Arrows.dwg" can be opened with the Macro: 

^C^C^P(progn(startapp "explorer" (strcat "/n,/e," (vl-string-subst (strcat "Map" (chr 92) "Sample" (chr 92) "Symbols") "express" (vl-filename-directory (findfile "acetauto.lsp")))))(princ));

So I created a lisp to add macros that allowed me to add them with a single click. You can download it and the Blocks.dwg with all the updated North arrows here:
https://www.theswamp.org/index.php?topic=57744.msg610904#msg610904

[Pointdump · Accepted solution]

Jen,
Thanks. I didn't know about MAPNORTHARROWDEFAULTNORTH.
If you'd like to know what the Map Convergence is for any point in your drawing, use -SHOWGEODETICCALCULATOR.
Dave

[jensdragonfly]

Thank you

[Brian_FarrellFXCFE]

I have an issue with these. When I go to a tab (TAB A) that includes an arrow linked to the viewport, it displays correctly. When I click into a different tab (TAB B), then back to TAB A, the north arrow rotates to north UP. I can go to a different tab then back to TAB A and it rotates correctly. It keeps doing that every time I go to that tab. It rotates. So when I try to publish a pdf, some of the north arrows are rotated correctly, and some are not. Just depends on how I left them. I hope that makes sense.

I understand it is a useful tool. Until it isn't and rotates when I don't want it to. So I have to look through the entire sheet set (mostly over 60 sheets) to find the ones that didn't rotate correctly and replot them. After first tricking it into rotating correctly.

[ChicagoLooper]

@Brian_FarrellFXCFE 

I hope you're NOT cutting-and-pasting your automatically orientating north arrow from another drawing or another Layout Tab. The link between an individual arrow and a viewport is a direct relationship. 

If you cut-and-paste (or copy-and-paste) a north arrow from another drawing or Layout Tab, you won't have a one-to-one direct relationship. That north arrow has baggage that's still related to the original viewport. Have you tried inserting a Brand New arrow for each individual viewport?

Inserting your North Arrow from the Ribbon.