Project Setup - Site Orientation/Placement

[justin.dewitt]

What is considered "best practice" when setting up a project from a topo survey in Revit to align the site so I'm working in ortho?  Typically I import a survey and draw the PL and the topo (I do a lot of sloped sites, sometimes 100' differences) then rotate the model to a 90 deg axis (ortho) I'm planning to draw plans from.  This seems like a bad idea in Revit. If I were working in 2D ACAD I would xref the survey into a new site plan drawing and just rotate and scale it so my plans can be drawn in ortho.  Or I could realign the UCS, but I don't typically do this.

Revit doesn't work the same way so I'm wondering how the pros do it.  Is there a way to leave the topo model oriented per the survey (North up usually) but set up a UCS (or the revit version of a UCS) so I'm drawing the building plans in ortho?  I'm curious to know what the proper way is.

[ToanDN]

Link the site drawing in, rotate/relocate it to align with your model, then acquire coordinates. Keep your model / project north upright.

[MostafaElashmawy]

You should be using True North and project North.

refer to below link for some steps.

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/revit-products/learn-explore/caas/CloudHelp/cloudhelp/2018/EN...

also below video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFp0kINmqkk

[hmunsell]

assuming your topo was drawn in True North.... Link it in to Revit, Acquire coordinates, set your Project Base Point & set your Angle to True North.

[barthbradley]

I reading you way differently than everybody else.  Sounds like you asking how to set up different "orthogonal views" of the model.   If so, rotate the View's Viewport.   

[justin.dewitt]

Thanks for all the help.  I'm following you as far as linking the file, but when you say to acquire coordinates and set base point and rotate it's a little vague.

I managed to get things going using the links to the videos but I'm interested in any other methods or processes to accomplish this.

Thanks.

[justin.dewitt]

I'm not trying to set various orthogonal views, just trying to be able to to draw in project north without rotating the site itself to match my desired project north, if that makes sense.

[barthbradley]

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@justin.dewitt wrote:

I'm not trying to set various orthogonal views, just trying to be able to to draw in project north without rotating the site itself to match my desired project north, if that makes sense.

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I think I get it. Be so much easier in the long to just set up True North.  Then you can bounce back and forth between True and Project North all you want with "just a click of a button". 

[SteveKStafford · Accepted solution]

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@justin.dewitt wrote:

...If I were working in 2D ACAD I would xref the survey into a new site plan drawing and just rotate and scale it so my plans can be drawn in ortho.  Or I could realign the UCS, but I don't typically do this...   ...Revit doesn't work the same way so I'm wondering how the pros do it...

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Revit is actually designed with Project North in mind, starting point. Doing what you describe is how it was design. Link the survey, rotate/move/elevate to place the "world" (survey) in place around the building orientation you intend to use. Once the survey is in the correct place, use Acquire Coordinates. Revit will define True North as well as its shared coordinates to match the WCS of the survey file.

Several other replies have said this is various words.

[hmunsell]

here is a link to a short video on setting the angel to true north.

https://autode.sk/2QPRV1s

[justin.dewitt]

Thanks for all the input.  I see now how project North and true North are regarded in Revit and how you set them.  The process that seems the most intuitive to the way I've normally operated in ACAD was described by Steve S so I hope it's the best generally. 

Is this placed on the Site plan or typically just on level 1?  Or does it matter?

[SteveKStafford]

My preference is using a site model and building model(s). I prefer it even when I'm only dealing with a single building project.

If I had to use a single model for the building and site: I create the building at "zero" elevation and Project North (easy to draw). Then I link the survey and move/rotate it so the site is oriented how we think the building should be related to it. Usually the contours are at their real elevation. If we want a toposurface I'll create it at the actual elevation but then move it down so that the intended ground floor elevation is at "zero". Then I acquire coordinates and use Relocate Project to move the project up to the real world elevation. This way I can either show a project elevation of zero or the actual sea level relationship.

I wrote a series of posts on my blog that cover what I've written (look for the post titles in the image).