Change the Orientation of Project to Actual/Real world in Revit (True North vs Project North) (03 of 10)

With the default setting of Revit, you always model the elements parallel to the screen orientation. But have you ever wondered why is the orientation like that or what is the actual orientation for the project and how to reflect it in the model? Well, the simple answer is, the default plan orientation is set parallel to the screen for the user's convenience. So, how to set and display the actual orientation of the site?

To do that we need to understand the 2 different Orientation in Revit, Project North & True North. These two orientations of the project are associated with the 2 different coordinate systems in Revit, Project Base Point & Survey Base Point(respectively) which I've explained in detail in my other post.

By default, all the plan views(except site plan) are set to orient to Project North. You can change the settings in the Properties tab(shortcut - CTRL+1) > Graphics > Orientation.

Site Plan vs Level 1

So the basic difference between Ture North and Project North is that Project North is user/project based setting and the True North is Global setting. But if dig a little deep into these settings,

To better understand the difference between True North and Project North, let's have a look at the Sun Path in Site Plan & Level 1 in the Sample Architecture Project and the Orientation of Project base point (

) & (

) Survey Base Point

True North

True North displays the actual orientation of the project as it would be on site., ie.., the Real/Physical World Axis. So if you set the view to orient to True North, it displays the actual orientation of the project. In the image shown below, the plan towards the left is the Site Plan, which is by default set to orient to True North.

The Orientation of True North is associated with the Survey Base Point, as this is the real world point that is calibrated on-site using survey tools. As you can see in the image below, the orientation of the Survey Base Point (

) in the Site Plan is parallel to the screen. That's because the Site plan Orientation is set to True North. There are many ways to set/change the True North orientation of a project in Revit.

Project North vs True North

Project North

Project North, on the other hand, is not a defined/standard orientation. It is a user-defined orientation and can be changed to make it easier for the user to model elements. In the Level 1 plan in the image above, you can see that the Project base point is located at the corner of the building and the orientation is parallel to the walls of the project.

The Orientation of Project North is associated with the Project Base Point, whose location and orientation can be customized by the user. As you can see in the image below, the orientation of the Project Base Point (

) in the Level 1 Plan is parallel to the screen as the Level 1 Plan orientation is set to Project North. You can find the various methods of how to change the orientation of project north in my previous post.

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