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Project North vs True North

Project North vs True North is a confusing topic for most new Revit users.  When you first started a fresh new project, Project North and True North are both set to point straight UP.  So what is the difference, why do we care?  It is very uncommon to see a building oriented straight North in the real world.  However, for the ease of documentation, it is preferable to lay the floor plan nice and straight on a sheet in the Construction Documents, and show the correct building orientation in the site plan.  We all know that rotating the building model after the fact is very problematic in Revit, so how can we satisfy both of our needs in Revit?  This is where Project North and True North comes into play.

Here is a simple explanation of the two:
Project North: The building will be oriented the way an Architect wants to display on a sheet for the ease of dimensions and documentations.

True North: Actual North in the Real World.  With North pointing up vertically in this view, the building will be oriented relative to the North in the Real World.

By default, all Plan views are set to Project North, but on the Site Plan view, we will set the view to True North to display the actual orientation of the building on the site.

I will talk about how to Setup True North in a Project next week.  Stay tune!

Please note that by switching to True North, Revit is only rotating the view, not the building model!

 

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