Compass rose on the plans

[winterdd]

So, im trying to explain my understanding of compass rose on plans to my client. He is confused. No matter the orientation of the building on a world map, the compass rose always has north at top on the plans right? Thus the front of the home is south elevation, rear is north, left side is west and right side east. Am i correct? This is why i love front elevation, rear elevation, left elevation, and right elevation lol. It dumbs it down for everyone.

[robdyck]

For residential drawings I NEVER use the terms 'north' 'south' etc to describe a building's elevation drawings. I only include a North Arrow on site plans and it does indeed point North. On site, few people know where north is, but everyone knows where the front is.

 

[Renerabbitt]

15 minutes ago, ChiefUserBigRob said:

This is why i love front elevation

I typically orient my plan so that the front of the house is facing the bottom of the page. Plan North would typically be in the direction closest to True North. I only use front, left, right, rear, as terms in my elevations.

[winterdd]

Think i may change it back to the way you guys do it and myself in the past. I have a sample set of plans from an architect that used the compass but the building is in a true NSEW position on a map so it made it easy for that project.

[Alaskan_Son]

Basically the same for me...

 

I only use the North = Up on plot plans.  For CD's its simply Front, Left, Back, and Right.  I do however still include a North Arrow on the floor plans though sometimes to help keep a reminder of where the sun is going to be.

[HumbleChief]

56 minutes ago, ChiefUserBigRob said:

So, im trying to explain my understanding of compass rose on plans to my client. He is confused. No matter the orientation of the building on a world map, the compass rose always has north at top on the plans right? Thus the front of the home is south elevation, rear is north, left side is west and right side east. Am i correct? This is why i love front elevation, rear elevation, left elevation, and right elevation lol. It dumbs it down for everyone.

I've had plan checkers insist on both building orientation (i.e. Front) and compass orientation (i.e. 'North'). So I now put both as a default. Haven't run in to a SSW Front Elevation yet but it's coming  

[DzinEye]

For architectural dwg's front door facing bottom of page is probably the most common, north facing top second, but there is no truly correct standard according to Architectural Graphics Standards from the research I've done.  It is easiest for most, lay-people, clients especially, to read plans with front door facing bottom.  But I've found that we drafters tend to use whatever standard the office we first learned in used. 

Front door facing down doesn't work well when you have a long house that doesn't fit vertically on landscape orientation paper at 1/4" scale.   Another factor, is if the drawing set will have Civil Eng. drawings, e.g., grading/drainage or landscape plans.  They almost always orient North to top of page, and if you want your plans to be more easily cross-readable it helps to have the same orientation as the site/grading/drainage/landscape plans.  The main thing is to just make it clear.  FWIW, I always show both a N/S/E/W indicator and Front/Right/Back/Left on Elevations.

[winterdd]

8 minutes ago, DzinEye said:

For architectural dwg's front door facing bottom of page is probably the most common, north facing top second, but there is no truly correct standard according to Architectural Graphics Standards from the research I've done.  It is easiest for most, lay-people, clients especially, to read plans with front door facing bottom.  But I've found that we drafters tend to use whatever standard the office we first learned in used. 

Front door facing down doesn't work well when you have a long house that doesn't fit vertically on landscape orientation paper at 1/4" scale.   Another factor, is if the drawing set will have Civil Eng. drawings, e.g., grading/drainage or landscape plans.  They almost always orient North to top of page, and if you want your plans to be more easily cross-readable it helps to have the same orientation as the site/grading/drainage/landscape plans.  The main thing is to just make it clear.  FWIW, I always show both a N/S/E/W indicator and Front/Right/Back/Left on Elevations.

Totally agree. I have a shotgun house right now that will not fit on 24x36 at 1/4"=1'-0".

[Kelly_K]

22 hours ago, Alaskan_Son said:

...  I do however still include a North Arrow on the floor plans though sometimes to help keep a reminder of where the sun is going to be.

It is also a good idea to include the north arrow on the floor plan to help out those folks that produce a manual J for heat/cool load calcs.

[wjmdes]

The front door should face the bottom or right side of the page.  Same with text, always read from the bottom or right side, because the left side is stapled...

 

North arrow is not really relevant to floor plans.  Let the civil engineers worry about that.

[StephenGreene]

On 1/15/2020 at 10:58 AM, ChiefUserBigRob said:

Totally agree. I have a shotgun house right now that will not fit on 24x36 at 1/4"=1'-0".

i get these fairly often. I either rotate the plan so as front door is facing right or print them to E-size paper.