I am preparing a course on leveraging Surveyor's cad files to orient projects to true North, etc. and I just wanted to begin by placing a few assets that are already out there and their original links; so here we go:
From the AUGI posting: Click Me!!!
The "Factory says: This is one place where you have to follow the rules.
Revit's internal calculations do not like very large coordinate numbers. There are many number systems used in an app like Revit, some for calculating values, some for driving the display, etc. In some cases these systems differ in the precision of the numbers they can use.
When numeric values are small, these differences in precision are insignificant. When numbers get large, the differences while still small on a percentage basis become large enough to effect the results of display and operations. Thus, it is important to keep your Revit project near Revit's origin. (near means within 1 mile/1.6km) Revit's origin is near the center of the space made by the elevation symbols in the default template.
The Rules
* Always build your building near the starting point of the default template.
* Model it with Project North pointing directly up. (lay it out as you would have it appear on sheets)
* If you are using a dwg based site, Link your site file Center To Center.
* Move or rotate the SITE under your project until it is correctly positioned relative to the building. (do not move or rotate the project itself).
* Use the Acquire Coordinates tool and pick the site.
This will set your project's shared coordinated to those of the dwg's wcs. True North will be the dwg's Y axis. Now your building knows where the dwg 0,0 is, but it can still record its own information in well behaving small numbers. It knows and can orient to either True North, or Project North. Once the shared coordinates are set, subsequent imports can be made origin to origin using shared coordinates."
Another fine (merely excellent) asset is one of TG's posts Found Here!!!
This should be a good start...To be continued (with pictures most likely!!!)...
From the AUGI posting: Click Me!!!
The "Factory says: This is one place where you have to follow the rules.
Revit's internal calculations do not like very large coordinate numbers. There are many number systems used in an app like Revit, some for calculating values, some for driving the display, etc. In some cases these systems differ in the precision of the numbers they can use.
When numeric values are small, these differences in precision are insignificant. When numbers get large, the differences while still small on a percentage basis become large enough to effect the results of display and operations. Thus, it is important to keep your Revit project near Revit's origin. (near means within 1 mile/1.6km) Revit's origin is near the center of the space made by the elevation symbols in the default template.
The Rules
* Always build your building near the starting point of the default template.
* Model it with Project North pointing directly up. (lay it out as you would have it appear on sheets)
* If you are using a dwg based site, Link your site file Center To Center.
* Move or rotate the SITE under your project until it is correctly positioned relative to the building. (do not move or rotate the project itself).
* Use the Acquire Coordinates tool and pick the site.
This will set your project's shared coordinated to those of the dwg's wcs. True North will be the dwg's Y axis. Now your building knows where the dwg 0,0 is, but it can still record its own information in well behaving small numbers. It knows and can orient to either True North, or Project North. Once the shared coordinates are set, subsequent imports can be made origin to origin using shared coordinates."
Another fine (merely excellent) asset is one of TG's posts Found Here!!!
This should be a good start...To be continued (with pictures most likely!!!)...
, where 
is the radius of the helix and 
is a constant giving the vertical separation of the helix's loops.
