Orientation is not Managed by View Template

When we choose to assign a View Template (VT) to a View, that makes the template the view's boss. It takes over control of each setting we choose to make it enforce. In this image notice the parameters that are gray, not editable?

Those are being managed by the View Template. I've got to edit the VT to change one of those parameters or use Enable Temporary View Properties to override them briefly.

I noticed yesterday that the Orientation parameter does not behave like other View Properties even when a VT thinks it is in charge of it. This is the VT's dialog showing it is currently assigned to Project North; we can choose either Project North or True North. The check in the Include column (on the right side) indicates we want the VT to take over.

Therefore I find it counter intuitive that we can still interact with and change the Orientation parameter in the Properties Palette even though the VT is in charge.

If the VT is changed the view will follow along as expected. I wouldn't expect to be able to change it back in the View's properties with the VT in charge, but I can. This means the Orientation parameter is affected (managed half-heartedly) by a VT but it isn't truly in charge of the parameter, not like it is for other parameters.

It is inconsistent, perhaps a bug?

Revit 2016 - Rotate Project North

Technically this isn't a new feature. It’s an improvement of the existing tool. In the past this tool did not faithfully rotate all annotation elements consistently. We’d often find some annotation was either not rotated at all or moved into different positions. They've revisited the code to ensure more consistent results. It’s not a guarantee they've resolved everything since they can only tackle issues that have been identified as problems. We are pretty ingenious at doing things with Revit that the developers didn't imagine. Hopefully we’ll find that it is more reliable when/if we need to use it.

Let me take this opportunity to remind you that Revit’s bias has always been to create a model or building with Project North in mind FIRST. FORGET about the real orientation on site, initially (please). That’s what using Rotate True North is for and Acquiring Coordinates.

Those tools existed long before Rotate Project North. In fact it was only added because people can’t seem to remember to start their project using a Project North orientation. If you’re interested in more of my writing about using Shared Coordinates you can check out my blog post summary.

In-Place Massing and Project Orientation Inequity

In-Place families are necessary for some geometry, in particular the massing environment. I've always stressed that people should start a project without being concerned about site alignment immediately. Revit was (is) designed to allow us to adjust True North easily after the fact. As I've written before, just make it easy to "draw on paper".

A recent post at RevitForum.org underscores that bias when it asked if the two project orientation tools seem to work differently? Actually it was just focused on Rotate Project North (RPN) and that in-place massing didn't play along when it was applied. Rotate True North (RTN) on the other hand does work.

In this image the massing has been created aligned with the "site" but we've realized that it would be easier to document if Project North were aligned along one building edge.

In this image I've used the Rotate Project North and picked the reference plane I sketched to mark the East/West bearing I wanted. I had to rotate the text but the tool rotated the reference plane correctly but the massing is unchanged.

As I wrote in my reply there, RTN is sleight of hand while RPN is really altering the entire model and related views to change orientation. In other words RTN rotates the world under the building and RPN rotates the building on the world. Rotating the world is actually "easier" (less work) for Revit than grabbing every element and everything in every view and rotating it (the building).

If you heed my Two Pieces of Advice, you'll start a project off better...