Use a project grid to set your own project North, turn the 2D view to suit your site, and snap your drawing to a regular spacing.
Turn on the Grid
Press G to turn the grid on or off.
In Giraffe V6, you can also click Map > Show Grid in the menu bar. Or click the arrow next to the orientation dial in the context bar and choose Show grid.
In Giraffe V4, click ••• in the drawing toolbar, hover Snap & Grid, and click the Grid toggle.
Snap to the Grid
With snaps enabled, your cursor can snap to grid points.
Edit the Grid
Set the size and direction of the grid. The direction you set becomes project North.
In Giraffe V6, click Map > Edit Grid in the menu bar.
In Giraffe V4, click ••• in the drawing toolbar, hover Snap & Grid, and click Edit Grid.
In either version, you can also run Edit Grid from the command line.
Click to place the first point. Turn on snaps to snap to the map or to geometries.
Type the grid size you want, for example 15 ft.
Click again in the direction you want as project North. With the grid aligned, this direction sits at the top of the 2D view.
Rotate the 2D view
Rotate the 2D view by aligning it to the project grid. The grid's North direction goes to the top of the screen. Use it to square the plan to a street grid that doesn't run north to south, or to put any direction at the top, including South.
Edit the grid. In Giraffe V6, click Map > Edit Grid. In Giraffe V4, click ••• in the drawing toolbar, hover Snap & Grid, and click Edit Grid.
Click to place the first point and type the grid size.
Click again in the direction you want at the top of the 2D view. For South at the top, click directly south of your first point.
Turn on grid alignment. In Giraffe V6, click the arrow next to the orientation dial in the context bar and check Keep 2D view aligned to grid. In Giraffe V4, click ••• in the drawing toolbar, hover Snap & Grid, and turn on Align 2D view to grid.
Grid alignment is on by default in both versions, so the 2D view usually turns as soon as you finish editing the grid. Turn it off to keep the 2D view at its current angle.
In Giraffe V6, you can also click the arrow next to the orientation dial and choose Align view to grid to turn the map to the grid once. Choose Align view to North to put North back at the top.
Learn more about the orientation dial and other map tools in the context bar.