Piping Coordination Systems - Reference Points

FOREWORD - LOCATION IS RELATIVE

An object's location is always given relative to another reference object.
For example, the location of a Heat Exchanger may be described as five
blocks from the General Service Building. To be more specific, the
Heat Exchanger is four blocks east and three blocks south of the
General Service Building. With this illustration, a direction and a distance
from the General Service Building has been established.
Several things are assumed to be known, the place to begin
(General Service Building), and understanding of east and south (reference
directions), and the length of a block (unit of displacement). Without
consensus on these things, communication of the location of a Process Plant
becomes unclear.
Before beginning with making drawings for a new process plant or building,
there must be determine where the new building in the area will take his
place. A coordination system, which refers to an officially recognized point
therefore is necessary.
In the Netherlands, for example, are thousands of official reference points,
distributed across the country ...search on the Internet on geographic
coordinate conversion, triangulation stations, benchmarks, geography or
topography. You'll find a lot of information about how reference points are
measured and identified.

HORIZONTAL REFERENCE
Defining a starting point of the site related to the North / South direction, is
one of the first steps in setting up a coordination system.
In principle, with a simple reliable compass the direction of the magnetic
north can to be determined. In the image below the true north is at 18. As a
draftsman would work with the true north coordinates, he will immediately
find out that each line from west to east and from north to south at an angle
of 18 must be drawn.
To avoid this, a Plant North will be determined. In the example below, the
true north, 18 is reversed, draftsmen and construction contractors will be
grateful for it.
General there will be tried, to approach the true north-south coordinates as
close as possible.
A rule is, that the angle between true north and Plant North can not exceed
45. At 50, for example, the Plant North would be on the right side, so on
the Eastern side of the image.

1 = Official reference point

2 = South West angle of new plant
X = East West distance from new plant to reference point
Y = North South distance from new plant to reference point

VERTICAL REFERENCE
Before starting with any building, the site is leveled (graded), what means
that the ground is made as flat as practically possible. After leveling we
talking about "finished grade", where the highest graded point is termed
"high point of finished grade".
This highest point of finished grade refers to an official reference point on
which all vertical measurements are related. In the Netherlands, for
example, many vertical measurement are in relation to the
"Normaal Amsterdams Peil" (NAP). If the field compared to the NAP is 1
meter higher, usually the reference point will not become a zero start of
1000 mm, but in this case a zero start at zero(0).
On a isometric view of a pipe line elevations are indicated by EL.109665 or
EL.99450 etc..
What is meant by this vertical dimensions ?
The first EL.109665 you can read as: centerline of pipe is 9665 mm
above zero point
The second EL.99450 you can read as: centerline of pipe is 550 mm
below zero point
Well, the vertical zero point in this case is 100 meters (100000 mm), and
this has the advantage that no negative (minus) values on drawings need to
be applied.
REMARK(S) OF THE AUTHOR...

CENTER-LINE AND ELEVATION SYMBOL

I have learned, to apply a centerline, a Elevation symbol and a Center-Line
symbol to a isometric.
Namely, the Center-Line symbol at the end of the centerline, and ON that
line the Elevation symbol, followed by the elevation-numbers.

The sign on the left shows the centerline symbol.

Tip for AutoCad users: use the CDT font, lower case Q.

The sign on the left shows the Elevation symbol.

That sign, you will see on almost every isometric.
A combination of both signs, you see rarely nowadays on an isometric.
Usually only the Elevation symbol is applied. Why? There are many reasons
to make no old-fashioned isometrics.
Large-engineering companies can tell you why!