In the level 4 course manual there is an example of taking a compass reading at the center of a home that is Southwest 2/3, period 8, with the compass reading indicating Southwest 2/3 and it appears the front door would be in the Southwest sector too.

If the front door is in the West sector and when standing at the front door the compass reading is still Southwest 2/3, period 8, when taking the reading from the center of the house do you measure the compass direction of the front door from the center of the house?

So when you are taking a compass reading from the center of the house what do you actually measure, the facing direction of the house, the compass direction of the front door from the center of the house or something else?

This doesn't appear to be clarified in the L4 course manual!

I think that the compass reading was taken at the centre of the house to avoid deviations due to metal and to confirm the facing direction of the front door.
Usually, you measure the facing direction of the door standing in your doorway.

You can measure the location of your front door from the centre, which is useful if you use the pie chart or other applications derived from your horoscope (which are not part of Diamond Feng Shui).

The house still faces SW2/3 even if the door is located in the West sector. The stars of the West sector will be more dominant than the stars of the facing direction.

The Level 4 course manual instructions are to create a nine-square grid for your floor plan and designate the nine direction based on a compass reading taken from the centre of your house, but nowhere does it explain why to take the compass reading from the centre or what to take a compass reading of from the centre. The lack of detail, examples and explanations is frustrating. All it explains is that if from the centre, your house is SW 2/3 based on taking a compass reading (of I don’t know what) and if the front door is in the Southwest sector (top centre square on the chart in the manual) and the door faces West 1, then you are supposed to overlay the West 1 Stars over the Southwest 2/3 chart. However, there is no information on what to do if the front door is in the east or west sector and doesn’t face Southwest 2/3 when the chart is supposed to be Southwest 2/3 when taking a compass reading (of I don’t know what) from the centre of the house.

I know exactly what you mean! That's why I decided to learn feng shui directly from a master.

If you want to determine the facing direction of your house you should measure the direction of your main door as explained in level 3.

I think the recommendation to measure from the centre is an error that was overlooked. The allocation of the stars starts in the centre of the grid, maybe that's the reason why the information got mixed up. Or Marie measures the location of the door from the centre to determine the sector in which the door is located - and then someone typed facing direction and no one realised the mistake. I looked into the material of several different schools and not one measures the facing direction from the centre of the home!

Therefore, I recommend you stick to the directions of level 3 to determine your home's facing direction. A door can face SW3, for example, but be located in the West or South of the house. The star chart is still SW3. If your door is located in the West facing SW3 then the stars of the West are more dominant in the front door area than the stars of the facing direction SW3. If your front door faces SW3 and is also located in the SW area then the SW stars are particularly strong because location and direction come together in the same area.