Step 1: Understanding the Question:
We need to place setting out of the foundation correctly in the sequence of construction operations.
Step 2: Key Concept:
Setting out is the process of transferring the building's plan dimensions onto the actual ground, using pegs, strings, and profile boards, so that the exact position, alignment, and width of the foundation trenches get marked before any digging starts. It fixes the centre lines of walls and columns and the matching trench edges.
Step 3: Applying it to the options:
Since setting out exists only to guide where the excavation should happen, it has to be done before the foundation excavation begins; option (A), which places it after excavation, reverses the correct order and is wrong.
Option (B), after foundation concreting, is even later in the sequence and makes no sense, since the trench would already be filled with concrete by then.
Option (D), before placing plinth beam reinforcement, is also a real step, but it comes much later, after excavation and concreting of the footing are already done, so it does not answer when setting out itself happens.
Option (C) correctly places setting out before the foundation excavation, matching how it is actually done on site.
Step 4: Final Answer:
Setting out of the foundation is carried out before the foundation excavation.
\[ \boxed{\text{Option (C)}} \]