Align Space working backwards?

[tom]

Civil 3d 2012 SP2 - When using "Align Space" from the layout Panel of the Express Tools ribbon, I am not able to align the viewport correctly.  It seems to be working backwards.   I am trying to orient a viewport to something other than a cardinal direction, but for the sake of clarity, I will use an example using cardinal directions.  If I am trying to orient the viewport so that North is at the right side of the page, when prompted for the model space alignment I select a line that goes from south to north in model space.  When prompted for the paper space alignment, I select a line that goes from left to right.  I would expect that north would end up on the right side, but it is on the left side.  When experimenting a little, it seems like it is using the model space alignment as the paper space alignment and the paper space alignment for the model space alignment.   Any thoughts?

[SurveyorLee]

Do you have a DView twist set in your model space veiw?  I use that routine all th time and only have trouble with twisted views or non-World UCS.

Lee

[tom]

Lee,

I am not using DVIEW and have no other UCS defined other than the WCS.  We also use the Align Space pretty frequently.  I wonder if there is some setting that I have screwed up somewhere.  Initially, I seem to be seeing the problem when working with drawings created from our last two templates, but things seem to be fine in an older template, as well as if I just start without opening a template. I am looking through our archives to find a drawing created with the last two templates that uses some orientation other than a cardinal direction to see if it may be a problem with our template.

Thanks for the help,

[Neilw_05]

I've tested your workflow in my 2012 and 2013 and it works as you expect in both. I don't have any service packs installed for 2012 though.

PS: I suggest testing on one of the tutorial drawings that come with the product.

[tom]

Neil,

Using the provided tutorial drawings, the command does work correctly and as expected.  So it seems like it may be something in my template?  I looked through my notes and couldn't find where I changed anything from one template to the next other than some layers and some surface styles.  Of course it is possible that I changed something on the fly and didn't document it.

I appreciate your helping me with this.

[Neilw_05]

Do you have a UCS applied to your drawing? Can you verify it is set to world?

Also be aware that if you select a line for the alignment, the direction it is drawn will affect the orientation of the result. Try using picks instead of selecting lines and see if it makes a difference.

[tom]

Neil,

There is no UCS, everything is WCS.  And I do use picks to set the alignment.  I'm no CAD master by any means, but I can't think of what I have done to screw this up.  I might try going back to my old template that still seems to work (two templates ago) and try to move forward from there.  I really want to avoid that as our last template change was to transition to using the Named Plot Styles.

Thanks again,

[Neilw_05]

Try making a copy of your drawing, strip it of everything and test it on different machines. If it still doesn't behave, post the stripped version and I'll have a look.

[tom]

Neil,

Attached is a stripped down drawing with just one random polyline and one layout.  I did try this out on different machines, both using SP2.  I really think that I goofed something in the template, as I see the same results in both machines (works with one template, not with another). 

Thanks again for your interest and time,

[Neilw_05]

After running some tests it appears there is a problem with your layout. Try this, create a new layout in your drawing. That will also create a new default page setup. Go to the corrupt layout and apply the new default page set up. Once that is done the Align tool works properly. I can't explain precisely what is the cause, but at least you know where to focus your troubleshooting.

[tom]

Neil,

I was unable to get any different results from a new default layout.  I'm sure I must have missed something.  However, Autodesk looked at the file and suggested I use the UNits command and uncheck "Clockwise".  That seems to have done the trick.  Oh well, I guess backward angle directions is a small-ish price to pay for viewports that can be aligned correctly.  Thanks so much for your time, Neil.  I really appreciate it.

[solson]

Align space command was working backwards as described in the original post randomly for certain drawings. Confirming that the UNits command and uncheck "Clockwise" solved the problem for me as well.  Thanks!