Point Style to display perpendicular to 3d view

[b_worland]

Hi All,

Is there a way to display a standard point cross (or other point style) perpendicular to a current 3d view?

Currently point crosses display "flat" or perpendicular to "top view" only. 

In my 3d drawing I what to use "constrained orbit" or other views (bottom, left, right etc) and still see point crosses perpendicular to that view. 

Thanks 

Ben

[AVCPlugins]

Try use _UCS _V

[b_worland]

Thankyou for your suggestion, but the point symbol still stays perpendicular to "top view" not perpendicular to the current view. 

I would like the point symbols to be perpendicular to the current view not perpendicular to "top" view.

Snapshot showing Point symbols perpendicular to "top view" even though in 3d view - 

Point in top view 

Regards

Ben 

[tramber]

Did you really try what @AVCPlugins suggested you ? 🤔

He told you to change your UCS, not your point of view ...

[AVCPlugins]

I checked and realized that changing UCS will not affect previously created points. All AutoCAD objects store their internal coordinate system. And oddly enough, the line and the point also have their own construction plane, which you set as the XY of the current coordinate system at the moment of construction. It is impossible to expand this plane using standard means. Only the Rotate command or copy/paste in different coordinate systems. In general, points are not very suitable for use in 3D.

[tramber]

Sure, it only works for new objects, just as circles, arcs, polylines and so many ! Nothing surprising.

[b_worland]

Hi AVC Plugins,

Much appreciate your additional explanation, because I couldn't get it to work, not matter what I tried.

As you must have worked out all my points are already created in top view. So our work around was to substitute the points symbols with small 3d spheres. Then no matter what the view they appeared the same. So thanks, I learned something today. 

It would be great if AutoCAD included a collection of standard "3d Point Styles" that, when used, would automatically align themselves with the current ucs and not retain their "initial" constructed ucs.

Thanks again.

[Michiel.Valcke]

The orientation of any 2D object is kept in the code of that object. It is actually a reference to know on which plane the object was created and it is called the 'extrusion direction' because that is the direction into which it will extrude (the Z-axis)

You can find it by looking at DXF code 210 - use " (entget (car (entsel)))"  to see for yourself. It is modifiable through lisp and so it will also be modifiable through any other means of programming, but for the normal user you cannot change it unless you use a 3D modify command such as 3Drotate or 3Dmirror on the object itself. 

Making a program to change it dynamically based on your view, I would not recommend because the needed computing power to constantly monitor and update item definitions, would seriously hamper user interaction and autocad performance.

You can use the VIEWDIR command to figure out what is the point of view you currently have, and you can could have a lisp that when activated updates all the 210 codes to match your VIEWDIR value. But you would need to activate the command each time you change your view direction to update the object definitions.

Also because the representation is saved in the object, you will not be able to have different views active at the same time with a point style 'perpendicular to the view' for each view.

[b_worland]

Hi Michiel,

A great explanation. What you detailed will help us. Thanks