USER COORDINATE SYSTEM

[ESchomberg]

Hi friends, I have touched on this subject in the past, but did not pursue it due to the fact that I had no need for it. Now, my new client draws everything in Model space including twisting views in model space. I have played with it but do not understand how to twist the view in model space. I typically twist it in paper space using mvsetup.

I am pretty sure  it has something to do with VIEW..... and UCS..... but I can not figure it out. He even mentioned on the phone ortho....I know what all of this means but I do not know how to use it.

I asked one of my fellow registered land surveyors that is familiar with civil3d he replied" don't twist anything in model space, lesson over". Ok, well that does not help me, because my other client is a registered land surveyor as well and twists his views in model space. Therefore I need to know how to do this.

A screen cast showing how to do this would be great...any input on twisting views in model space would be great. From what I have heard there is ongoing debates about twisting any view in civil3d for fear of having issues.

I would love to pursue this to the end and have a final resolution if possible. My fellow employees that use civil3d twist their views using mvsetup in the viewport which is what I do. However can this cause issues as well as twisting the view in model space? Or is this just paranoia and fear of using the tools that civil3d has provided? After all would Civil3d have created ways to rotate views if it is going to cause problems?

At any rate, I need to know how to twist views in model space, thank you.

[CivilFlow]

Hi @ESchomberg-

I prepared a short screencast for your review.  I hope it helps.

[AllenJessup]

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@ESchomberg wrote:

I asked one of my fellow registered land surveyors that is familiar with civil3d he replied" don't twist anything in model space, lesson over". 

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That PLS probably got burned by a UCS back in Land Desktop, the predecessor of Civil 3D. I had one Engineer completely destroy a project by setting different UCS's and using Land Desktop commands. That led me to ban the use of a UCS. The problem was that if you set a UCS at a 45° rotation and then drew a line at N 45° E. The line created would be Due East in the WCS. Also setting a basepoint in a UCS would mess with anything set by NE Coordinate.

Happily Civil 3D does not have that fault. Since the Engineers I work with don't like too much change. I've left the procedure for setting up views pretty much the same, even though there are more advanced tools available. Basically a copy of our standard layout viewport is produced in ModelSpace. Copies of that are rotated and moved to set up the sheets. Then I use a lisp routine to set the Viewtwist to be parallel to the linework representing the layout viewport and zoom using the corners of that linework. The trick at that point is saving a View that can be reestablished in Model or Paper space. So when the PaperSpace layouts are set up. You just have to restore the View that matches that sheet.

For labeling with text of Mtext I wrote a Lisp that would automatically pick up the Viewtwist. But now you can just set a UCS to View.

The way I twist a view in MS without the lisp is to use the Dview command with the twist option. You can select a few entities if you want to do the twist visually. But to hit a predefined angle you will have to know the angle to enter on the command line. Check to see if your client has set up any Views that match the twist that are being used.

Conclusion: I do not know of any reason you shouldn't use Dview > Twist to twist the view in ModelSpace. As with most other things. There are multiple ways to accomplish the same thing in AutoCAD and Civil 3D.

[MMcCall402]

In model space we never set a UCS.  It will effect inserted items like xrefs and blocks (... north arrows)    I will sometimes use the UCS command in along with the Plan command to set an accurate DView twist but then immediately set it back to world.   (set UCS to Object, then Plan to current UCS, then USC back to world)    Or, I use a lisp that automates the DView twist operation and calculates the exact angle. 

I rarely annotate directly in model space. Most often I annotate thru a viewport into model space so the annotation will pickup the viewport scale and rotation (UCS)

[jmayo-EE]

Been using UCS's in LDD and C3D virtually every day since 1998 with only one issue. Users who don't understand the command.

DView w/Twist and Snapang does exactly the same thing as UCS and Plan under AutoCAD's hood.

🙂

[ESchomberg]

Hey Mike, that was incredibly helpful, thank you much. Only one thing confused me toward the end of the screen cast. You mentioned after talking about doing this in paper space, that your client may want you to rotate the model view for placing text. You said something about, "in that case change your UCS back to world, but don't change the view,plan or rotation" . I am not sure that I quoted you exactly, but I was hoping that you could elaborate on that one statement that you made (for clarity). Another screen cast just on that one statement and I will have understood everything you said.

[ESchomberg]

Thank you Allen

[ESchomberg]

Hey Mike, you did such a good job on that screen cast that now I am getting greedy lol.... You showed me how to twist a view using "object" I think I have that figured out. I am trying to figure out the command option by "view" instead of by "object" just to see what that has to offer. If you get a spare moment I would love to see an example, Thank you.

[CivilFlow · Accepted solution]

Hi @ESchomberg

I recorded a short screencast to address your follow-up questions.  It is uploading now.  The link is below:

http://autode.sk/2IAEFsn

I hope this helps.

[ESchomberg]

Thank you mike. My computer has been down and out. I just wrote down every step in my note book.