User Coordinate System (UCS), DVIEW, and World Coordinate System (WCS)

Pretend you're walking down a street that heads due north. You're operating in the World Coordinate System (WCS), with north straight ahead of you. Let's say you want to see the house to your right. You have three (virtual) options to view it. For the purposes of using our software, the first two options below are incorrect.

Option 1: WCS (incorrect)

Grab the entire world and rotate it so the house is in front of you. This option is similar to physically rotating your AutoCAD drawing to suit your needs, which changes the real world coordinate orientation. Never physically rotate the site to change the viewing angle.

Option 2: DVIEW (also incorrect)

While looking straight ahead, hold a camera up to your face and aim it to look at the house. Now pretend that you touch the camera viewfinder and say, "I'm touching this house." Touching the camera viewfinder is a fake way of touching the house. In the same manner, AutoCAD's DVIEW command is essentially a camera command and is therefore inappropriate for viewing a site. Never use DVIEW to change viewing angle. Land F/X cannot rotate labels, text, and other items when you use the DVIEW command. That is, the software can't really "touch" the site correctly. 

Need to remove a DVIEW twist from a drawing? Here's how.

Option 3: UCS (correct)

The correct method is to turn your body and face the house. In doing so, you are establishing a new User Coordinate System (UCS), and this is the best of the three methods. Always establish a new UCS to change the viewing angle. In this manner, you're simply turning to look at the site differently.

For further information on creating and working with a UCS, including instructions for our New UCS and Restore UCS tools, see our Creating a UCS page.;

Using a UCS is not only good for retaining the WCS and allowing good coordination with other disciplines, but it also allows flexibility in the control of viewing a drawing. You may have a situation, such as street improvements on a 10-mile winding road, where you have a multiple viewing of the site so that the street will appropriately appear on your drawing sheet as basically horizontal.