- Toolbars UCS and UCS II coordinate system AutoCAD. Use the first icon on the toolbar1 UCS, UCS positioning by clicking on the icon called UCS and then the X axis direction and then in a direction of Y axis at any point. The first course will determine the position of the x-axis (in this case the Origin should be included.
- AutoCAD For Dummies, 17th Edition. Set a UCS current with the Set Current button, or right-click a UCS to rename or delete a named UCS. You can’t rename or delete the World UCS. Orthographic UCSs: Lists the six default orthographic coordinate systems (front and back, left and right, top and bottom) relative to the WCS.
UCS and WCS in AutoCAD. Normally in 2D views, the WCS X axis is horizontal and the Y axis is vertical. The WCS origin is where the X and Y axes intersect (0,0). All objects in a drawing file are defined by their WCS coordinates. However, it is usually more convenient to create and edit objects based on the movable UCS.
Difference Between Ucs And Wcs
Clients teach me new things nearly every day. This week the lesson I learned is the difference between using DVIEW to rotate your design on screen and rotating the UCS about the Z axis. All of my CAD career, I've used DVIEW. For a long time, when someone mentioned rotating the UCS in a 2-D drawing I would cover my ears and go 'Llalalalalalalala.' Before this week, all I knew is that rotating the UCS caused major problems in survey software.
The company I trained this week had always used the UCS to angle designs into a more comfortable drafting mode. After telling them that they should use DVIEW instead, they naturally asked, 'Why?' At a loss for a real reason, I've taken it upon myself to dig deep and understand what the difference is.
A little background…
UCS stands for User Coordinate System. When you first enter a drawing your UCS lines up with the WCS. WCS stands for World coordinate system where Y is up, X is right and Z pops out of the screen at you. WCS is a nice, normal place, where things don't go wrong. In any new drawing, the world coordinate system lines up with the user coordinate system, much like a rectangular piece of paper whose edges line up with the edges of the desk it is sitting on. Rotate the piece of paper and you are rotating the Coordinate system. If instead you just started working on the drawing by scooting your chair to another position, that is more like what DVIEW > Twist does.
DVIEW > TWIST & SNAPANG
DVIEW is accessed by typing DVIEW at the command line. (Shocking, I know.) DVIEW stands for dynamic view, and represents the position of your eye (or in Autocad terms, the Camera) in relation to the canvas. After you start the DVIEW command, you are prompted to select objects or select a DVIEWBLOCK. I usually go for DVIEWBLOCK unless I'm just going to eyeball the rotation with a line or two as reference for the rotation. Type TW for twist and key-in your rotation angle. A positive angle will rotate the camera counter-clockwise.
You can leave the drawing as is, but your cursor will have rotated too. I usually use SNAPANG to untwist the cursor back to parallel with the bottom of the screen.
To rotate a coordinate system, use the view tab and find the Z axis rotation. Enter the angle you wish to rotate the view.
Rotating the UCS is redefining where the zero angle is, therefore a positive angle will rotate the coordinate system clockwise.
Differentiate Between Ucs And Wcs In Autocad
PLAN <CURRENT>Like DVIEW, the rotated UCS leaves you with a wonky cursor. Key-in PLAN, then hit enter for Current to straighten things up.
Un-twisting
To un-twist from DVIEW, I type in PLAN, then W for world. (If you know of a slicker way, drop me a comment). To untwist a UCS, click the world button on the View tab.
Now that I understand the differences, I totally understand rotating the UCS if lots of text is going to get placed relative to the rotation. However, that is the only compelling reason to do it. Overall, I still recommend DVIEW over rotating the UCS. A drawing can only have one UCS at a time, but you can use DVIEW in every viewport if you wanted to. A rotated UCS can seriously impact how XREFS line up and how blocks are inserted. A rotated UCS will cause XREFs and blocks to come in at unexpected locations - you are changing the coordinate system after all!
Differentiate Between Ucs And Wcs In Autocad Download
UCS (Pros) | |
Different dview twists can be set in different viewports | |
Works better when XREFS and blocks are inserted | Can use cad objects directly to set angle (DVIEW requires you to measure first) |
So next time one of your co-workers insists on rotating the UCS, you don't need to cover your ears and spout nonsense words. Get the whole story - then decide!
-HUGS, Lou
PS: Sign up NOW for my AU class Civil 3D for Beginners. November 29, 2011 1:00PM. Only a few spaces left! (Also, I bring candy.)
A couple of releases back, AutoCAD introduced Dynamic UCSs. Because dynamic is the opposite of static, what you get is a temporary coordinate system that changes as you move the mouse pointer over different planar faces of a 3D object. Click the Allow/Disallow Dynamic UCS button on the status bar, or press the F6 key to toggle Dynamic UCS on and off.
The UCS command offers ten options to help you define a new UCS. Access the UCS command options from the Coordinates panels on either the View tab or Home tab of the Ribbon.
After you select one of these UCS options from the Ribbon, follow the command prompts at the command line or the Dynamic Input prompt.
- World: Align the UCS to match the WCS.
- Face: Align the UCS to the face of a 3D solid.
- View: Align the UCS so that the X plane is perpendicular to your current viewing direction.
- 3 Point: Specify a new origin for the UCS, and then the positive direction of the X- and Y-axes. Alternatively, use the multifunction grips on AutoCAD’s UCS icon to create a new UCS by moving and realigning the icon.
For more information on all the UCS command’s options, refer to AutoCAD’s online Help system.
The more UCSs in your drawing, the more you need help managing them. AutoCAD offers a handy-dandy UCS dialog box for doing just that. Open it by clicking the dialog box launcher (the little arrow at the right end of the panel label) on the Coordinates panel of the View tab or Home tab, or simply type UCSMAN and press Enter. The three tabs in the UCS dialog box are
- Named UCSs: Lists world coordinate system and other types of user coordinate systems. Set a UCS current with the Set Current button, or right-click a UCS to rename or delete a named UCS. You can’t rename or delete the World UCS.
- Orthographic UCSs: Lists the six default orthographic coordinate systems (front and back, left and right, top and bottom) relative to the WCS. These UCSs are automatically created by AutoCAD and can’t be deleted or renamed.
- Settings: Controls properties of both the UCS icon and the UCS.
After you define a UCS that you think you might want to use again, you can save it in the UCS dialog box. You do that in the following steps, which you begin by creating a solid box:
- Start a new 3D drawing by selecting code>acad3d.dwt (or
acadiso3d.dwt
for the metric crowd) for the template, and ensure that the 3D Modeling workspace is current. - On the Modeling panel of the Home tab, click Box.AutoCAD prompts you:
Specify first corner or [Center]:
- Type 0,0,0 and then press Enter. AutoCAD anchors the first corner of the box at the origin of the WCS and prompts:
Specify other corner or [Cube/Length]:
- Drag the cursor away from the first corner and click a point to set the length and width of the box. Exact distances don’t matter in this example. AutoCAD prompts you:
Specify height or [2Point]:
- Drag the cursor upward from the second corner and click to set the height of the box. AutoCAD creates the 3D box and exits the command.
Difference Between Ucs And Wcs In Autocad
Then you define the UCS by following these steps:
Differentiate Between Ucs And Wcs In Autocad 2017
- Move the cursor over the UCS icon. The UCS icon shows the orientation of the world coordinate system. As you move the cursor over the icon, it turns a greenish-gold color, indicating that it can be selected.
- Click to select the UCS icon. A square, multifunction grip appears at the origin, and round, multifunction grips appear at the ends of the icon’s legs.
- Move the cursor over each multifunction grip and look at the grip menus. Hovering over one of the round grips at the end of a leg lets you choose between realigning the selected axis and rotating the UCS around one of the unselected axes. Hovering the mouse pointer over the origin grip lets you move the UCS origin to a new location and either keep the current alignment of the X- and Y-axes or realign them. The third grip option, World, restores the WCS. Now you use the UCS icon’s multifunction grips to set a new UCS.
- Click the UCS icon to select it, and then move the cursor over the square, multifunction grip at the origin. The cursor jumps to the origin, and the grip menu appears.
- From the grip menu, choose Move and Align. AutoCAD prompts you:
** MOVE AND ALIGN **Specify origin point or align to face, surface, or mesh:
- Move the cursor to a different corner of the box, and when the UCS icon origin is over the corner, click to set the new origin. If you want, you can drag the round grips on the axes to realign the new UCS.
Finally, you have to save it. Follow these steps:
- On the Coordinates panel of the Home tab, choose UCS, Named UCS. AutoCAD displays the UCS dialog box.
- With the Named UCSs tab current, select Unnamed in the UCSs list. The new, unnamed UCS is the current UCS in the drawing and is listed at the top of the list.
- Right-click Unnamed and choose Rename from the shortcut menu. An in-place editor is displayed that allows you to rename the UCS.
- Type a name for the new UCS and press Enter. The Unnamed UCS is renamed.
- Click OK. The UCS dialog box closes, and the new UCS is saved in the drawing.
To switch back and forth between the two UCSs, simply select the one you want to use from the Coordinates panel:
- Use WCS: On the Coordinates panel of the Home tab, choose UCS, World.
- Use your custom UCS: On the Coordinates panel of the Home tab, click in the Named UCS drop-down list and choose the name of the UCS you just saved.
AutoCAD likes giving you lots of choices. You can also restore a named UCS from the UCS drop-down list at the bottom of the ViewCube. Or you can right-click the UCS icon, choose Named UCS, and then choose the UCS from the menu.