Civil technician R.T. Rinehart shares a trick to use when labeling an AutoCAD drawing with a rotated view.

"I work in the civil industry and we are always twisting viewports for various rotations, especially when running plan/profile sheets along an alignment. This makes for a very frustrating time when it comes to dimensioning, since the dimension (especially leaders) will always align to the current UCS. I have found that entering the UCS command and selecting 'View' as a rotation will stop this.

"I use this little trick temporarily while dimensioning, then change the setting back once dimensioning is complete. Be careful that you don't forget your rotated UCS, especially if you start listing or labeling coordinates. To change it back to normal, just enter 'UCS' and change back to 'world.'"

Notes from Cadalyst tip reviewer Brian Benton: AutoCAD uses a coordinate system known as the UCS or User Coordinate System. The default UCS is called the World Coordinate System; it creates a point that all UCSs are based on. It gives us something to measure against. The World Coordinate System will be the only system that many AutoCAD users will ever use.

There are several circumstances where rotating the UCS will serve your needs better. The example of plan and profile drawings given above is a good one. These drawings need to maximize the data shown in the plan view so they are rotated, often to unusual or nonstandard angles. Many users will create a rotated view or a rotated UCS to fit this need. That can cause issues on the paper drawing with strange rotations of labels. This tip helps users address that problem.