Setting BASE ANGLE to North - Does not appear to work?

[Tempest]

I've done a search of the forums, and from the little I could find, I'm sure I'm doing the right thing.

 

If I want North (top) to be my Zero Degrees point (rather than east - to the right) then I go into FORMAT / UNITS

 

which takes me to DRAWING UNITS

 

I then have a button called DIRECTION

 

Here is says:

 

East 0

North 90

West 180

South 270

Other pick/type

 

 

Now logic tells me that currently East (to the right) is currently set to 0 degrees (which it is)

 

And that clicking North, should then make North (up) Zero degrees.

 

Errrr, but nothing happens.

 

I click North, the button shows North has been selected, but none of the values change, and East is still zero degrees.

 

Bit puzzled by this?

 

From what I found on these forums, doing this should set North to zero, but it makes no difference.

 

Perhaps I need to adjust something else?

[Tempest]

Have done a screen grab to show my confusion.

As you can see NORTH is selected, yet the numbers don't change and East is still shown (and is) Zero.

 

[Cad64]

You've done it right.

Select North if that's what you want your zero direction to be and then hit Ok to exit the dialogs. Now, back in your drawing area, initiate the line command and draw a line with a starting point at 0,0 and an ending point of @50.0

[Tempest]

You've done it right.

Select North if that's what you want your zero direction to be and then hit Ok to exit the dialogs. Now, back in your drawing area, initiate the line command and draw a line with a starting point at 0,0 and an ending point of @50.0

 

Thanks for the reply.

But there's something not right here.

 

After setting NORTH (as shown in the previous screen grab) I go to draw a line, approx 5 degrees right of north, which (as I'm drawing it) should display on my screen approx 5 degrees (in this case)

 

But it's not. It's still showing approx 85 degrees as North is still being displayed as 90 and East as zero.

 

As shown here:

 

 

If I move this line around (before I press the mouse button) clockwise towards the east (3 o'clock position) it counts down to zero as zero is still shown as to the East.

[Tempest]

Another screen grab, showing I have entered in 3 degrees into the angle box which has locked the line to 3 degrees whilst I adjust it's length.

 

And, as you can see, East is still obviously zero.

 

 

Just to add, it's now just gone 2am in the morning, and I'm off to bed (Yawn!)

Night Night all

 

Hopefully be able to sort this out tomorrow, obviously something I'm either doing wrong, or misunderstanding.

[Guest Alan Cullen]

In your screen shot above, under Angle, tick clockwise.

[Cad64]

Another screen grab, showing I have entered in 3 degrees into the angle box which has locked the line to 3 degrees whilst I adjust it's length.

 

And, as you can see, East is still obviously zero.

 

With North selected in your Format > Units > Direction Control Dialog, you should be able to initiate the line command, click on screen to set your first point and then type

[Tempest]

Right then...........

 

A Fresh day and a new look at my problem.

 

And YES. Now it's not 2am in the morning and my brain is going to sleep, I can see where my confusion was.

 

I've been confusing the angle of the line I'm currently drawing, with the on-screen guide showing the angle from horizontal (not sure if I've phrased that quite right?)

 

Have done a fresh screen grab to explain my confusion, and possibly get some advice on a tweak to just make it how I'd like it to look:

 

The picture below, shows that I have set North to zeo degree's as you can see on the left hand side, the vertical line, and the middle box (blue) saying POLAR

 

 

 

 

My confusion last night (yawn!) was I was looking at the box to the right (above the dotted curve) which shows 90'

 

Of course, now I realise, this does not mean the line I'm drawing NOW is at 90' It means I'm just drawing a line 90' to the horizontal guide line it's automatically put on screen to help me.

 

So, that's all fine and dandy.

 

My only issue is, if you look at the right hand image, you will see I've moved my line to the right slightly (just over 2') but now the box that showed POLAR (on the left hand image) which showed the actual angle of the line I'm drawing NOW has disappeared, to be replaced by a box which reads "specify next point or"

 

I'm hoping, is there an option which will still show the angle I'm currently drawing on screen in a floating box?

I know I can type in an angle, but I'd like to have a on-screen box, Like I do for the other angles?

 

Hope I've explained that ok.

[riga]

Right then...........

 

A Fresh day and a new look at my problem.

 

And YES. Now it's not 2am in the morning and my brain is going to sleep, I can see where my confusion was.

 

I've been confusing the angle of the line I'm currently drawing, with the on-screen guide showing the angle from horizontal (not sure if I've phrased that quite right?)

 

Have done a fresh screen grab to explain my confusion, and possibly get some advice on a tweak to just make it how I'd like it to look:

 

The picture below, shows that I have set North to zeo degree's as you can see on the left hand side, the vertical line, and the middle box (blue) saying POLAR

 

 

 

 

My confusion last night (yawn!) was I was looking at the box to the right (above the dotted curve) which shows 90'

 

Of course, now I realise, this does not mean the line I'm drawing NOW is at 90' It means I'm just drawing a line 90' to the horizontal guide line it's automatically put on screen to help me.

 

So, that's all fine and dandy.

 

My only issue is, if you look at the right hand image, you will see I've moved my line to the right slightly (just over 2') but now the box that showed POLAR (on the left hand image) which showed the actual angle of the line I'm drawing NOW has disappeared, to be replaced by a box which reads "specify next point or"

 

I'm hoping, is there an option which will still show the angle I'm currently drawing on screen in a floating box?

I know I can type in an angle, but I'd like to have a on-screen box, Like I do for the other angles?

 

Hope I've explained that ok.

 

Try to change the DYNMODE setting to 1 and see if this configuration looks better for your needs.

[Tempest]

Try to change the DYNMODE setting to 1 and see if this configuration looks better for your needs.

 

Thanks for the suggestion.

 

Tried DYNMODE at 1 as you suggested, and it does then give me the live readout of the actual angle of the line I'm currently drawing (which is what I wanted) but I then loose everything else

 

So, do I take it, I can't have DYNMODE at 3 (which is very useful and the way I like it) but also able to see on screen the actual angle of the line I'm drawing? so I can see my line is 3 degrees from vertical, rather than 87 degrees from the auto horizontal reference line?

[Cad64]

If you just want to temporarily override the Dynmode 3 setting for the line you are currently drawing:

Initiate the line command and click on screen to place your start point. Now drag out your cursor and type in the @ symbol, (Shift+2).

[Tempest]

If you just want to temporarily override the Dynmode 3 setting for the line you are currently drawing:

Initiate the line command and click on screen to place your start point. Now drag out your cursor and type in the @ symbol, (Shift+2).

 

Thanks for that.

Seeing as I can't quite have Exactly what I want Dynmode 3 AND a live readout of the actual angle I'm drawing my line at (at the same time) this is the next best thing.

 

Works pretty well, so thanks

[sanilsami]

Is there anyway to set the guideline to vertical rather than horizontal??

[naren7]

i currently have a problem similar to this initial one.

I have had autocad 2012, civil 3d 2012, autocad 2013 and now autocad 2014.

i'm a geomatic engineering student (surveying) and our cad drawings need to be based to north.

 

i've done the common sense thing and went into units, changed the base angle to north and tick clockwise.

 

however no change takes place, my angles are still based at the default direction. can anyone help me please? thanks

[neophoible]

i currently have a problem similar to this initial one.

I have had autocad 2012, civil 3d 2012, autocad 2013 and now autocad 2014.

i'm a geomatic engineering student (surveying) and our cad drawings need to be based to north.

 

i've done the common sense thing and went into units, changed the base angle to north and tick clockwise.

 

however no change takes place, my angles are still based at the default direction. can anyone help me please? thanks

Which angles are you talking about? If you click on a vertical line, does the Properties palette read 0/180 or 90/270 or something else, e.g., N/S/E/W? What actual angular units are you set to? BTW, if you are using Surveyor's Units, then it handles this for you, doesn't it?

[naren7]

 

in my country we use degrees/minutes/seconds as surveyors

and our distances are metric

 

i have them set as seen in one of the images.

in the other image that line direction should actually be 118d58'43" not 28d58'43"

[RobDraw]

I thought this was an interesting question and looked into it a bit and have a bit of insight. The drawing units and the dynamic input base angles are set by different variables. If you check the properties of the line after drawing it with your current units, they will be as you want them. I could not find the variable to control the units for dynamic input. Maybe someone with a vast knowledge of system variables will help us out.

[Bridge Man]

I just figured it out:

 

Go to TOOLS / New UCS / and pick "World" to set the north point bearing to 0 degrees..

 

Bridge Man

 

*******************************************************

 

I've done a search of the forums, and from the little I could find, I'm sure I'm doing the right thing.

 

If I want North (top) to be my Zero Degrees point (rather than east - to the right) then I go into FORMAT / UNITS

 

which takes me to DRAWING UNITS

 

I then have a button called DIRECTION

 

Here is says:

 

East 0

North 90

West 180

South 270

Other pick/type

 

 

Now logic tells me that currently East (to the right) is currently set to 0 degrees (which it is)

 

And that clicking North, should then make North (up) Zero degrees.

 

Errrr, but nothing happens.

 

I click North, the button shows North has been selected, but none of the values change, and East is still zero degrees.

 

Bit puzzled by this?

 

From what I found on these forums, doing this should set North to zero, but it makes no difference.

 

Perhaps I need to adjust something else?

[Bridge Man]

Go to "TOOLS".

Select "New UCS"

Pick "WORLD".

 

That's IT.

Seems obvious now . . . . . !