Drawing in Wrong Plane

[AndrewHall]

I'm sure this is very simple problem, but I have searched the "Help" utility and this forum and can't find the answer. I thank the forum members for their patience in helping me.

I am using Acad 2008.

Suddenly today in model space it started drawing 2D and 3D objects in a plane that is at right angles to the XY plane defined by the UCS icon. I have the UCS set to "World".

How do I change this?

[duhvinci]

Dynamic UCS turned on?

[jaberwok]

Suddenly today in model space it started drawing 2D and 3D objects in a plane that is at right angles to the XY plane defined by the UCS icon. I have the UCS set to "World". How do I change this?

Try typing -

PLAN [enter] [enter]
- does that make a difference?

[AndrewHall]

Thanks for the suggestions. Unfortunately, when I opened the drawing this morning, it was back to normal. If the problem happens again, I'll try your suggestions and give an update.

By the way, I forgot to mention another "symptom" I saw when I had this problem: When I drew a circle (or a cone), a grayed-out UCS icon appeared at the center point I had selected and the orientation of this icon corresponded to the plane that the object was being drawn in. The normal UCS icon still appeared in it's previous location and orientation. This is the first time I recall seeing this.

Any ideas what that means?

Best regards,
Andy Hall

[jaberwok]

Possibly - you are looking edge on to the construction plane. Your UCS is set to World but your current view may not be.

[AndrewHall]

Well, it looks like some, if not all, of my "problem" was actually the normal operation of dynamic UCS.

I opened a different drawing this morning that had not given any problems before and the first circle I drew came out on the YZ plane. So I inhibited the dynamic UCS and that behavior stopped. The odd thing is that every drawing I have checked so far has the dynamic UCS enabled, but I never ran into this until the other day. And I do most of my work in 3D. You would think I would have run into this before now. Go figure.

By the way, I notice that when the dynamic UCS is operating, the UCS icon moves to the pick point for the object I am working on. I am beginning to doubt my earlier report that the "normal" UCS icon stayed visible at the same time. If my recollection was wrong, then all I was seeing was the normal behavior of dynamic UCS and I just didn't understand what was going on.

Thanks to everyone for the help. Maybe I'll learn to use AutoCAD yet.

Best regards,
Andy Hall

[jaberwok]

I'm glad you found the answer.
Since the setting for Dynamic UCS is an interface item, it almost certainly isn't stored in the drawing so, once switched on, it appears on for every drawing that you open.