You know what the WCS is. Anytime you start a drawing AutoCAD defaults to the World Coordinate System. The W on the UCS icon tells you so. This system provides for hours of easy drawing in these x, y, and even z planes.
But what if you need to draw in another off axis plane? This is especially important when drawing coordinate dependent extrudeable polylines.
The command UCS will allow you to set your own coordinate system. You can either chose to rotate about a current axis, or set your own based on 3 points.
Type UCS.
Prompt reads:
Origin/ZAis/3point/Entity/View/X/Y/Z/Prev/Restore/Save/Del/?:
Select 3.
Prompt reads:
Origin point<0,0,0>:
Click on the intersection you wish to use as the 0 point (this selects an origin or 0 point for an xyz axis).
Then do the same for the x and y values. The ucs icon will change displaying the new and current UCS.
You can save this current UCS for later, by entering UCS again, and choosing S, save. Restore the WCS by selecting W for the world option, P for the previous setting, etc.
Now your world is limitless. You can concieveably draw in any plane you would ever want.
