CARLSON anyone seen this?

Do you have your UCS rotated? I've found that if it's not in World, then the annotation gets a little hooey.

Don't recall the annotation problem but I had the same problem with points not being where they are.
This worked for me:
Layers off *
Layer on pnt pnt desc pnt...
Erase all the points
Layers on *
Draw locate points
Draw line from endpoint of line to proper point
Layer off pnt desc.....
Move all the linework
Turn points back on

Hope you get it fixed soon!

Switching between Model and Paper space you need to change dimension arrow size: dimasz

Turned out to be the UCS World got switched off.
How is the question. I didn't turn it off at the view command and the keyboard command is a little complicated to pull off by accident. If it was an un-commanded switch, that could be a damn dangerous thing. I only noticed it because my annotation was landing out in space instead of on the line. The bearings on the line, when you did "inquire bearing and distance" were different than when I annotated them before the switch, and were different if you select "by point" and entered the point numbers at either end or selected "by line" or selected the ends of the line with the end snap.
If the shift this caused had been just a few inches rather than the 40'+- I noted, can you imagine the consequences? You'd be setting points for stakeout, the symbol and number would be on the ends of the lines you want to stake, and the coordinate value would be somewhere else entirely. Ouch.
Why is the UCS a switchable thing anyway?

> Why is the UCS a switchable thing anyway?

I can't speak to Carlson, but in AutoCAD the UCS command allows the user to redefine the orthogonal axes so that they correspond to drawing entities in order to make aligning things -- principally text, in my case -- easier. I use it routinely whenever a drawing is oriented a significant amount off of north.

Needless to say, any command that alters the UCS without alerting the user is problematic.

From the Carlson manual...

Set UCS to World
Function
This command will allow you to set the coordinate system of the current drawing to world.
Carlson Survey CES only works with drawings that are in the world coordinate system.
"Pull-Down Menu Location: View
"Prerequisite: None
"Keyboard Command: None

Carlson Survey CES only works with drawings that are in the world coordinate system

So why the switch?

Ladd, you out there?

> Ladd, you out there?

I'm here but have been refraining from posting to the thread as I can't speak with any certainty regarding the functionality of the circa 2001 version of Carlson Survey CES (my hands-on familiarity with Carlson products only begins with the 2007 versions of our products).

>Carlson Survey CES only works with drawings that are in the world coordinate system
>So why the switch?

I believe the "only works" portion of that statement might be a little over-assertive. It is my opinion that what it's probably trying to convey would be something along the lines of "Carlson Survey CES is designed to work correctly only with drawings that are in the world coordinate system" which is further corroborated with the current incarnation of the help topic associated with the command:

>This command sets the UCS (user coordinate system) to the world coordinate system (WCS). Carlson commands work exclusively in the world coordinate system. In AutoCAD, it is possible to change the coordinate system from WCS. If you receive a drawing in which the coordinate system is not set to world, use this command to restore the UCS.

For as long as I can remember, AutoCAD has permitted the user to create their own "User Coordinate System" (UCS) to act as a more convenient alternative to the "World" coordinate system (the coordinate system where the Y-axis points "up" on the screen and represents North in the World and where the X-axis points "right" on the screen and represents East in the World).

Back in the earlier days, I believe DCA (aka Softdesk, Land Development Desktop) used a "User" Coordinate System (a coordinate system other than "World") to orient a drawing on-screen and permit the easier plotting of a drawing for projects whose "long-axis" was not in a general "X" direction of the World coordinate system.

While I don't want to re-open the whole UCS vs. DView-Twist debate (to each, their own), I've always been a firm believer that a World coordinate system with a twisted screen (this is the approach that Carlson takes) is/was a much safer approach to project data than an arbitrary user-coordinate system.

Not knowing the history of your drawing file (and/or the applications that might have touched the DWG), the departure from the World Coordinate System would have likely been the result of one or more of the following:

1. The DWG was opened and used in a DCA/Softdesk/LDD environment and given (intentionally or not) a UCS for drawing orientation, or,
2. A UCS was manually created (intentionally or not) in the Carlson Survey CES environment, or,
3. (I need to concede the possibility of the following) A UCS might have been created by a Carlson Survey CES command to perform some action and an unexpected shut-down of the routine might have stranded a UCS in the drawing.

Although it's possible #3 might be at play in this scenario, I'd find it unlikely as I suspect most (if not all) Carlson routines are designed to work under the guise of a World coordinate system and likely don't check to see if there is a user-coordinate system in place or prevent its use. What I can say, though, is that in all of my testing and use of Carlson commands over the past +5 years, I've never been able to create an unintentional UCS with a Carlson command. I'm not saying that this isn't possible or can't be done, I'm simply saying that I don't know how to produce this kind of situation.

I hope this information helps.

Thanks for your time in replying Ladd.
It was a very strange and mildly scary thing to have to deal with. I finished my map today with no further issues, but that was weird.
I'd like to express my gratitude for the way that you folks at Carlson keep support at the level that you do.
It matters.

CARLSON support with Ladd Nelson matters

> Thanks for your time in replying Ladd.
> It was a very strange and mildly scary thing to have to deal with. I finished my map today with no further issues, but that was weird.
> I'd like to express my gratitude for the way that you folks at Carlson keep support at the level that you do.
> It matters.

Yes indeed.

CARLSON support with Ladd Nelson matters

Yes, Carlson is second to none in Customer support. After a recent dog and pony show with Trimble (and their Humungous Gas & Electric model), I've started to really appreciate the people at Carlson. If the person on the phone can't answer it, they'll direct you to someone who will. :good: :good: