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Reference

PLAN in AutoCAD

How AutoCAD's PLAN looks straight down on the current UCS, a saved one or the world's: Current ucs, Ucs, World, and how to get back to plan. Try it free.

PLAN looks straight down on the XY plane of a UCS, with its X axis pointing right: the plan view, as you drew it. It asks which UCS — the current one, a saved one or the world's — and Enter takes the current one. Then it frames the whole drawing and says Regenerating model..

Nothing in the drawing moves, and the UCS stays as it was: PLAN only turns the view. It is one undo step, so U takes the view back, and ZOOM Previous steps back to the view before. It is the way back to the plan after 3DORBIT or an isometric VIEW. MellowCAD's 3D is solids only, and still partial.

At the command line

The engine draws it and writes its history as you would type it: the prompts in AutoCAD 2027's order, with the same option letters.

The stepped block seen from the south-west with its UCS turned 30 degrees about Z: PLAN and Enter look straight down on that UCS, its X axis to the right, so the block shows turned.XY
  1. Command: PLAN
  2. Enter an option [Current ucs/Ucs/World] <Current>:
  3. Command: ZOOM
  4. Specify corner of window, enter a scale factor (nX or nXP), or [All/Extents/Previous/Scale/Window/Object]: 0.8x
The stepped block seen from the south-west with its UCS turned 30 degrees about Z: PLAN and Enter look straight down on that UCS, its X axis to the right, so the block shows turned.

Options

Current ucs (C)

The plan of the current UCS, the default. After UCS turned the UCS 30 degrees about Z, the drawing shows turned 30 degrees clockwise, so that the UCS's X axis points right; after a UCS on a sloping face, it looks square onto that face.

Ucs (U)

The plan of a UCS saved with UCS's NAmed, which you type by name. For a name that is not saved it says it cannot find that UCS and asks again; ? lists the saved ones, as UCS does, and asks again too. The current UCS does not change.

World (W)

The plan of the world coordinate system: the drawing as it was at the start, X to the right and Y up, whatever the current UCS is, which stays as it was.

What it does not do yet

With nothing drawn, PLAN keeps the zoom where it was, where AutoCAD frames the drawing limits.

What it does and still lacks, in detail (in English)

Questions

How do I get back to plan view in AutoCAD?

Type PLAN and press Enter twice: the second Enter takes Current. If the UCS is turned and you want the world's plan, choose World instead.

What is the UCS plan command?

PLAN with Current: it looks down on the current UCS, its X axis to the right. Turn the UCS first with UCS, then run PLAN and press Enter twice, and you draw on the turned plan as if it were square.

Why is my drawing rotated in plan view?

The view is the plan of a turned UCS. Run PLAN and choose World to see the drawing with the world's X to the right again; UCS and Enter set the UCS back to World too.

Does PLAN change the UCS?

No. It only turns the view; the UCS stays as it was. VIEW's orthographic views are the ones that turn the UCS as well.

Related commands