Cad systems use the convention that the WCS (the default) has its positive X-axis horizontally to the right of the origin and its Y-axis vertically upward from the origin. For angles, zero lies on the X-axis horizontally to the right of the origin and angles increase (default) in an anti-clock-wise direction. Coordinates of a point in this system are listed as X,Y relative to the origin.

Land surveying uses a different default convention that the North-axis is vertically upward from the origin and its East-axis is horizontally to the right of the origin. For measurement of bearings (angles), zero lies on the N-axis vertically upward from the origin and angles increase in a clock-wise direction. Coordinates of points in this system are listed as N,E relative to the origin.

To conveniently use Draftsight for a survey drawing it is desirable to create a UCS by flipping and rotating the default axes so that the positive X-axis lies upwards or North and the positive Y-axis lies to the right or East. This is achieved by rotating the axes first 180 degrees about the Y-axis (the flip) and then rotating the axes 90 degrees clock-wise about the Z-axis to effectively flip and rotate the axes to the new position.

Now X,Y point specifications equate directly to N,E specifications and, without any unit settings change, angles are measured clock-wise from the North-axis.
In this new UCS all data entry can be entered using normal survey conventions and points and lines are properly placed in relation to the re-oriented axes.

The expectation is that now all reporting of those elements by Draftsight will reproduce data identical to that used by the operator to create them.

HOWEVER, Draftsight (V1R2.1) reports these elements in the status bar coordinate display, and when using the measure tool and the properties pallete, in terms of the WCS instead of the UCS so that a line drawn at 30 degrees from the UCS N-axis is incorrectly reported as lying at 60 degrees (the angle it actually makes with the WCS X-axis) – highly confusing for the user of the UCS and quite time-consuming and error-prone since one has to then “convert” the incorrectly reported data into a more meaningful form.

[User of DS (Free) Still stuck with V1R2.1 on Windows 7/64 Home Premium.]
30 Nov 2012, 14:37 (NZ standard time)

Edit 7 December 2012
An associated IQ relating to text display has been posted at https://swym.3ds.com/#community:70/iquestions:14415