Hi Len, I was able to get in some options for changing what directions are labeled as x, y, and z for the next v2 beta.
The way it will work is first there is a new button on Options / View:
If you push that new "Axis labels" button this new dialog will pop up:
That dialog will let you set the labels to use for the right, forward, and up directions - to try and clarify them they are labeled here as "Top view horizontal" for right, "Top view vertical" for forward, and "Elevation" for up.
The default is the same as before, with the Top view using x and y making a kind of "blueprint plan" with z being the elevation up from the "tabletop plan", that is pretty much the standard for CAD programs.
To use the kind of animation-style x/y in the front view, you will want to change this to be like so:
Then I think it will behave like you are more accustomed to, here is a shot of how the axis icons look when changing that setting:
When you change this option, it doesn't really change how data is stored internally or written out to any files, it changes a few specific areas though to give you sort of feedback and UI using your label preference. The optional axis icon in the lower left corner will show up using your label choice, the label on the base point of straight snap will display using your labels, axis snap will show "On x", "On y", etc... using your labels and also the x,y,z point readout and x,y,z typed-in point input will use your labels as well.
There are a number of things that will not change though, like technically that coordinate system above there with x/y on the front view is a "Left handed" coordinate system which is supposed to handle rotation directions slightly differently - that will not be different but that detail is probably not likely to affect you very much, it just means that the rotation that you get by using something like the Rotate axis tool will not be technically correct for your custom coordinate system, the "positive" angular direction will still be determined by the right-hand rule instead of a left-hand rule.
But I think that having all the x,y,z coordinate feedback using your labels should do the trick well enough and I doubt that you will notice the parts that are technically incorrect for rotations and angle measurements.
- Michael
