Posted by Tango on Jun 12, 2016; 11:12pm
URL: https://forum.librecad.org/Change-Rotation-Direction-To-Measure-Clockwise-instead-of-Counter-Clockwise-tp5713908.html

The surveyors who have worked on our lot sent me .dxf files of the current data.  This is a big help to me, since it lets me do some simple surveying work (to figure possible house site locations) on my own.

There is one issue that creates a lot of extra work for me.  When lines are drawn on the map, they are done with compass bearing.  A line running from south (bottom) to north (top) that is rotated to the right (clockwise) by 90° (using the south end as a pivot and moving the north end of the line in the rotation), in LibreCAD, will be rotated by 270°, since LibreCAD measures the direction of rotation moving in a counter-clockwise direction.

On a compass, the direction of rotation is measured in a clockwise direction, so that same line, if it were running from west to east, would have a 90° rotation (and, if it ran from east to west, would have a 270° rotation).  But in LibreCAD, that same line would have those numbers reversed.  LibreCAD measures the degree of rotation from the top (North) and counts counter-clockwise.

If I drew a compass on paper, North is 0°, East is 90°, South is 180°, and West is 270°.  But if I have the same markings in LibreCAD and want to rotate something facing North so it faces East, then, according to LibreCAD, that's a 270° rotation.

Is there any way to tell LibreCAD to measure rotation in a clockwise direction?  My work would go MUCH faster if I didn't have to take every bearing I have from using a compass and subtract it from 360° to get the rotation I need to use in LibreCAD.