Negative coordinate system for Esri and Bing maps in Civil 3D

In many countries designs must be done in the 3rd or 4th quadrant of the coordinate system which often causes issues with Esri or Bing maps by appearing in the 1st or 2nd quadrant. To rotate Esri or Bing maps by 180 (with base point of 0,0), create a negative coordinate system. The example below demonstrates the creation of a negative coordinate system for Hartebeesthoek and includes some notes related to the WGS 84 system.

Switch the Civil 3D workspace to Planning and Analysis:

Go to Map Setup in the ribbon and use the Library command:

Type “hart” in the search field, select Hartebeesthoek with the applicable Lo for your drawing (the example below uses Lo 29) and click Duplicate:

Select the new coordinate system and click on Edit:

Change the Code and Description (use any appropriate name):

Go to the Parameters tab, change X increases to the: East and Y increases to the: North, click Save and then Close:

Note: If you are creating a WGS 84 negative coordinate system, change X increases to the: West and Y increases to the: South, click Save and then Close:

Select the new coordinate system and click on Assign:

Switch the workspace back to Civil 3D:

Go to Geolocation in the ribbon and turn on the Esri or Bing map:

If a map does not appear in the correct quadrant, save the drawing, close it and reopen it.

If you want to set the coordinate system in the Drawing Settings window, the WGS 84 negative coordinate systems might not appear in the list.

In this case always go to the Planning and Analysis workspace and assign a negative coordinate system by going to Map Setup in the ribbon and using the Assign command: