Agree with Brad. Another very important application of a displacement coordinate system other than the global is when you want to apply coupled degrees of freedom between two mating parts that are tightly attached, for example pressed together by an external load, in a particular direction like r and theta. Now, if you model this without coupled defrees of freedom, lets use the cylinder example again, and assume two cylinders pressed against each other without any lubrication, there would be relative displacement between the two parts at the contact surface, which is not real. So, you need to apply the coupled d.o.f constraint on the nodes on both parts mating on the respective surfaces, in the r theta direction, the axial is taken care of by the contact definition. By default, these nodes have their displacement CS defined as global, so to be able to apply the particular constraint, you'd have to change their displacement CS to the radial one. Sunny.