ah yes which way they are orientated, so if i was to put text on the "face" in Photoshop i wouldnt have to put it sideways just so its the right way round in Maya.

Stwert that sounds like a very good idea to solving the problem, thanks

furthermore when you mentioned orientation i started looking at the origin x/y/z in the view port and x/y in the texture editor and figure you can work out it looking at that as well.