By default, the temporary drawing that is displayed is set to zoom in on all elements currently in the drawing. The ViewCube is set to Top view using WCS (world coordinate system). Click the corners of the ViewCube to find an angle that lets you work with OrthoCube grips easily.
At the Command prompt, you can also specify the exact coordinates for the drawing. You can also specify the scale of the viewport before placing the viewport in the drawing by clicking ? to open the Select Ortho View Scale dialog box.
You can now annotate the orthographic drawing.