In this work, we report results in calculation of the magnetic anisotropy o
f thin films by means of the real-space light-binding linearized muffin-tin
orbitals method (RS-TB-LMTO). A self-consistent spin-polarized version inc
luding spinorbit coupling and with arbitrary spin-quantization axis is used
. Within this framework, and as an example, the results of the magnetic ani
sotropy properties of Ni films on a Cu(001) substrate are reported.