SNAP, GRID, and grid lines

Hi

I think SNAP and GRID settings are related. Then, how come when GRID is off I could still turn on the SNAP and the crosshair stops moving smoothly as if snapping to something? And why is it so that when GRID is on, the grid lines don't get visible? It's supposed to look like a graph paper with small squares etc.

Please help me. Thanks.

Please help me.

Snap and Grid are independent. You can set the spacing of each to differing values. Grid is an area of regularly spaced dots to aid drawing. Grid does not create grid lines. Most people are directed to use Snap and Grid early on, but soon learn that in most cases, they have no practical use and so ignore them.

If you had tried looking in your help files, you would have got this information a lot sooner.

another way to look at it is this -

GRID toggles the visibility of the 'points' (as eldon said there are no graph paper grid lines)

SNAP toggles the cursor snapping to those points

and as commonly mentioned, neither get much use.

What are you drawing that you feel Grid and Snap would be useful tools?

(as eldon said there are no graph paper grid lines)

There is in my AutoCAD 2011?

Agree with JDM but this wasn't an option in 2005.

The only time I ever use the grid was when I first started learning to draw in 3d. I would occasionally turn it on just to get oriented. The graphics capabilities weren't too good on the computer I had back then, and I was doing all this on a 17" CRT monitor. Well, my eyesight wasn't too good either, and drawing in wireframe sometimes my brain would invert the image. When that would happen, I'd zoom out, click on the grid and that would provide a spacial reference that would help me see it correctly.

That hasn't happened in many years though. Don't know if it's that monitors have improved considerably, or medical science finally advanced far enough that the corrective surgery fixed my eyes or a combination of both, but I haven't used it that way in a long long time. Never did find a practial use for snap.

Turning the grid on will show you where objects are in relation to a drawing's limits, if you happen to run across a drawing by someone who still uses limits. One of the companies I freelance for still has limits in thier drawing standards and thier checker gripes if I forget to set them.

There is in my AutoCAD 2011?

well i guess that's some form of progress?!

Even though I draft electrical schematics, hydraulic flow diagrams and P&ID's I don't use SNAP and/or Grid either. However, on past jobs/contracts I have worked with companies that do. It can be very handle in the aforementioned applications.

Personally, I find SNAP to be a pima.

JD wrote, There is in my AutoCAD 2011

well i guess that's some form of progress?!

I wouldn't know if that is progress or not - I turned off the grid 23 or 24 years ago.

Thanks a lot, everyone.

I've worked in the Power and Controls group for two large companies and they both insisted all of their drawings be "on snap" at all times. I can live with the snap set at .0625, but I just find the grid obnoxious. lol

It's a preference thing. Some people love their little dots.

Hi Cat

Why was so? What was the reason for the insistence?

Hi Jackson,

From a drafting stand point, the electrical discipline is about as exciting as watching the grass grow and requires basically no knowledge of the "drafting profession", but typically "uniformity" is a pretty big deal. We want all the symbols and wiring to "line up", so snap is very useful for that purpose.

Thanks. Yes, uniformity and consistency is very important in many fields, though sometimes it just sucks. It's a Bengali tiger, isn't it?

yes it is, Jackson.

This series might interest you: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypbqLnHsR9g&feature=related