Drafting Tools in AutoCAD - Snap and Grid

Discussion in 'AutoCAD' started by josvandoorn, Nov 3, 2006.

  1. josvandoorn

    josvandoorn Guest

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    We've got snap and grid in AutoCAD. Let's talk about
    snap and grid. Let's see how we can use it and why we
    would use it.

    Snap restricts the cursor movements to specified
    intervals. That is handy. Lines will have a specific
    length.

    Still. If you're using object snaps than you can pick a
    point that is not on an interval that has been
    specified. We'll talk about object snap later.

    With grid switched on dots are displayed in the screen.
    The dots help to visualize distances. Often the grid
    interval is the same as the snap interval.

    That is important. You can have grid dots displayed in
    the screen. Now you want to print your drawing. The
    dots are not printed.

    OK. We know what snap and grid are. But we want to know
    more. We want to know how we can set the intervals and
    how we can switch it on and off.

    Let's start with setting the intervals. There are two
    ways for doing that. Whatever way you choose. You do it
    over the Drafting Settings dialog box.

    Click on Tools in the menu bar. A pull down menu shows
    up. In the pull down menu click on Drafting Settings.
    The Drafting Settings dialog box is displayed.

    There are four tabs in the Drafting Settings dialog
    box. The Snap and Grid tab is in front. That's exactly
    what we want.

    In the dialog box we see two check boxes and we see
    four areas. The checkboxes can be used for switching on
    or off snap and grid.

    Let's have a look at the Snap area and the Grid area.
    First the Snap area. In that area you can enter values
    for the spacing.

    You can enter a value for the X spacing and you can
    enter a value for the Y pacing. The spacing set the
    interval I was talking about.

    There is more you can do in that area. You can enter an
    angle, an X base, and a Y base. The angle gives the
    angle of the snap intervals.

    Most of the time you do not change the angle. You leave
    the angle at zero. But the X base and the Y base.
    What's that?

    The X base and the Y base gives the starting point of
    the snap. As before. Do not change it. Leave it as it
    is. At zero.

    You now know how you can do the settings for the snap.
    You do it in the Snap area of the Drafting Settings
    dialog box.

    But we can also do something with the settings of the
    grid. That is done in the Grid area of the dialog box.
    This time we can do less.

    We can only change the X spacing and the Y spacing. We
    cannot change the angle or the X base and Y base of the
    grid.

    This is what is done most of the time. Most of the time
    the spacing for the grid is the same as the spacing for
    the snap.

    That is what is happening. The grid follows the snap
    settings for angle and the X base and Y base. So there
    is no need to change those settings.

    This is what we now saw. You can do the settings of the
    snap and the grid in the Drafting Settings dialog box.
    And you can switch them on and off.

    Before I continue. I must tell you about the third area
    in the Drafting Settings dialog box. It is the Snap
    style and type area.

    For the snap type we can set Grid snap and we can set
    PolarSnap. If we go for a Grid snap type then e can
    select a rectangular snap or an isometric snap.

    If you're creating isometric drawings, then you want to
    go for an isometric snap. The snap will have the
    isometric angles.

    I'm not going to talk about PolarSnap now. I will do
    that later. I will do that as we're talking about Polar
    Tracking. In the next article.

    But there is another way. Look at your screen. Do you
    see the status bar? In the status bar there are two
    buttons.

    In the status bar there is the Snap button and there is
    the Grid button. You can click on the buttons. To have
    snap and grid switched on and off.

    Something else you can do with the buttons. You can
    right click them. If you do a short cut menu is
    displayed.

    If you right click the Snap button then you'll find the
    following options in the shortcut menu:

    - PolartSnap On
    - Grid Snap On
    - Off
    - Settings

    If you right click on the Grid button then you'll find
    the following options in the shortcut menu:

    - On
    - Off
    - Settings

    You can imagine where the on and off options stand for.
    Those options can be sued to switch snap and grid on or
    off.

    But we already saw. There is a quicker way. We can also
    click on the Snap and Grid buttons in the status bar.
    In fact. There is another quick way.

    You can press the F7 function key to switch grid on or
    off. And you can press the F9 function key to switch
    snap on or off.

    Oh. In the shortcut menu under the Snap button you also
    see the PolarSnap On option. As I said before. We'll
    talk about it alter.

    But there is the Settings option in the shortcut menus
    under the Snap button and the Grid button. Click on
    that option.

    If you do the Drafting Settings dialog box is opened.
    We already have seen what can be done in the Drafting
    Settings dialog box.

    But this is what we now know. Using the shortcut menu
    under the Snap and Grid button. That is a quicker way
    to open the Drafting Settings dialog box.

    This is it for today. Now you know everything that you
    need to know about snap and grid. Tomorrow we're going
    to talk about polar tracking.

    See you tomorrow.

    This is the first article in a series of five articles.
    F- R- E- E. Written by Jos van Doorn. To get the
    other articles. Send a blank e- mail to:

    mailto:

    There are more AutoCAD articles. Would you like to
    know? You can find them here:

    http://www.autocad-articles.blogspot.com
     
    josvandoorn, Nov 3, 2006
    #1
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