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For precision, read requirement - if it's arty-crafty, it's probably not too much of an issue in most cases, if you're crafting something that requires laser cutting, it's a different matter. But I'll harp back to the five steps to snap something in AD ! Just unacceptable sadly. Yes, a really great feature if it's something you use, I don't find that at all useful - more of a hindrance really 🙂 I guess we all use these tools to completely different ends and occasionally, will have "conflicting features". As an aside, I had another yearly look around for alternative Illustrator-like apps this evening and came across "Amadine" - strangely, it does EXACTLY what is required - in one click too - and only 20 USD - maybe someone made it specially for me - it too has some "conflicting features" 'though 🙂 🙂 Happy Days Cheers Neil

Apologies for that, I seldom read further than the end of any post, in my defence, in most other forums I occasionally frequent, it invariably contains endless trivia about what toys the poster owns 🙂 OK, I've just watched the video by NPM (thanks for that BTW, cleared up a lot of my pre-conceptions of AD 🙂 )and see where my (?) issues arise. In AD, it seems that not all polygons are the same - a rectangle or a star (or whatever regular poly) are separate entities with their own super set of attributes particular to their design and NOT simple polygons with nodes - as in AI ! For instance, a rectangle created with the rectangle tool in AI is just a four sided poly and any of the nodes can be adjusted with the node tool - unlike AD where you have to "convert to curves" before being able to edit any of the nodes (of a "super poly" )- fine if you want the rectangle to stay as a rectangle, but painful if not. On the select all thing, I don't know what happened there, but the node tool was definitely changing to the move tool when within the bounding rectangle of the selected objects. In light of the above video and also the way AD handles 'super' polygons, I assumed that it may have been something to do with that - selecting all regular polys and created polys. I can't reproduce it this morning, it may be some low level bug - or may have been finger trouble on my part (couldn't possibly be that of course 🙂 ). I'll re-iterate the inferencing thing - I've just run through all my CAD applications and a few of my vector graphic applications and they ALL use inferencing at all levels, not just the bounding box of the object. I DO understand that you can do what I wish, but only with some effort to do something that should just be so ! I am of an age that has used graphic and cad apps for 40+ years, so have at least some experience with GUIs (and their foibles 🙂 ) Rather than one-click to move and snap in AD, it requires... 1 - Change to the node tool 2 - Select the object with that tool 3 - If it's a "super" poly, convert to curves 4 - Select all (this makes NO sense to me, Select All is a global command surely 🙂 ) to select all nodes of the selected object 5 - Click and drag the object either by the selected node (the node is highlighted, that in my book would adjust that node surely ??) and snap to the required node of the other object. For me, it's probably a deal-breaker, I can see where others that don't require this level of precision will find it perfectly fine for them - I really don't want to go through all the above steps simply to snap to a node - forty-odd years of muscle memory probably hasn't helped either in this case 🙂 Thanks to all for pointing out the "error of my ways" 🙂 , it seems that AI and I will have to be friends for some while yet /rant Cheers Neil

With respect, you must be using a different version of AD from me - 1.10.5 ? I'm on Mac, but do have a windoze version somewhere - I can't imagine there being any differences. Selecting all from the select menu (not the edit menu ?) - selects all objects - if using the node tool, the node tool changes to the move tool within the bounding rectangle of the selected objects, therefore, you can't subsequently select anything within that rectangle ?? There is no inferencing involved, so you can't snap to a node ? Maybe a screen vid would help, patently, I'm not getting the same effects you are. Cheers Neil

Ok, it seems I may not be explaining exactly what AD needs to be able to do (or may just what I want it to do 🙂 ). Here's a screendump of it using AI. For demonstration purposes, just a bunch of random polygons that require their nodes accurately snapped to other nodes. Cheers Neil AnyPoly.mov

TBH, the fact that you actually have to select the object first before you then choose another tool - say the node tool or point transform tool - to modify it or have to set a preference, makes it all just unusable for me - far too much faffing about. Simply mousing over an object in illustrator (or dare I say it, even the dreaded Inkscape 🙂 ) allows you to simply click the node or vector (using the move tool - which is more than likely, the tool you were using anyway) and instantly be able to drag and snap the object to any other object or node. I really don't understand why inferencing isn't a fundamental part of the core technology of AD. It's certainly a deal breaker for me and I don't see a way around it sadly - which is a real shame as AD is such a nice piece of software - AND the price is right - AND it's made in the UK 🙂. I guess that won't be addressed any time soon - I'll check back in another six months or so - maybe I'll get a surprise :-)) Cheers Neil

Actually, it 5 operations :-))

Thanks for this, but this is more of a workaround than a solution - it DOES work - and well thought out !, but that's four operations (I'd have to swap from the move cursor) just to snap an objects node when it should really be one :-)) To put this into perspective, if I have 30 (or much more!) items to move, that's 120 operations ! You get a quarter of that cigar though, thanks :-)))

I'm desperately trying to move away from Illustrator (and have been for a number of years since purchasing AD 🙂 I attempt to get to grips with AD every six months or so, but to no avail. I've trawled the help files and this forum, seen a few requests, but other than that, nothing. For the life of me, I just can't get AD to snap to object nodes - I don't mean during the creation of another object, that does work, but subsequent to the object creation - which may be on some other part of the page or even part of another project (I have no interest in aligning to page edges/centres/grids/bounding boxes). For a start, AFAICS, there seems to be no inferencing (ie node or line highlighting when your cursor passes over an object) - that in itself is a serious issue (for me at any rate 🙂 ) as you don't know where any orphan nodes may be (other than an obvious change of vector). In illustrator, the cursor changes from black to grey (Mac) and the underlying node is highlighted as you pass over. A really simple scenario is say a rectangle and a star - without actually selecting any of the objects (to be fair, in Illustrator, you pull the object along by one of it's nodes without previously selecting the complete object) , snap one of the star points to a rectangle corner. This is just child's play in Illustrator and something that I use constantly to ensure precise object positioning. Practically all the work I do has to be precise - not artistic 🙂 I do have snap to shape key points and snap to object geometry selected in the snapping manager along with all layers and visible objects. I'm sure some expert will have a simple solution to this that I have stupidly overlooked 🙂 Cheers Neil

I wouldn't hold your breath, we've been promised an offset tool for around 5 years - zilch, other than an awful stroke expansion thang :-(( I come back and do a forum search every 6 months or so to see if anything has happened (not sure why I bother really) - but sadly, no, the endless subs to Adobe have to keep going.

LOL, I come back to the Designer forum every few months to see where this wonderful tool is that is to arrive 'one day soon' and here we are in late 2019 - 5 years later - and the 'contour tool' (AKA Offset Tool) is nowhere to be seen. Buying Designer for both platforms has literally been a waste of money for me for this very reason - I should have put the funds to good use and put them to a subscription to Illustrator for yet another year What's even more annoying is that there is no mention of it in any future release either (AFAICS ?) - real shame, I had really wanted to ditch the adobe connection forever, but never to be it seems

That was in 2017, it's now 2019 + - I've pretty much dropped the notion that AD will ever produce a working offset tool (and I _don't_ mean the mess that is expand-a-stroke). For that reason, I've just had to move on and assume that the money I spent buying AD for both platforms has been wasted - REALLY sad about that, not the money loss, but the fact that nothing has moved on this front :-(((

I came back after a long layoff (still using AI ) to AD to see if anything had moved on the offset/contour tool front (something that completely stops me from using AD) - here's the quote from 2014 ... Five years is a loooong time to be waiting for a basic major feature to be incorporated. I really thought that AD was going to be pro-active on this front, but it seems that 'bells and whistles' rather than core features seem to be the order of the day. Maybe in another five years when I've fully retired ... /rant

I bought AD (both platforms) in the hope that one of my absolutely-must-have (and promised) features (an offset tool) would be incorporated. After 4 yrs, nothing - contrary to the promises - I'm quite sad about that as I had hoped to move away from $$$ Adobe $$$ products :-((( I see lots of completely impractical (for me at least) bells and whistles added, but not quality basic features fully available in illustrator or even coreldraw. I keep coming back at regular intervals to see any improvements, but I suppose that you get what you pay for. There must be thousands of laser/cnc - even vinyl cutter users DESPERATE for these features and wanting to get away from adobe. Anyone want my copies ? (are they even transferable licences ???) - currently (and it seems, the forseeable future), they're cack all use to me.) /rant

LOL, except for snapping while rotating All of the above offer truly accurate rotation, but not the precision of snapping to previously drawn parts that I require. At least I gained a few nice things from this post - every day is a earning day some say - thanks all that provided the info, it's appreciated Talking of cars, I see they are changing to driving on the right hand side of the road here in Scotland - probably something to do with brexit, it's to be done over the whole of next weekend. On Saturday after 1:00pm, all commercial and public transport will move over to the right, then on Sunday, all private cars and manually propelled vehicles will follow suit. Road signs will be removed and changed over the following weekend - if required. Cheers Neil

Yes, but my whole point is that it shouldn't :-))) If you want custom values, then simply typing in the transform panel would suffice for now in lieu of a custom panel, this is not the 'norm' - that's why I couldn't understand how it was 'working' - I do now tho' - I think "someone" once said that 'it's good to be different' :-) It's a bit like moving the clutch to the brake position - they'll still do their same job, but we've moved them (maybe not, that's probably a tad extreme, but you get my drift :-) It's not as if I haven't been doing it this way (wrongly?) since 1984 :-))