Jump to content
You must now use your email address to sign in [click for more info] ×

About snapping feature and guides


Recommended Posts

Hi,

 

I don't understand, maybe I'm missing something, but when creating guides, shouldn't they snap to basic division values of the selected layer, like 50% height / width ? Each time I open a new document I need to manualy calculate the center, the 25% etc... It would be nice to have the guide snap on it's own.

 

On the other hand, when creating a shape it doesn't snap to a guide but only give me green and red lines, there is not magnet system for the snap to avoid missing 0.2mm everywhere ?

 

Thanks for the help

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Staff

Hi Mushr00m,

Ben is already working on improved grids and snapping. I'm not sure if he already addressed this (guide snapping to notable page points), but if not you can always fill a request for it.

Meanwhile there's a quick way to create the guides at specific points on a page: go to menu View ▹ Guides Manager... and insert the values there. You can use percentages (enter 50% to create a guide in the middle of the page for example), absolute values and perform calculations inside the input field if needed.

Hope this helps a little.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Staff

You should be able to snap a guide while dragging it, depending upon what settings you have on for snapping.

 

On the other hand, when creating a shape it doesn't snap to a guide but only give me green and red lines, there is not magnet system for the snap to avoid missing 0.2mm everywhere ?

 

I'm not entirely sure I understand what you mean here.  Can you explain?

SerifLabs team - Affinity Developer
  • Software engineer  -  Photographer  -  Guitarist  -  Philosopher
  • iMac 27" Retina 5K (Late 2015), 4.0GHz i7, AMD Radeon R9 M395
  • MacBook (Early 2015), 1.3GHz Core M, Intel HD 5300
  • iPad Pro 10.5", 256GB
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Staff

I didn't know it was possible to snap the guides to the middle of the page. I think there should be some more visual feedback here because it's easy to miss the midpoint. Making the whole guide turn green/red when it matches page notable points would help making this more discoverable i think.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Staff

Hi,

On the other hand, when creating a shape it doesn't snap to a guide but only give me green and red lines, there is not magnet system for the snap to avoid missing 0.2mm everywhere ?

 

 

There is a "magnet" system in place. If you are working with vey large documents it may not be so obvious. In this case you can configure it going to View ▹ Snapping Manager... and changing the Screen tolerance (at the top right of the Snapping dialog) to a bigger value.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for your answers

 

@MEB : I tried to enter 50%, 33%, etc in the "guides manager" but it always come back to the old mm value not calculating the percentage in mm from the document. It's not working with percent. It would be nice to be able to do that in percent like you said.

 

@Ben : I start with a blank document, I just add 2 guides in the center. I create a rectangle shape and want it to snap the bottom left corner to the guides (document center). I've put the tolerance to 50, and the document is just an A4 in mm. I doesn't "snap" like we can see in AI or PS, but it just show a green line for the horizontal and a red line for the vertical to show me I'm align. But of course when releasing the mouse it must move and when zooming I see there is a gap. The only way is to zoom a lot on my document (2000%) to have the snapping effect. So yes it's working but only when you zoom a lot on large documents.

 

So in fact it looks like it's working when zooming enough

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Staff

Hi Mushr00m,

Hi believe you're using the Mac App Store version (1.2.1).

If that's the case what i said will not work there. Sorry for not being clear. 

In the latest Beta you can do it as i described. If you don't want to install the Beta just wait a couple more days. The Mac App Store version will be updated very soon and will include those improvements.

 

Can you post the file with that rectangle you are trying to align to the guides? I would like to check how you have set it up if you don't mind...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Staff

Hi Mushr00m,

Affinity Designer v1.3.2 is already available in the Mac App Store. I advise you to update to this version since it was considerably improved.

Your file is working fine here. When you drag the rectangle near the guides and both change their colour (green for vertical and red for horizontal) it means the object is aligned with the guides.

If you then zoom in to check, there's no gap between the rectangle and the guides. Here's a clip using the file you provided. Isn't it working like this for you?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Guidelines | We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.