asking for tips about snapping with curve nodes in Designer

[Otto Manuel]

Hi,

 I have been working with an Isometric style grid and am hoping to learn some tips about snapping.

 The snapping I am using works pretty good, but my master document has a relatively large pixel dimension of 8000x4000 and I have been struggling when working with small details in a large project.

 I have been assembling elements in smaller documents, such as 1000x1000 so I can work with the snapping grid effectively and then copy/paste the elements into a large master file where I don't need to do very much detailed editing

 I would like to enjoy more aggressive snapping when working on the elements, and feel as if I am spending too much time inspecting for and adjusting the position of nodes so they are actually snapped in an Isometric relationship.

As I say, the snapping works pretty good, and I am continually impressed by how effective the snap features are in general, but I am hoping to learn some tips to improve my situation.

For example; I have found that when I resize my isometric elements there is often times some very minor displacement, not the obvious type that occurs with an unlocked aspect ratio, but small deviations that occur when sliding several nodes along one of the axis to stretch a shape, or when scaling an element with aspect ratio locked. These are all tiny issues, but they appear obvious when you zoom in, so I spend a lot of time trying to make sure every thing is tight and clean.

I feel as if I should be working with very aggressive snapping while I lay out my basic shapes so I can work quickly, but still establish a very accurate foundation of angled line work to which I can add detail to in subsequent steps.

Does anyone have any favorite Snap and Grid management suggestions they can share?

 

Thank you!!!

[MEB]

Hi @Otto Manuel
Have you tried to increase the Screen tolerance (top right setting in the Snapping Manager) to make it more sensitive to reference points?

[Otto Manuel]

Hi @MEB

Thank you for the suggestion. I have not tried this, and probably misunderstood the function. If I recall correctly I had assumed a smaller value made it more sensitive. After learning the idea of increasing the value the snapping does seem more aggressive.

Having said that my impression is that the tendency to snap is not just confined to the nodes but also the the grid which makes dragging nodes seem choppy rather than smooth, so I think I will need to learn more about how to prepare suitably sized grid divisions, while also become more active in managing the snap settings at differing stages of an illustration's development.

In my case, once I use the grid to establish the basic planar objects, I tend to prioritize snapping to nodes on other objects. I will need to develop habits for changing the snap settings when one or the other priority is more suitable.

If anyone has some experience with this and can articulate some of the concepts they employ, I will appreciate the opportunity to consider your ideas while I try to clarify this info into a better state of understanding, which I may apply to my workflow.

Thank you!

[Otto Manuel]

FWIW, it seems as if increasing the screen tolerance value makes dragging nodes feel "choppy" regardless of whether I have snapping turned on or off.

I guess it makes sense, although I admit I had assumed this parameter would be contextual and specific to snap functions rather than a global adjustment.