Non-Standard Grid Help / Math Question

[Isosceles]

Howdy, Affinity Designer for iPad pals!

I'm a brand new user, and so far the app is perfect for what I'm looking to do. Love it.

I’m hoping you can help me with a an issue, where my non-standard grids do not evenly align nicely with my document.

To troubleshoot I set up documents with round numbers (10x10-inch canvas) and corresponding grid intervals (1/2 or 1-inch), but still no luck. In the attached screenshot you'll notice that the edges of the grid don't align evenly with the bounds of document/canvas. I'm running into this with all non-square grids: isometric, oblique, triangular—the lot of them.

So is there a way to at least center the grid to one axis of the document/canvas? I'm hoping this is just a simple document size vs. grid spacing math problem that I'm too dense to figure out.

My workaround is to manually place guides on a larger-than-needed canvas to get full, but it's a pain—so any help would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks in advance, friends!
 

[Dan C]

Hi @Isosceles,

Welcome to the Affinity Forums

I can confirm that all Grids will start with the origin of 0,0 on your canvas, and the start of the Isometric grid defaults at the 'top' point where the guides meet.

17 hours ago, Isosceles said:

To troubleshoot I set up documents with round numbers (10x10-inch canvas) and corresponding grid intervals (1/2 or 1-inch), but still no luck. In the attached screenshot you'll notice that the edges of the grid don't align evenly with the bounds of document/canvas. I'm running into this with all non-square grids: isometric, oblique, triangular—the lot of them.

I've setup a 10" x 10" document here, and then added an Isometric grid with 0.5" spacing - this correctly aligns with both sides of the canvas, as expected -

I can see in your screenshot that your spacing is set to '50pt' and not '0.5in'. Please make sure your document is using Inches as the units and then try creating this grid once again. Does this now work correctly for you?

Unfortunately it's not possible to move the Grid origin within Affinity Designer iOS currently - my apologies. This feature was added to the Desktop version and I'll be sure to add a 'vote' for this feature on iOS for you now, in our internal development log.

I hope this helps!

[Isosceles]

Hey @Dan C! 

Thanks so much for taking the time to chime in here. (I never imagined a Blastoise would help solve my issue!)

I'm still having an issue getting exactly what I'm looking for—however, it just dawned on me that my math is probably messed up since it's impossible to evenly snap to a perfect square on an isometric grid. Whoops. 

Ideally, what I'd like to come up with is a document setup that lets my grid evenly intersect with the sides of my document—for example, like the grid seen within the yellow rectangle in the attached image.

Is this then something I would have calculate using both grid spacing and document size? If so, any suggestions? Math makes my reptilian brain hurt.

Thank you again for your help! 🙌

[walt.farrell]

17 minutes ago, Isosceles said:

Is this then something I would have calculate using both grid spacing and document size? If so, any suggestions?

If you need an exact spacing on the grid, and need it to exactly align with the canvas/document edges, then yes, your grid spacing will determine your canvas/document size.

If you can live with a document size slightly different than you were wanting, just make it a bit larger than you need, draw a rectangle covering the canvas/page, and then adjust it smaller until it exactly fits your grid. Then look in the Transform panel and the size of the rectangle is the document size you need to use.

Edit: However, if you need an exact document size, then you'll need to figure out a different grid size. i don't have a quick suggestion for that.

[Dan C]

No problem at all, more than happy to help!

39 minutes ago, Isosceles said:

Ideally, what I'd like to come up with is a document setup that lets my grid evenly intersect with the sides of my document—for example, like the grid seen within the yellow rectangle in the attached image.

Is this then something I would have calculate using both grid spacing and document size? If so, any suggestions? Math makes my reptilian brain hurt.

I'm certain there's smarter users than myself that may be able to provide a true equation for this - but using your document setup above, you can essentially use the size of the rectangle to determine the required size of the document!

In my test document, I created a rectangle that matched yours above, and this measured 8.7" x 9.5". Creating a document (or resizing the existing) to this size, with a grid spacing size of 0.5" should provide the result you're looking for?  -

[Isosceles]

I think that's the approach!

A BIG THANKS for the help, all—looking forward to continuing to learn this awesome app.

Stay well, and thank you again! 🙌