Photo: Is there an easy way to view guide positions?

[Slashee the Cow]

I've got something I'm looking at designing and 3D printing some accessories for, but I need to make sure my designs don't get in the way of anything on it. I took a diagram of the layout from the manual and have been working up guides to delineate these areas:

The problem is that as far as I'm aware, the only way to see where a guide is is by grabbing it and dragging it a little so its position comes up. I know there's the guides window which displays all of their positions, but it can get a bit crowded and hard to figure out which is which when you have more than a couple.

So is there an easier way for me to see where these guides are, like just displaying their positions next to them or something? Or am I mooing up the wrong tree to begin with?

[NotMyFault]

If you activate rules, you can read t he positions of guides from rulers.

 

[NotMyFault]

For such a delicate design I would create container rectangles. Using the move tool / transform panel you can specify their exact size and position.

Then put all other items inside on of the rectangles as child layer.

[thomaso]

34 minutes ago, NotMyFault said:

Then put all other items inside on of the rectangles as child layer.

… and get the artwork clipped by the rectangle?

I'd rather keep the guide objects separated from the layout items in the panel's hierarchy. If grouped, they can easily get switched on/off all together, also snapping with invisible objects can get activated separately.

51 minutes ago, Slashee the Cow said:

So is there an easier way for me to see where these guides are, like just displaying their positions next to them or something?

Indeed, I would expect guides to display their position as an immediate tooltip (like with snapping). Apart from guide objects as layer items: If you have APub + APh you could use the Info Panel in the photo persona, it permanently displays the cursor x/y coordinates without the need for additional user interaction.

[NotMyFault]

34 minutes ago, thomaso said:

and get the artwork clipped by the rectangle?

Indeed, because of:

1 hour ago, Slashee the Cow said:

but I need to make sure my designs don't get in the way of anything on it.

You can easily spot the bounding boxes of child layers, and visually check if clipping occours.

[NotMyFault]

37 minutes ago, thomaso said:

I'd rather keep the guide objects separated from the layout items in the panel's hierarchy. If grouped, they can easily get switched on/off all together, also snapping with invisible objects can get activated separately.

Another good approach, don’t forget to lock those grouped layers.

[thomaso]

8 minutes ago, NotMyFault said:

Indeed, because of:

1 hour ago, Slashee the Cow said:

I need to make sure my designs don't get in the way of anything on it.

So, just in case: Clipped objects require to assign possible strokes inside if placed with snapping when cut strokes aren't wanted.

Also, working with those child layers may get cumbersome by the possible need to activate / deactivate the "Lock Children" option if specific parameters of the entire layout should get changed.