TUTORIAL - Grid, Guides, Snapping, and Scale Line Widths

**Xhris** · 18 July 2007, 04:42 AM

Once again, a “5 minute” tutorial has taken me a week and became 10 times bigger than I was initially expecting. This time, I've written about the grid, guidelines, snapping and the scale line widths feature in Xara – features that are not easy for newcomers to grasp, and have an incredible amount to them that you wouldn't realise at first glance. I'm pretty sure that old-timers might learn something new from this tutorial as well.

As usual, it took me hours, is over 3500 words, and is in the standard format as all of them will soon be in (printable, layout, prose).

After this, there will be a couple of new ones, and the rest will be updated.

I’m no longer going to post new tutorial files on TG forums (as I can’t edit them later). Instead, they are available from here. This tutorial specifically is located here. As always, I'd recommend using Word to read the Word doc file (as that was how it was designed for maximum functionality). For those without Word, I've converted the file to an XPS file to be viewed in Microsoft's XPS viewer. When I get my Adobe software back that I accidentally left thousands of miles away (but don't really miss), I will make PDFs too.

Enjoy (comments welcome),

Xhris

**PhilM** · 18 July 2007, 06:34 AM

Hi Xhris,

Here are a few more notes for you.

Holding down Alt while dragging with snap-to-grid turned on will disable leading-edge snapping and ensure that the dragged object retains its relative position to the grid. I.e. if the object was half-way between grid positions when you started the drag it will snap to the half-way positions as you move it around and when you drop it.

If you set up a drawing scale, such as "1mm : 100mm", then you should reset the grid divisions to use the new scaled units. For example, Major: 600mm, NumDivs: 6. When you do that the rulers will then show sensible scaled units (because the rulers reflect the grid settings).

If you're doing technical drawings, you should turn off the "Scale line widths" button to ensure that line widths don't contribute to the sizes and positions of objects.

Phil

**Giovanni** · 18 July 2007, 06:51 AM

Thank you Xhris!
Your tutorials are very interesting and useful (oh, and I love your brushes!).
Bravo!

**Xhris** · 18 July 2007, 03:11 PM

Originally Posted by PhilM

Hi Xhris,

Here are a few more notes for you.

Holding down Alt while dragging with snap-to-grid turned on will disable leading-edge snapping and ensure that the dragged object retains its relative position to the grid. I.e. if the object was half-way between grid positions when you started the drag it will snap to the half-way positions as you move it around and when you drop it.

If you set up a drawing scale, such as "1mm : 100mm", then you should reset the grid divisions to use the new scaled units. For example, Major: 600mm, NumDivs: 6. When you do that the rulers will then show sensible scaled units (because the rulers reflect the grid settings).

If you're doing technical drawings, you should turn off the "Scale line widths" button to ensure that line widths don't contribute to the sizes and positions of objects.

Phil

ARGH! The whole reason why I started writing this tutorial was so I can put that very tip in about Alt-drag, and I completely forgot! I will update it quickly with all this info...Check for a new release later dated 18th. Thanks for reminding me.

Ok, all updated now. Thanks.

**Robert H** · 18 July 2007, 08:24 PM

Hi Xhris,

Thank you so much for these tutorials! This is a very generous use of both your time and talents. It is much appreciated by me and I’m sure by many others.

One minor suggestion, if you put your date format as Year Month Day (YYMMDD) in the file name, it would ensure that the downloaded file would always sort with the newest version on the top of the file list.

Thanks again Xhris.

**Xhris** · 18 July 2007, 08:45 PM

Originally Posted by Robert H

Hi Xhris,

Thank you so much for these tutorials! This is a very generous use of both your time and talents. It is much appreciated by me and I’m sure by many others.

One minor suggestion, if you put your date format as Year Month Day (YYMMDD) in the file name, it would ensure that the downloaded file would always sort with the newest version on the top of the file list.

Thanks again Xhris.

That's a good idea I never thought of, but I delete any old version anyway, so there would only ever be one to download.

(There're plenty more tutorials coming. A few (shorter) new ones, some updated ones, and some significantly updated ones.)

**Robert H** · 18 July 2007, 08:51 PM

Thanks for your response Xhris. I realize that you only put the latest file on your site. I just meant for your users that are downloading your tuts. They can quickly tell by the sort order which is the latest, then delete the older version. No big deal either way.

Thanks again!

**Xhris** · 21 July 2007, 04:54 AM

"Xhris,
To be 100% honest I've always found Xara's snapping virtually useless and therefore avoided it's use. I've followed your recent guide and (no reflection on your tutorial skills) still find the subject baffling. I still cannot be sure an object will lock to to grid or guide, in fact it often doesn't!

I will now go away into a dark hole and follow your tutorial word for word and try to see why I'm making a mistake.

Egg"

Yeah, I identified grids/guidelines/snapping/scale line widths as a gray area in Xara, hence the thorough tutorial. Even I had trouble with it when I first came across the grid etc (and in fact for a long time after). It's second nature now, makes complete sense, and works perfectly. Only that slicing problem of yours is an issue relating to the grid. I wanted to put a slight update to that tutorial up, but the server's down for some reason.

**Egg Bramhill** · 21 July 2007, 03:46 PM

Xhris, another question. I open a new document, by default I have no snapping of any kind. The origin is set to 0pix/0pix.

When I move my mouse pointer around it is always given as X=XXX.5 & Y=YYY.5 in the bottom right panel. In other words the mouse is by default always at a half pixel co-ordinate in both the X and Y planes and therefore any shape I create is on a half pixel position.

Any ideas?

**Xhris** · 21 July 2007, 05:27 PM

Originally Posted by Egg Bramhill

Xhris, another question. I open a new document, by default I have no snapping of any kind. The origin is set to 0pix/0pix.

When I move my mouse pointer around it is always given as X=XXX.5 & Y=YYY.5 in the bottom right panel. In other words the mouse is by default always at a half pixel co-ordinate in both the X and Y planes and therefore any shape I create is on a half pixel position.

Any ideas?

Yeah that's weird. Only true at 100% zoom though. Drawing a shape (with SLW off) says its x/y-coordinate is (x/y).5 without snapping. With (default) snapping on, everything is fixed. Snapping with 1pix grid is a good way to ensure you're always on pixel boundaries.