Snapping Lines
Snapping
Line ends must usually meet precisely. For example you might need the end point
of a straight line to meet the end of an arc. Trying to make lines meet by careful
mouse positioning is often difficult or impossible. You can conveniently make lines
meet using the Snap features.
Snap to Grid forces points to align with a grid of equally spaced points.
You can use Snap to Grid to easily align objects. For example, you might need to
place several holes evenly spaced.
To turn snap-to-grid on or off, in the left toolbar click the
Snap to Grid button. Under
Edit | Preferences you can change the grid spacing
and whether the grid is visible on the screen. While drawing you will see that you
can only position points at equal intervals vertically and horizontally.
If you have a line created without snap-to-grid you may need to move the line
onto the grid. To do this turn on Snap to Grid and
Line Edit. Drag each and every point of the line
so it snaps to the grid. To move a rectangle onto the snap grid you can drag the
handle for each of the four edges.
Snap to Lines works like a magnet. Every line has several snap points. For example,
straight lines have three snap points - the start, middle, and end. To enable the
snap to lines feature, in the left toolbar click the Snap to Lines button (unless
the button is already pushed in).
To draw a straight line to meet the end point of an arc, for example, draw the
straight line beginning and, when creating the end point, move the mouse near the
end point of the arc. You will see the point snap into the exact position, indicated
by the appearance of a small square.
Generally it is advantageous to keep Snap to Lines on.
Here are the snap point locations for each type of line:
Additionally, when drawing a straight line towards an arc or circle the tangent
point acts as a snap point.
