Snapping objects

When you move or draw an object, you can snap it to another object in a drawing. You can snap an object to various snap points on the target object. When you move the pointer close to a snap point, the snap point becomes highlighted, which identifies it as the pointer’s snapping target.

To snap an object to another object with greater precision, you first snap the pointer to a snap point in the object, and then snap the object to a snap point in the target object. For example, you can snap the pointer to the center of a rectangle, drag the rectangle by the center, and then snap the rectangle to the center of another rectangle.

The pointer was snapped to an end node of the screw (left), and then the screw was dragged to snap to the center of an ellipse (right).

Snapping modes determine which snap points you can use in an object. The table below includes descriptions of all available snapping modes.

Snapping mode	Description	Snapping mode indicator
Node	Lets you snap to a node on an object
Intersection	Lets you snap to a geometric intersection of objects
Midpoint	Lets you snap to a line segment midpoint
Quadrant	Lets you snap to points that are at 0°, 90°, 180°, and 270° on a circle, ellipse, or arc
Tangent	Lets you snap to a point on the outside edge of an arc, circle, or ellipse where a line touches, but does not intersect, the object
Perpendicular	Lets you snap to a point on the outside edge of a segment where a line is perpendicular to the object
Edge	Lets you snap to a point that touches the edge of an object
Center	Lets you snap to the center of the closest object (arc, regular polygon, or curve centroid)
Text baseline	Lets you snap to a point on the baseline of artistic or paragraph text

You can choose a number of snapping options. For example, you can disable some or all snapping modes to make the application run faster. You can also set a snapping threshold, which specifies the distance from the pointer at which a snap point becomes active. You can also turn snapping on and off.

To turn snapping on or off

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Click View

Snap to objects.

A check mark next to the Snap to objects command indicates that snapping is turned on.

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You can also press Alt + Z to toggle snapping on and off.

To snap objects

Select the object that you want to snap to the target object.

Move the pointer over the object until the snap point becomes highlighted.

Drag the object close to the target object until the snap point on the target object becomes highlighted.

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To snap an object as you draw it, drag in the drawing window until the snap point in the target object becomes highlighted.

To set snapping options

Click View

Setup

Snap to objects setup.

On the Snap to objects page of the Options dialog box, enable one or more of the mode check boxes.

To enable all snapping modes, click Select all.

To disable all snapping modes without turning off snapping, click Deselect all.

Choose one of the following snapping options from the Snapping threshold list box:

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Low — activates a snap point when it is 4 screen pixels away from the pointer

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Medium — activates a snap point when it is 8 screen pixels away from the pointer

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High — activates a snap point when it is 16 screen pixels away from the pointer

You can also
Display or hide snapping mode indicators	Enable or disable the Show snap location marks check box.
Display or hide screen tips	Enable or disable the Screen tip check box.

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