I've lost my grid in Designer X4. It was working before, not now. What's happened?
I can see the grid, but the drawing tools no longer snap to it.
The "Snap to" option is still set to "snap to grid".
The grid setup (Tools> Options > Grid) is still set to reasonable values for the drawing, and 'show grid' is "on".
I tried exiting and restarting Designer but the problem persists.
Very strange. Any ideas?
When in doubt try a cold boot of the computer.
Clean out C:\Windows\Temp directory.
the 'dd'
comin' atcha from up on the hill in Abbotsford, BC CANADA
Ok, well I went for a re-install.
What I found out was that "Snap to grid" doesn't work unless you also have "Gravity snapping" and/or "Dynamic Guides" turned on. Quirky.
And unfortunately, both in the evaluation version and new registered version, "Dynamic Guides" doesn't work as a snap, even though that's what you'd be led to believe. Is that everyone's experience of Designer X4?
So if I want to work quickly by snapping to guides I have to revert to my old version of CorelDraw, would that be right?
"Grid" is one of the Gravity snapping methods. When Gravity Snapping is turned off completely then also Snap to Grid is inactive.
The Dynamic Guides only make sense with Gravity Snapping turned on (as you don't have any anchor points to start dynamic guides from with no snap points being tracked).
BTW: You can turn on any Gravity snapping method with a specific shortcut (for Grid it's "G") - hold down the corresponding key while you draw (or modify an object) to limit Gravity snapping to that specific method.The shortcuts are named for the corresponding method in the Tools > Gravity... settings.
One other comment on reinstall: In case you experience any problems with the workspace you're currently using (i.e. altered settings you don't want to use) try to start the application with holding the F8 key (until you get a message box that asks if you want to overwrite the current workspace with factory defaults). This will reset the workspace and should give you the original UI settings.
Hope that helps,
Best regards,Klaus
Thanks, Klaus.
So Gravity Snapping is the overall concept, and "Grid" snapping is just one of these.
"Press F8 while starting" is a great tip. My re-install had kept all my settings that I had made while playing around with the evaluation version. F8 cleared those.
What I then found was that Dynamic Guides don't work unless the "Edge" snap is enabled. So I'm ok with that now.
Using the shortcut keys for different snaps is really good, I can see how that will be very productive. Basically that will let me filter on-the-fly which snap is to be active; no more problems of which snap has precedence when objects are crowded together. Good hint.
My transition to Designer is pretty good, I hadn't changed since Draw 11, since I was very fast using that. But the ability to import my Rhino3D models in Deep Exploration (as vectors, not dumb bitmaps - wow - this is a dream of many years, now come true) prompted me to upgrade. However you can see I stumbled on X4's concepts for snapping; and snapping is where my speed comes from - so I have to get it right.