Grid & Snap
Two toggle buttons in the control bar let you overlay a reference grid and lock the cursor to its intersections while drawing.
| Button | What it does |
|---|---|
| Grid | Shows a visual dot or line grid on the canvas |
| Snap | Locks the cursor to the nearest grid point when no geometry snap is closer |
The two toggles are independent — you can show the grid without snapping, snap without showing the grid, or use both together.
Enabling grid and snap
Click Grid or Snap in the control bar toolbar. Active state is highlighted. Settings are persisted across sessions.
When Snap is enabled, the grid automatically switches its display from lines to dots — the dots mark the exact points the cursor will snap to.
Adaptive grid spacing
The grid spacing adjusts automatically as you zoom so that grid lines are always a comfortable distance apart on screen (~40 px). The step is always a "nice" number — a multiple of 1, 2, or 5 at any power of ten:
| Example zoom / model scale | Grid step |
|---|---|
| Zoomed out (large area) | 100, 500, 1000 … |
| Medium zoom | 10, 20, 50 … |
| Zoomed in (fine detail) | 1, 2, 5 … |
| Very close | 0.1, 0.2, 0.5 … |
This means every snap point lands on a round coordinate in model space — no floating-point offsets accumulate.
Snap priority
Endpoint and intersection snaps always take priority over the grid. The cursor snaps to a grid point only when it is not near any geometry snap candidate (endpoint, midpoint, center, or intersection).
This means you can draw with snap-to-grid enabled and still snap precisely to existing geometry when the cursor passes close enough to it. The grid is a fallback, not an override.
Layout mode
- Model space — dots or lines fill the entire visible canvas area.
- Layout (paper) space — dots are clipped to the paper rectangle and do not extend outside it.
- Inside a viewport — the grid follows the model coordinate system at the viewport's scale, so dots align with the same model units regardless of the viewport magnification.
Typical workflow
- Turn on Grid and Snap before starting a drawing that requires regular spacing.
- Zoom to the level where the grid step matches your desired increment (e.g. zoom until dots are 10 units apart).
- Draw — the cursor snaps to grid points automatically. Existing geometry still snaps normally when you are close to it.
- Turn Snap off when you need free cursor movement or want to snap only to geometry.