The Reference Grid and Snapping Items

Introduction
Turn on the Reference Grid
Turn on Snapping

Introduction

To aid you in placing your design entities, the Log Designer offers a reference grid. If activated, the program will display a grid of dots in the header, footer, and log body panes of the design screen. The resolution of the grid (e.g. spacing of dots in decimal inches or centimeters) can be determined by you.

In addition to the display of the reference grid, you can also activate "snapping" to the grid. If activated, when you place a log design entity in the header, footer, or log body, the program will "snap" the item to the nearest grid point. This can make life a little easier when trying to line up design entities.

Note that you can always override the "snapped" coordinates by entering new coordinates in the item's setup dialog box.

How to…

Turn on the reference grid

1. 

2. Click on the Show Grid button at the bottom of the design screen.

   

3. Adjust the resolution of the grid by clicking on the up-arrow or down-arrow button in the resolution box to the right of the Show Grid button. The units are decimal inches or centimeters, as defined in the File | Page Setup option.

   A setting of "0.25," as shown in the example above, means that the dots will be displayed horizontally and vertically every 1/4 inch.

4. As you change the resolution setting, notice how the appearance of the grid changes within the Log Designer screen.

   The resolution setting is shared by the Snap button, below, if activated. It is possible to turn on the grid while leaving the snapping off.

Turn on snapping

1. 

2. Click on the Snap button at the bottom of the design screen. "Snapping" is activated when the button looks like it is pushed in.

   

3. Adjust the snapping resolution by clicking on the up-arrow or down-arrow button in the resolution box to the right of the Snap button.

   The resolution setting is shared by the Show Grid button, if activated. Snapping and the reference grid may be activated independently of each other, although it can be helpful to have the grid displayed when snapping is turned on.

   For snapping, a setting of "0.25," for example, means that subsequent design items that you place will be snapped to the nearest 1/4 inch or cm, both horizontally (for all design items) and vertically (for header and footer items).

   Any existing design items that are already placed will not be affected by the turning on of snapping unless you use the pointer to reposition them.

! We recommend that you set the snap resolution to a multiple of 1/16th (0.0625, 0.125, 0.25, etc.). This prevents rounding errors that can occur when the program toggles back and forth internally between pixels (on the drawing screen) and actual inch units.

See also

• Move or Resize Header/Footer Items or Move or Resize Log Body Items for information about dragging, resizing, and aligning items. The alignment tools are very handy for regular spacing of text, and edge alignment.

Back to Log Header Introduction
Back to Log Footer Introduction
Back to Log Body Introduction

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