Ruler Snapping Support

You can create a ruler with the smart snapping feature on or off. You can also create a ruler by using a combination of both – define the start or the end point with smart snapping on and define the other point with smart snapping off.

The ruler snapping support differs for different objects.

• Shapes: Snapping of ruler to all shapes is supported.
• Blockages: Snapping of rulers to blockages is supported. All snapping modes, except snapping to nexus, are supported for blockages.
• Labels: Snapping is supported only to the origin of the labels.
• Rows and boundaries: Snapping of ruler to rows and boundaries is not supported.

To quickly define the start and end points of a ruler or the various click points in the case of a multi-segment ruler without the need for zooming in to the exact click locations, you can select the snap target as edges, points, or both. This identifies objects in vicinity of the mouse pointer and attaches to them.

When snapping is enabled for edges, points, or both, the ruler object is created with the following features:

• Snap to vertex, nexus, edge midpoint, edge, or centerline.
• Cycle over potential targets within a specified distance from the pointer.
• Cycle over orthogonal end targets prior to parallel or non-orthogonal ones.
• Snap to non-orthogonal edges as well as edges and vertices of instance boundary.
• Snap to targets within a hierarchy, in Edit in Place (EIP) mode, and inside a group. Rulers at level 0 remain visible when you EIP to any other hierarchical level.

You can set snap mode to specify how a ruler snaps to the grid: diagonal, orthogonal, horizontal, vertical, or at any angle. When you create rulers with snapping on, if the snap target is points or points and edges, the snap mode becomes anyAngle for ruler and distance.

In EIP mode, the ruler can be snapped to top-level shapes.

By default, window snap modes are used when you create a ruler. You can use snap modes that are specific to the ruler command when you invoke the command. To use ruler snap modes, you need to enable the useRulerSnapModes environment variable and set the snap modes using the rulerSnapMode and rulerSegSnapMode environment variables. Window snap modes are restored when you exit the ruler command.

Related Topics

Rulers

Creating Rulers with Snapping On

Creating Rulers with Smart Snapping Off

Ruler Segment Modes

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