Collision Snap to Guidelines



  • Is there a way to collision snap to guidelines ?

    The situation is an imported PDF that needs to be rotated to zero - one way is to create a pen drawn rectangle around the PDF's own line border (or some available reference lines), use the pen border to mask it then collision snap the masked PDF to a horizontal (or vertical) guideline. Currently, I'm just drawing a temporary horizontal object line to replace the guideline, but I assumed that's what guidelines were for 🙂 I did find the method to create a mask (after raking through the forum) just a wee bit obtuse - a simple menuitem with - Create Mask and Release Mask might have been a tad more intuitive 🙂 I did do a double-click on the mask to show the contents, but could never get back to the mask again - maybe that's a bug - or more likely finger-trouble on my part 🙂
    The other method is not to use a mask, but just use say a "horizontal" reference line drawn on the pdf - group them then collision snap to a true horizontal guideline.

    I do find that even with small PDF's (the PDF's are really just bit image files saved as PDF's) that the interface is really sluggish - something I've never noticed in AI/AD or any of the other vector apps. I have Performance set to Metal - tried the other options, but not any better. Switching off the visibility in the layers panel makes it ok, but that kind of defeats the whole purpose 🙂

    TIA

    Neil


  • administrators

    @Igull Enabling snap to guidelines should to collision snapping to guidelines. Or was this about snapping the guidelines (when moving) to some objects?

    About creating masks: I think in this case what we need is a clipping mask, which is easy to create. Just draw a shape and drag the whole PDF group into that shape in the layers panel.

    About isolating and getting out of it: when in isolation mode, the top-left corner should display the Layer/Object name that is isolated.
    Pressing the (x) icon at the start of that row should close the isolation mode.
    A double click on an empty location of the canvas should also exit.

    As for performance: Metal is the right choice on that config.

    The slowdown might be caused by something in the PDF. If there is a file that you could send me to replicate this issue, I might be able to sort it out. This could be some kind of bug.



  • @VectorStyler said in Collision Snap to Guidelines:

    @Igull Enabling snap to guidelines should to collision snapping to guidelines.

    I had that enabled, but using the collision tool, it doesn't snap to a guideline - only other objects.

    Or was this about snapping the guidelines (when moving) to some objects?

    No (but that sounds like a good feature 🙂 )

    About creating masks: I think in this case what we need is a clipping mask, which is easy to create. Just draw a shape and drag the whole PDF group into that shape in the layers panel.

    I think it's just having to use the layers panel to do anything, that seems cumbersome - a simple create/release clipping mask command seems better to me (and can easily be added to my contextual menu). I never have the layers panel showing anyway, that may also have something to do with it 🙂

    About isolating and getting out of it: when in isolation mode, the top-left corner should display the Layer/Object name that is isolated.
    Pressing the (x) icon at the start of that row should close the isolation mode.
    A double click on an empty location of the canvas should also exit.

    OK, thanks for that.

    As for performance: Metal is the right choice on that config.

    OK.

    The slowdown might be caused by something in the PDF. If there is a file that you could send me to replicate this issue, I might be able to sort it out. This could be some kind of bug.

    I have a lot, they all exhibit this slowing down - I'll send a couple this evening.

    Neil


  • administrators

    @Igull said in Collision Snap to Guidelines:

    using the collision tool

    Got it. This is the "collider tool", and yes, it only works between objects, not with guidelines.

    I add this to the backlog as a feature.



  • @VectorStyler said in Collision Snap to Guidelines:

    I add this to the backlog as a feature.

    Great, thanks for adding this as a feature, it will be of great use in rotating unruly and badly scanned images ! The collider tool has been one of the best features of VS for me, I seem to use it for countless jobs where I would previously have used the AI rotate tool. Having said that, the AI rotate tool does work better than the VS version AFAICS - especially when the rotate fulcrum can be snapped to a node and the remaining rotation point then snapped to whatever is required to be rotated to (but the collision tool is still way better LOL 🙂 )

    Neil