Snapping

Snapping helps you position lines, points, or shapes as you construct geometry for the part. Use it to select important points relative to existing geometry, such as intersections or end points.

To display the Snap Modes dialog, select Construct tab > Snapping panel > Modes.

In the Snap Modes dialog, select these items to enable the snapping modes:

• Grid points — Snaps the cursor to the rotating snapping grid. You can specify the grid spacing in the Options > Display > Snapping Grid page.
• Points — Snaps the cursor to points.
• End points — Snaps the cursor to the ends of line segments, arcs, and curves, and the corners of the stock.
• Midpoints — Snaps the cursor to the points equidistant from two ends of an open geometry object.
• Even sections — Divides open geometry objects into equal-sized segments and snaps the cursor to the ends of the segments. You can specify the number of segments in the Section field of the Options > Geometry > Snapping Grids page, the default is 5.
• Toolpath — Snaps the cursor to the toolpath lines.
• Intersections — Snaps the cursor to the points where geometry object meet.
• Circle centers — Snaps the cursor to the mathematical point equidistant from all points on a circle or an arc. If this button is selected, a cross is displayed at the centers of all arcs and circles in the graphics window. This option enables snapping to the center of circles displayed as Curvature dimensions.
• Quadrants — Snaps to the points on a circle or arc that the X and Y axes would pass through if the object was centered around the origin.
• Objects — Snaps the cursor to the nearest point on a geometry object.
• Tangent to objects — Snaps the cursor to the points on curved geometry which are on a tangent to the curve and the current mouse position.
• Cylindrical centers — Snaps to the end points of a cylinder or cone axis.
• Snapping Discrimination Dialog — Displays the Snap Discrimination dialog if more than one snapping option applies.

When you move the cursor over an object in the graphics window, the snapping mode applied to the cursor is displayed on the Status bar. A preview of the point is displayed in green, which changes shape depending on the snapping mode.

You can have more than one active snap mode. For example, you can snap tangent to a circle on one end of a line, then snap to an intersection at the other end of the line.