Grid snap does not work properly in AC15

[Anonymous]

Archicad 15 grid does not work properly.

For example i have 1'x1' grid. My grid snap is on, and is set to snap to construction grid.

I click at the edge of a wall and move it down 1 grid space. Instead of moving it down by 1' at 90 degrees, it other angles.

and when i zoom in, i can see that it didn't snap at the grid, but the snap point is a little off.

Has anyone faced this problem?

[Anonymous]

Hi
We have smart cursor even in 14, if the wall is aligned with the grid, it will have mercedes sign and you can move it.
in 15 in the same situation, wall is aligned with the grid, and I click at a point on the wall with the grid on.. but it does not snap at the intersection of wall edge and grid, instead it snaps to some arbitrary points along the wall.

And just to point out, this problem is not unique to walls, it is with all elements with an edge, slabs, columns, roof, beams, lines, fills etc. most of which do not have reference lines. So this is a grid problem, and not reference line snap problem.

It should be a simple hotfix if this problem is show to the archicad

[Laszlo Nagy]

The reason the mercedes cursor is shown is because with a horizontal wall, the reference line of which is on the grid, grid points fall on the Wall so the Mercedes cursor is shown. That is a special case.
Try this same thing on a Wall the reference line of which is not on the grid (the Wall is at a general location or it is slanted) and you will see the difference. You will not see the Mercedes cursor if there is now Wall Reference Line going through the grid point you are at.
Works the same way with polygonal element edges.

If you want to drag from grid point to grid point vertically, then either:
1. Click the end point of the Wall that is on a grid point so ArchiCAD will find the end node of the Wall and not some general point of the Wall's reference line, or
2. Click anywhere at a grid point and drag it to another grid point at 90 degrees angle.

You don't have to click on the Wall at all to define the drag vector. Both the starting and end point of the drag vector can be anywhere you want.

[Anonymous]

Hello
Thanks for your discussion. Yes I see what you mean, the the cursor will snap to the element edges, and end points even when they are not aligned with the gird.
[i find that bad too.. cause that's how I usually check if walls are placed properly, or if they are orthogonal.]

You see, Not being able to snap at the intersection of an edge and grid points IS the problem, Thats why I have shown how you can reproduce it through he wall examples.
Your suggestions are, well then don't snap on the edge... snap in some other points...
I have been doing exactly that, but these are work around to the problem and not the solution.


the grid should override the other snaps like in older versions.
also it snaps to arbitrary points along the edge even when "element snap" is turned off
and if neither can be solved, there should be at least a way to disable this smart snaps... [which i tried, Work environment - mouse constraints - cursor snap range - there you cannot put 0 pixel, min is 1 pixel]

[Laszlo Nagy]

Intersection is only possible between two edges.
It is not possible between an edge and a point.
The Grid in ArchiCAD is not a pattern of lines, it is a pattern of points. The fact that you see lines going horizontally and vertically through grid points is a visual aid.
But the Grid is still just that: points.

[Anonymous]

yes.. gird is a point.. but we are able to snap to the grid points and the element edges in all previous versions of archicad, so y cant we do it in ac15

[Laszlo Nagy]

As I said earlier, the fact that you could snap to an element edge with the Grid Snap ON was incidental. It was only when that element edge went through the grid point exactly.
So technically you snapped to a Grid point, not the element edge.

The fact that under special circumstances you could use that to drag elements was incidental, not intentional.
You can still do it: not by clicking on a Grid Point where and edge is, but by clicking anywhere else. The basic functionality is still there.

[Anonymous]

hi
If you are saying that being able to snap at grid points and element edges of previous versions was incidental, then there should be a way to turn off the snap option so that I can rely entirely on grid.

right now even if I turn off "snap to elements", it still snaps to these random points. and this makes working with grid inaccurate.

advantage of working with grid is that it is absolute, so if I have 10'x10' grid for columns, I set up my grids accordingly and work.. this way I know they are placed exactly at that point, and there is no error in entering numbers or .. they are off by 1/32" here and there .. due to placement errors.

[Laszlo Nagy]

Hm, I think I can see now what you are driving at.
So basically the problem is that now during drag operations ArchiCAD senses the reference lines and edges of elements there can be cases when it does something different from what you want it to do.
So let us say a Wall's reference line is very near to a Grid Snap point. You want to click the Grid Snap Point that is very close to the Wall Reference Line to specify the starting point of the drag vector, but ArchiCAD senses the Reference Line of the Wall and based on exactly where in the vicinity of the Grid Snap point the cursor is, it snaps to a point of the Reference Line of the Wall. Which is not what you want because you want it to snap to the Grid Snap Point. The same way in worked in previous versions.

That is true and I understand now that this is what bugs you that you now have to change how you work.
All I can say is repeat myself: you would either have get yourself accustomed to clicking on a Grid Snap point that is not near an element edge or you need to zoom in enough so the Grid Snap Point and the element edge are more than 4-5 pixels away from each other and ArchiCAD will take the Grid Snap Point as an input.

Still, I maintain that in my opinion it is a better feature this way. I am sorry that you will have to change your way of working because of this.

[Anonymous]

Hello Lasz
ya you finally get what I am trying to point out. There are obviously workarounds.. but I am trying to show the problem.

Unfortunately now grid tool that was so useful in previous versions is almost unusable. Especially when you have lot of elements in your work space.
I move things by 10' 90 degrees.. only to later find it moved by 90.2 degrees.. etc. so each time I move, rotate copy anything, 2d or 3d. i have to zoom in all the way each time just to make sure they did not snap to random edges. this has slowed down my work considerably.

All these lack of confidence in the grid, and not being able to disable the edge snaps makes grid almost useless in ac15.

Obviously you think this is fine.. but I would prefer if you can consult with some of the other admins or developers regarding this. I dont see why someone would mess up something that worked perfectly in all previous versions and make a fundamental tool in architecture unreliable.

[Anonymous]

I also checked out the Archicad grid tool description from help menu.

Grid Snap Function
The Grid Snap function allows precise graphic alignment of elements at consistent lengths and distances. When the Grid Snap function is active, you can only draw from one grid intersection to another; the grid “pulls” the cursor and makes it snap to the grid nodes. This allows you to position the cursor accurately, even at low zoom levels.



So according to the description the problem of not being able to snap at grids is an error. It is not intentional.