Modeling Aids

Tools > Options > Modeling Aids

The Modeling Aids options manage settings for grid and object snaps and construction planes.

Grid snap

Grid Snap on

Turns on grid snap.

See: Grid Snap, SnapSize, SetSnap.

Ortho Snap every ___ degrees

Turns on ortho and sets the ortho angle.

Hash marks indicate the current ortho angle when Ortho is enabled.

Disable ShowOrthoHashMarks in Advanced Settings if you prefer to hide the hash marks.
If DominantOrtho in Advanced Settings is enabled, and Ortho mode is active, you can move the mouse cursor around a snap location to either snap directly to the location or project the object snap to an Ortho direction.

See: Ortho, OrthoAngle, SetOrtho.

Ortho Snap to CPlane Z

Snaps to the Z direction of the CPlane when the mouse cursor moves above or below the previous picked location in the view.

The Ortho pane menu on the status bar has a toggle for this setting.

Planar mode on

Turns on planar mode.

See: Planar, SetPlanar.

Object snaps

Disable object snaps

Temporarily suspends set object snaps.

See: NoSnap.

Project object snaps to CPlane

Projects object snaps to the construction plane in the active viewport.

See: ProjectOsnap.

Project object snaps to CPIane in plan parallel views

Projects object snaps to the construction plane in the active parallel viewport if the view is not rotated.

Snap to locked objects

Object snaps work on locked objects and on objects on locked layers.

See: SnapToLocked.

Snap to occluded objects

Allows object snaps to work on objects that are hidden behind other objects.

See: SnapToOccluded.

Snap to filtered objects

Object snaps work on objects filtered out through Selection Filter.

Only snap to selected objects

Object snaps work only on selected objects.

Near, Mid, Int and Perp snap to mesh objects

Allows snapping to mesh edges using Near, Mid, Int, and Perp object snaps

This option can be changed by the SnapToMeshes command.

Use apparent intersections

The Intersection object snap does not need to find objects that intersect in 3-D space. The objects only need to appear to intersect in the active viewport.

Center snap to approximate arcs, circles, and ellipses

The Center object snap will work on objects that are close approximations of arcs, circles, and ellipses.

Object snap highlight

Highlights the object chosen for use by object snaps.

Snap radius ___ pixels

Sets the object snap activation area radius in pixels. When the cursor is within this distance to the point to snap to, the marker jumps to the point to snap to.

Digitizer snap radius ___ units

For digitizers, sets the 3-D object snap activation area radius in model units. When the cursor is within this distance to the point to snap to, the marker jumps to the point to snap to.

Construction planes

Specifies the behavior of construction planes in the viewports.

Standard construction planes

The construction plane of each viewport is independent from all of the other constructions planes.

Universal construction planes

The behavior of the construction planes in the viewports is linked. They all share the same origin and are positioned normal to each other. Moving, rotating, or otherwise changing the construction plane in one viewport, changes the construction planes in the other viewports, so the 90-degree/right angle/normal orientation of the construction planes is maintained.

If a construction plane is defined in some view, the Front view for example, and Universal mode is enabled, then the construction plane that was defined will be the Front plane of the new universal plane.

See: SynchronizeCPlanes.

Restore Defaults

Restores the default system values. All custom appearance settings will be lost.

Save option settings for use on other computers

OptionsExport

Save Options settings to a file.

OptionsImport

Restore Options settings from a file.