Grids Properties

Grids are patterns of equally spaced, non-printing, horizontal, vertical, and angular lines or markers used to divide a graphic into equal sections. They help you align your elements symmetrically, precisely, and angled for a 3D-like representation.

The grid lines include X-, Y-, and Z- lines. X sets the horizontal lines, Y sets the vertical lines, and the Z- line, if Enable 3D Axis selected, sets the angular lines on the grid.

When you adjust the grid and guideline settings for a graphic, the settings are automatically stored for you, and will be applied to future graphics or symbols you create or work with.

Snap

You can force the elements to line up with the grid using the snap feature. With the snap feature, your drawing elements are attracted, and attach themselves, to the nearest gridline intersection—much like metal objects are drawn toward a magnet. Snap makes it easier to create an accurate graphic.

The top left corner of a drawing element snaps to the gridline. When you select more than one drawing element, only the main drawing element (the one under the mouse) snaps into position. In the case of symbol instances that have an anchor associated with them, then the anchor is snapped into position rather than the top left corner of the symbol.

By pressing and holding SHIFT while the snap feature is enabled, you can drag a drawing element near or over a gridline without activating snap, which gives you additional positioning choices on the canvas.

The Snap Now feature, enabled when you right-click an element on the graphic, automatically snaps all the selected elements and symbol instances to the nearest grid intersection.

Pitch

On a grid, you can adjust three different pitch settings. The Pitch X and Pitch Y settings allow you to adjust the distance between the gridlines. The Pitch Angle setting determines the number of degrees an element on a graphic rotates before it snaps into its next position. For example, if you set the Pitch Angle to 90 for a line element you draw straight up and down on the canvas, and then rotate the element, the line element will snap into position every 90 degrees as it revolves around its center axis.

Offset

The origin of the grids is the top left corner of the canvas. Sometimes, however, you might want to make the grid start from a particular spot on the canvas—for example, a margin boundary. You can do this by adjusting the Offset X and Offset Y settings, which control the distance from the starting point. You can use the Offset Angle setting in unison with the Pitch Angle setting to determine the number of degrees of rotation of a graphical element on the canvas.

Color

You can change the color of the grid by changing the value of the Stroke Color using a hexadecimal color code, such as FFFF0000 (red), or by entering the name of a color from the list of HTML Literal Word Colors. Additionally, you can reference a state text color defined in the corresponding Text Group of the associated data point, using the following syntax: TxG_[TextGroupName].[Value]. The syntax is case sensitive.

Styles

Grid styles refers to the look you can assign to your grid—either Lines or Markers. When you select Lines, the grid pattern is more pronounced since more dots are used to define the pattern. When you select Markers, the grid pattern is less pronounced, though still visible, because fewer dots are used to define the pattern.

Additional Grid Information

Gridlines are not affected by mouse events.
Grids float over the elements on a graphic.
Grid settings are saved with the graphic.
Grid settings are unique for every graphic.
Grids are visible only in Design and Test modes.
Gridline stroke, or thickness, does not change with different zoom factors.