Snap to Collisions Preferences

Doubleclicking the Snap To Collisions tool in the toolbox (or pressing the Enter key when the tool is selected) will bring up its preferences dialog, which it shares with two other tools in the ColliderScribe plugin. Some of the preference can be changed on the fly when dragging artwork, by pressing various keys (see Snap To Collisions: Tool Operation).

Snap to Collisions Preferences

1. Snap Tolerance

Controls the distance from which paths will be snapped to their points of collision, from 2 to 36 px; the default value is 12 px.

2. Snap to Pre-Drag Path Positions

When enabled, dragged paths will snap to themselves in their original position (even if not being duplicated), as long as they have been moved by slightly more than the snap tolerance value. As this can sometimes interfere with positioning the artwork against other art, it can be toggled on the fly using the X key.

Snap to Collisions Tool Self Collisions Example

3. Snap to Locked Paths

When enabled, dragged paths will snap to other paths on the artboard that are locked; can be toggled on the fly using the L key.

4. Use Collision Spacing

By default, the Snap To Collisions tool snaps when paths collide with other paths (i.e., first touch them). However, when Use Collision Spacing is enabled, snapping occurs when the paths are a specified distance apart. A purple dot with a line connecting the two paths visualizes the “collisions.”

5. Collision Spacing value

Specifies the distance for collision spacing, from 0.001 pt to 16384 pt; the value can be changed on the fly using the Up/Down Arrow keys. Values which are much larger than the snapping distance may make the tool hard to control.

Snap to Collisions Tool Spacing Example

Spacing can be useful when one or both objects to be snapped have stroked paths and you want the outside edges of the strokes to touch. In this case simply use a spacing distance that is equal to half the sum of the stroke weights (assuming the strokes are center-aligned).

6. Add Points to Paths at Collisions

When enabled, an anchor point is automatically added, when it does not already exist, to each colliding path at their place(s) of collision. A small dot by the cursor when dragging or duplicating indicates that the preference is active. It can be toggled on the fly with the A key. This preference can be useful for making additional constructions, because Smart Guides does not always reliably detect intersections between paths which touch at a tangent, and, of course, if collision spacing is enabled there won’t be any intersections at all.

7. Fully Select Groups and Compound Paths

When enabled, the tool acts in the manner of the native Selection tool, selecting and moving groups and compound paths in their entirety. If turned off, the tool acts like the native Direct Selection tool, allowing individual group members and subpaths of compound paths to be selected and moved independently. Once an artwork drag has started, the setting cannot be changed on the fly; however, it can be changed while marqueeing (see Snap To Collisions: Tool Operation).

8. Informational area

Shows a brief description of each preference control when the cursor is being hovered over it.

9. Help Button

Opens the help documentation in the Astute Manager. If this does not automatically appear, please ensure your Astute Manager is running first.