To: discussions about usage and development of dia <dia-list gnome org>
Subject: Re: Grid Snap
Date: Tue, 20 Sep 2011 10:52:11 -0400
I only recall one program that figures out all the reasonable locations for snapping and that is LabVIEW and only with text. They have an algorithm that decides about nine positions for text block snapping around an icon. You can do that with something as regular as a text block.
On the other hand, the shapes in Dia are custom made by people who actually use them and who are presumably happy with how they work. There is all manner of irregularity throughout all the palettes/sheets. In that context the Align functions are really very handy. I am not a programmer, but picking the center for snapping is as arbitrary as the upper left corner - so what to choose? Someone will always be disappointed.
Thanks, this definitely helps. Since what I was looking for seems not
to exist in Dia, I'll use this.
I guess the ideal solution would if this could automatically happen
when moving objects, so objects snapping to each other. That would snap
an object when its center is on the same line(parallel to one of the
grid axes) as an other object and when its top is on the same
horizontal line as the top of another object, etc.
I know some other programs do have this feature, it would be great if
Dia also had.
Kind regards, Ale
On 09/19/2011 08:58 PM, Michael Ross wrote:
You can pick any disparate group of items and use Objects
Align Middle. That is actually more productive than trying to snap
them to grid and jogging back and forth with the cursor keys to get
them just so.
I've been using dia for a while now, but always found it hard to get
everything lined-up nicely. Is it possible to snap an objects center to
the grid? This would make it much easier to get a clear layout than
snapping the topleft corner.
