hello !

I`ve never used free hand or corel draw but I`m confident they are great programs,

illustrator can also snap to guides and points, but as you experienced, its a bit slippery when zoomed out, it doesnt snap so easily,

a quick demo video to show what happens and preferences settings.

setting preference guides to show measurement labels and smart guides helps me know when the point has snapped when zoomed out, otherwise yes it is hard to tell, and you have to move in slowly when zoomed out, it doesnt give you that solid snap feeling,

I also set the snap to 8 points tolerance to give me more of a magnet when moving in but that doesnt help much.

I know even with smart guides are on, the problem there is when your illustration is detailed smart guides snaps to every other objects side and centre so its like driving around in mud a bit as you constantly get stuck from the snapping to different objects.

I dont think one should have to have smart guides on to get a good solid snap to guides or intersections of guides. they should snap regardless.

A suggestion would be the option in preferences for 5 check boxes in smart guides or selection & anchor display:

1. snap to all
2. snap to guides and guide intersections only
3. snap to grid only
4. snap to object centres and sides only
   
   
   

    

   # a box beside each to enter snapping tolerance for each of the 5 options. so totally customizable. 1-10 px
   
   
   
5. cursor snap to anchor or point (when it snaps the cursor over that handle or point it demagnetizes instantly, so the snap is just to place the cursor on that point or anchor, then demagnetizes. and sub-option for this: If 2 or more points are all within the same radius of the cursor or eachother the snapping is disabled so as to avoid confusion, labelled : close points disqualify and again a points radius setting box 1-10 px).

 

 

I`d also like to see the handles and points bigger, even when zoomed out the option in preferences to keep anchor handles and points the same size. this may not work in some instances but is helpful for me to see things

it might seem like overkill but really with millions of users and a huge variety of needs this more granular choice is certainly worthy and very practical.

and most importantly the magnetic sensation of snapping and accurately to the object corner point or edge when zoomed out of the objects so you dont have to zoom right in to get a clean visual snap.

I find smart guides incredibly difficult to deal with. I don't know how many times I grab the corner of a rectangle, trying to drag it so that it butts-up to another shape, only to have AI try to convince me that it's really the CENTER of the rectangle that i want to align. Every time. Did I grab the center point? -- NO. I grabbed the upper-left-hand corner. If I'd wanted to snap the center of the rectangle I WOULD HAVE DRAGGED FROM THE RECTANGLE'S CENTER. I suppose there have been meetings discussing the whys and ways of smart-guides, but I find them completely illogical. I know there is a better way, because I've used Maya, (not known for its user-friendliness), and I'm never confused or disappointed when trying to snap-align points.

Hey guys,
do not complain that hard about Illustrator. It is actually one of the most versatile program for working with graphics, vectors and type. Yes, for TYPOGRAPHY. I love InDesign for that, but at certain moments, and mostly for Packaging, you've got a whole bunch of tools to make what you need.

"Align to selection" button. There is the MAGIC!

For activating the alignments of different graphics and for activating the smart guides, take a look at the top of your screen and switch there
All the best!

under the view menu you can turn on and off smart guides, snap to point, and snap to grid (if using grids like guides)...I created shortcuts for them becasue I turn them on and off so often,

I`ll agree when I`m zoomed out and run an anchor I`m dragging onto another anchor point, and it reads path or anchor and seems to snap, when I zoom in, sometimes its absolutely not snapped to that point at all. even though it seems to have from a zoomed out view.

with grid origin points, you can use the artboards tool on the toolbar to place workspaces where ever you want on the grid. once you draw out the artboard and place it, you can position it more accurately by pressing ënter"  and typing in x and y position co-ordinates. and or board size adjustments... not sure if that helps.. each artboard can have its own rulers I believe but ive never used it.

Snapping is so useful, so often, that it should probably be in a toolbar or, better, a tool palette.

I'd like to see a palette that had the Align controls and that Reference Point widget we use to pick which corner of the object to use when resizing (I click on that very often).

The Snapping palette could have expandable options, like other palettes (Transform, for example). Expanding the palette could reveal snapping options that we could set pretty much like we set stroke width or opacity now: number fields for grid snap, point (pixel) snap, a checkbox to toggle each kind of snapping, and a big on/off button in the center of the palette to toggle all snapping.

I am constantly clicking in the Control Bar up top to pick a corner (or center), then resizing by clicking in an number field and using my arrow keys, or typing a number (mostly, I use the arrow keys to bump the number up/down a tiny bit). That helps me keep the edge or corner of a shape pinned in place while I resize it. My view of the Control Bar's Align controls is blocked by tooltips, though, so a palette would suite me better.

I should use the Transform panel, but then I'd have to give up a Mac keyboard shortcut I use all day long.

It would really help me to have more flexibility with setting keyboard shortcuts, in general.

OK, back to snapping and drawing....

Hey, hook me up. I'd love to see what you've done!

I often do my preliminary vector work in InDesign because it has more dependable snapping behavior.

Then I copy my work into Illustrator when I need it's unique features (removing clipping masks as a consequence of cut & paste).

This is the most pleasant way I've found to work, being an old Freehand user who never fully warmed up to Illustrator.

I'm so happy that you've brought up this issue.  I thought I was going crazy.  In my expereince the problem started with CS4.  I often jump back into CS3, and I'm amazed at how much better the guides work.  If I compare a working file in CS4,5,6 and CS3, there is a huge difference in craft: the CS3 file is clean, the CS4,5,6 files are sloppy when zoomed in.  I've tried a variety of snapping tolerances, and none seem to correct the issue.  It may be due to the fact that Smart Guides now try to align across the entire artboard, where they only snapped locally near the mouse before.  It may be aligned to an object 3 miles away on the artboard. I find myself checking and double checking art, and it's a real waste of time.  With all of the great improvements to effects and pixel support in CS6, I hate going back now.  If only Adobe would allow you disable long distance snapping, control the radius, or choose CS3 vs CS6 type smart guides the problem could be solved.

I'm a pretty experienced AI user as of CS3, so I was pissed when I upgraded to CS6 last week and couldn't get an object path to snap to another object path easily. CS3 was perfect. But after a few hours of frustration I think I've figured it out. My settings are below, but read the last paragraph to see what I think the real solution is.

Preferences > Selection & Anchor Display:

• Tolerance: 3 px
• Uncheck "object selection by path only"
• Check "snap to point" 8 px
• Check "control click to select objects behind"

Preferences > Smart Guides:

• Check Alignment Guides
• Check Object Highlighting
• Check Transform Tools
• Check Construction Guides
• Check Anchor Path Labels
• Uncheck Measurement Labels
• Snapping Tolerance 8 pt

But here is what I think really matters. Grab your object you want to move with the Selection Tool (V) and begin to move it close to the anchor or path you want to align it with. Then, and only after its close, press and hold Control, while still holding the left mouse. This should result in the desired precision snapping we got with CS3.

I went from CS3 to CS6, so I can't speak to CS5, but I don't recall what you are attempting to do in your video ever working that well. What I have always done is grab the path (or anchor) I want to snap and move it to an anchor that is inline with where I want to snap. Then as I move it away, Illustrator then knows I want to line it up with the anchor I dragged over.