Snap mode

The snap mode option, which is next to the grid mode option in the status bar, lets you actually snap to the grid lines and to other points in the drawing area that are placed at equal distances. You can toggle snap mode using its icon in the status bar or by using its function key, F9:

In the following example, we will learn how to set the snap spacing equal to the grid line spacing so that our cursor snaps exactly to the grid intersection points:

1. To change the snap settings, right-click on the snap icon and select Snap settings from the menu. The Drafting Settings window will open up with Snap and Grid as the active tab.
2. Change the value of Snap X spacing: and Snap Y spacing: to 1 each. In the previous example, we set the grid spacing to 1 unit, so here we will also set the snap spacing to 1 unit to keep the grid spacing equal to the snap spacing.
3. Once you have made the changes shown in the following screenshot, click OK to apply these changes and exit the command:

4. Now, make sure the grid mode and snap mode options are active in the status bar and then select a draw command.

5. Move your cursor in the drawing area and this time, you will notice that the cursor will only snap to the intersecting points of the grid:

You can change the snap distance to some other value and then the cursor will snap at that interval instead of the intersection of grid lines. The snap and grid modes are helpful in situations where you want to take the reference of these grid lines to make drawings.

As you might have noticed in this case, you can count the number of grid lines to work out the distance in both the X and Y directions. For example, if you want to make a rectangle with a length of 10 units and a width of 5 units, then all you need to do is just count 10 blocks along X to make one line and 5 blocks along Y to make another line for the rectangle:

Once you are done with snap mode, make sure you deactivate it in the status bar, or else the cursor will keep snapping only to the grid intersection points and won't let you make accurate drawings. To deactivate snap mode, click on the snap mode status bar option in the status bar or press the F9 function key.

Next up in this series of status bar options is the selection cycling option, which lets you cycle a selection through overlapping objects. The selection cycling toggle makes it easier to select required objects, even when they are not directly visible. We will discuss this status bar toggle in detail in the next section.