Snap "Order"

Richard Sands

Is there a way to 'order' the way Snaps work?
I have Perpendicular and End as snap settings and when I find (for egs) selecting a base point for something it wants to (or appears to) snap to perpendicular rather than END.
Also if I hover near an end point "END" is not shown, but "Perpendicular"
Both are showing ON in snap palette.

Any comments appreciated thanks.

John Gaunt

I wish I knew.
I have about 8 snaps set and it favours perp too often, even perp from the last point from a previous operation.
I tried dropping it off the list, but I use it too often. Just don't want it to override more obvious snaps.

Louis_Verdonck

 If multiple esnaps are possible at a certain position hit the TAB key to cycle all possibilities. Do not move the mouse while hitting the TAB key. The entities involved in the esnap highlight.

Richard Sands

 Thanks Louis, that's very good.

What I don't understand is when say drawing a line, why the program would offer the initial snap as the perpendicular snap when hovering near the end of the line.

What is it snapping perpendicular from?

Louis_Verdonck

 Hi Richard

I agree, it doesn't make sense to offer a perpendicular snap as the first point, unless it is a so called 'defferred perpendicular' esnap which creates a line perpendicular to the snapped entity. What does the tooltip say when you get such perpendicular snap?

Richard Sands

I'll have to check next week on work PC, however on my laptop version 14 it offers 'deferred perpendicular' and also 'last point to end poiint' then on one strange run past linework and it throws two perpendicular blue-grey lines with 'perpendicular and last point to end point'. That last one has some geometry attributes added.
I'd do a screen shot but Print Screen option in Snagit is on the blink!
End and Perpendicular snaps ON.
I just reset (cleared) snaps and reset End and Perpendicular to check and still works same.

Joe Dunfee

 In general, if there are multiple possible targets for snaps, it should favor the one closest to the pointer.  Though, I also find this to be a challenge if I had END and PER snaps both active.  So, I never set PER as a running osnap.  This is especially necessary, since my v14 often does not show the snap symbols, so discerning which snap is being chosen is often impossible.

I will add another wish, many years ago with AutoCAD, if you explicitly typed a snap, and failed to obtain it, you would hear a beep.  I would even like that ability for running osnaps.  So, if anyone knows of a 3rd party solution to create this feature in BricsCAD, let me know.

-Joe

Anthony Apostolaros

I do usually keep PER as one of my running esnaps, in spite of the problems identified here. I think the crux of the matter, as Richard pointed out in the original post, is the order of precedence. I think END, MID, and INT should always take precedence over PER, just as they do over NEA. But they don't always, and I can't see any pattern as to when PER takes precedence; except that it always takes precedence over NEA, as it should.

The main problem I have is that with PER running it's sometimes difficult to know which esnap mode has been used. I often think that I've snapped to an endpoint, based on the esnap marker I saw when I clicked, but then on zooming in I find that I've actually snapped to a point just off the endpoint. That only happens when I've got PER as a running esnap, so I assume that the esnap handler has decided at the last minute to give me a perpendicular point near the endpoint.

And I think the deferred perpendicular esnap, though often very useful, should be chosen only when PER is specifically requested via an override or by having NEA turned off. Here again, the question of when deferred PER is chosen and when NEA is chosen seems random. I think TAN does work the way I'm suggesting, as it should.

These problems are only a minor nuisance, and I'll continue using PER as a running esnap in spite of them. But as long as we're discussing it I thought I should contribute my two cents' worth.

Robt Deans

@Louis Verdonck:

I agree, it doesn't make sense to offer a perpendicular snap as the first point...

This has been a pet peeve of mine as well, even in AutoCAD as late as v 2006.

Scott McKenzie

I agree that the snap order seems to be a bit different than I would like, but I can get used to that and work around it by typing the snap that i need although I do use snap tracking with running snaps, but the snap issue that get's me the most is how the program picks up and creates snaps and tracking vectors as you move the cursor around while running a command.  I have used the feature, but I think that there should be a delay of a few milliseconds (customizable delay would be awesome), or, even better a switch to turn off automatic snap acquisition so that to choose a snap to track from I have to click that snap point.  As I am working and moving the cursor around, especially in areas of complex geometry (viewvase generated views are a great example) the application picks up snaps as your cursor passes over them - it is especially evident when you pause briefly to zoom in on a section to select the correct snap to track from.  Once the application has a bunch of snaps acquired for tracking there is no way to clear the automatically acquired ones and try again without restarting the command that you are using.

Louis_Verdonck

 Hi Scott

You can toggle Entity Snap Tracking hitting the F11 function key. The POLARMODE system variable has an option which allows to only acquire entity snap tracking points when the Shift-key is pressed, avoiding the bunch of tracking lines your are complaining of. To set the POLARMODE options, right click the STRACK  field in the Status bar, and choose Settings in the context menu, expand  Polar Mode and select bitcode 8.

Tom Foster

@Louis Verdonck:

 If multiple esnaps are possible at a certain position hit the TAB key to cycle all possibilities. Do not move the mouse while hitting the TAB key. The entities involved in the esnap highlight.

Are you with Brics, Louis? Can I point out that when hitting Tab to cycle all possibilities, the snap symbol changes but the ToolTip word doesn't change - still says the name of the first snapmode that it grabs.

Louis_Verdonck

Dear Tom

The esnap tooltip indicates the default entity snap at the cursor position. The tooltip only updates when the cursor is moved. The first time you hit the TAB key, the entity on which the default entity snap lies highlights. Repeatedly hitting the TAB key cycles all possible alternatives on all entities inside the Snap Aperture Box. The snap marker indicates the entity snap mode and the entity involved highlights. 

Tom Foster

By 'default entity snap' you mean what the OP was talking about? i.e. the system holds snaps in a priority list and whichever applicable one is highest on that list, that is the 'default'?

John Gaunt

Default snap in that case would mean the one the program has chosen to apply, from the list of those set.
There is no order to the list, regardless of the order you set them in - when you set them within Lisp each snap is represented by a different number and the list is then represented only by a total of the numbers - e.g. my 8 running osnaps are represented only by the number 255.