Using the Snapping Tool and its Options Within the SAi FlexiPRINT RTUV 22 Software

Using Snapping could be a bit confusing at first with its different options, but will become a very useful tool.

This feature will really help you keep designs clean and aligned, A great way to ensure a professional look.

Video Transcript

Alrighty, guys. In today's video, we're gonna be looking at the snapping tool with in flexi print. But before that, let's have a quick intro first. So today's video can be found on softwaretraining.co.za. co dot Z A. We make short and easy to watch problem solving videos, and we also have daily updates. Now, if we head into the programme here now, like I mentioned in the intro, we're gonna be looking at the snapping tool. Uh, this is very handy when you combine it with perhaps things like guides or grids can be combined with shapes as well. And then, um, this will really help If you've got a template or you wanna stick with certain design elements. There's obviously a whole list of things you could use it for, but in general, snapping is, uh, commonly used with stuff like guides and grids. So now, in order to use snapping, we wanna make sure it's enabled. So to do that, I'm just gonna, uh, go to our main menu on top here. Just quickly zoom in for you guys. Then we wanna go to view, and then we wanna go all the way down to we find snap, then under snap. You'll see. We've got a few different options here. We've got snap to point, uh, guides, grids and et cetera. But, um, I found in order to use the snapping tool and I to have it visible so you can either click here snap, tool bar or we can on the top here, next to our main tool bar, right click. And we go down to we find the snap to I'm gonna click that, and it's gonna open it by default. It should make it into a floating window like this. And then all you can do is if you wanna dock, it is go next to this icon. As soon as it's off left, click hold and drag it onto this open space. Place it and then it's gonna place it somewhere on. Yeah, If you wanna rearrange it, go to those little dots, click and hold and drag it to the place you want it. And now, at the moment we don't have any snapping on you can see all these tools are off. So I'm gonna make a quick few shapes, and then, uh, we can just look at snapping. So let's quickly add Maybe, uh uh, Let's make two rectangles and then maybe a circle. So now, with these shapes selected now, we can actually start snapping things. So we're gonna start with the first one, which is point. Now. The point is pretty much a node point. So anything that's got nodes like vector shapes, it's gonna have points. So this thing at the moment has four points over here. If I had to select our draw tool or the curve tool, I'm gonna click. Just make a single point so you guys can see that as well. So just zoom in so you can see there is a point. So I've got a single point here and now when it comes to snapping, there's two main operators. Either we can move and snap, or we can, uh, adjust the scale and snap. So when it comes to the moving, if you had to click this thing, hold left all the sorry left mouse button in. You'll see our mouse cursor is at a certain location now. Wherever we started, I click from that's where it's gonna snap it to. So if I go to the top right corner and I move it. Once I get to this point, it's gonna give us this, uh, icon will change and it give us a snapping option. We kind of get stuck there for a bit, so keep that in mind, So wherever your icon is, that's where it's gonna snap to. So, yeah, that is snap Two points so I can grab this one the same thing and snap two points on this shape and so forth. So then the next one we have is snap to edge. So that will be the second icon here in the drop down menu. The arrangement is gonna be slightly different, but yeah, we've got the snap to edge, so I'm gonna select that now. What's gonna happen is if I had to move this. Once I get to this edge, you will see it locks it onto the edge of the shape, Uh, which can be handy, especially with, uh, round things. Or, for instance, if we had to scale it. So like I said, there's two main ways the one is. We move it, the second one is scaling. So if I grab this scaling arm over here or this node, this is, uh, zoom here. And if I le left click drag this And once it gets to this edge, you can see that it snaps it on for us. So then, um so that is another way we can go about it now. Obviously, if I was, let's say on point and I grab this point and then, uh, it will shift. Once I get to this point, I will snap it there. So now our vertical and horizontal points are aligned to this shape. Then, uh, let's just change the colour of this, so it's a little bit more obvious. Here we go. OK, next up, we've got intersection or snapping to wherever it intersects. So what this comes down to is, let's say I've got two shapes here. Just maybe change the colour of one. Now, at the moment here, we've got two intersecting points, so we've got one over here, and then we've got one over here with the two shapes overlap. So now if I had to select this and then either move it and get to that point, it will snap. Or if I had to scale this and once it smacks that point, you can see there. It, uh, snaps At the moment, we still have points selected snapping on as well. So if I take that off, you will see it will no longer snap to these points, but only there where it intersects. So it's also a handy one to have then, uh, the last one from these kind of points and that we've got the snapping to, uh, centre of mass. So what, this will pretty much do. It will just snap our shapes to the centre of this shape. So But keep in mind. Like I said, if you're using a move to where you clicked, that's gonna be your origin for the snapping. Now, same with scaling. If I had to scale this and once I get to that point, it will snap it to the centre of this mass. So depending on whatever you have selected, then we have the last two. This is probably the most used one, so we've got snapping to guides. So let's say we've got uh OK, let's first wanna put on make sure we have our guides shown, which will be this, uh, second last one here. The eye with a little line that's showing guides. Then I wanna make sure the snap two guides are selected. Now, if we had to add guides in here, like with others, if I had to click and drag this, then this will actually snap it to our guides. Which, um, you can imagine how that's very handy. Especially if you set up your guys with exact measurements on that. Then you can easily add that snap in there. Then, uh, the last one we have is snap to grid. So I'm just gonna Let's quickly, um, have it so we can see the grid and you can see our grid is set up there every five centimetres. And then I'm gonna put snap to grid now, likewise inside here. As I scale this, I will snap to these grid blocks, which is very nice if you're working on multiple shapes that has a similar, uh, design requirement and it will snap it to those grids very handy. And, uh, like I mentioned a tool that you use often. So just a quick recap. I'm not gonna go through all the different snapping options, But if you want this tool on top here just right click, go down to snap and then dock it up here and then on the right here we've got the view options for our grids and guides. And then we have our, uh, snap to the guides or grid. And then we have all our other node type snapping, but yeah, otherwise, in the meanwhile, if we head here to softwaretraining.co.za. co dot Z a. You guys will notice we've got a variety of different Softwares we do cover, and you can also isolate your search on the top or the right. If you do not find the training videos you're looking for, just simply go here, request the training video, fill in the mini form, and then we'll do our best to try and make that for you. But otherwise thanks, guys, for watching and cheers.