Speeding up the Drawing by Using Object Snap (OSNAP)
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Author | Eren Pala |
| Profession | Mechanical Engineer | |
| AutoCAD Specialist | ||
| Location | Istanbul, TURKEY | |
All AutoCAD versions
Hi,
OSNAP is one of the indispensable features for Autocad users. Yet, I have seen lots of users using it wrong or even not aware of it. So, I am going to mention OSNAP feature today which seems to be a primitive function for some of you.
Object Snap is a feature in Autocad that enables detecting an object’s specific points when you get close to it. To turn it on, just push the OSNAP button in the status bar below making it embedded. You have to open the Drafting Settings from the settings menu come out by right clicking on the Osnap button to change the type of points to be caught. Snap-grid and polar tracking settings can also be changed from this menu (Figure 1). Let us take a look at only the options in the Osnap Tab which is our topic for today. As can be seen from the figure, settings are divided into two separated columns. Most of users think choosing all options in these columns are useful. Indeed, it is not. Besides, it increases the risk of making mistakes. In complex drawings, there are lots of objects as a result; lots of midpoints, endpoints, intersections etc. so you may have caught not the one you want or it took more time to select the right point by zooming in and out.
Figure 1
So what to do to prevent it? The solution is reducing the point types by choosing the ones that is needed only. My advise; do not select any point type from the right column since they are a bit more specialized and they are not used frequently. Of course, it depends on your drawing type and style. For instance, if you are mostly dealing with blocks that means ‘insertion point’ is very important to you so you have to keep it turned on. There are two options that may cause a problem in the rest (left column). They are ‘center’ and ‘quadrant’ options. When they are both selected, you have to zoom in to eliminate the quadrants and catch the center of the circle. If the quadrant option was not selected, you could pick the center as soon as you get close the circle.
We have to pick a point type among which we have turned off. What now? It is a bit troublesome to go back the settings menu turn it on and go back to work. Instead, you can access a menu by right-clicking on the screen while the ‘Shift’ button is pressed (Figure 2). Choosing a single point type from the menu allows you to catch that kind of points for one time. This option makes it easy to choose a specific point type where lots of point types exist.
Figure 2
There is another option for the ones using the command line. You can type the first three letter of the point type to make it active. For example, when ‘specify first point’ phrase is written, typing ‘ins’ into the command line does the same job with accessing the menu and selecting ‘insert’ option.
For those who like using toolbars, there are buttons in the Object Snap Toolbar (Figure 4) in the Standard Toolbar (Figure 3). The usage is exactly the same with what is written above.
Figure 3
Figure 4
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April 7th, 2008 20:13
When it comes to having running OSnaps, I will use the TAB key to cycle through each osnap until I get the desired snap to the desired object.
For example, I may have two lines crossing each other, and I may want to snap to the MIDpoint of one of the lines while the running osnaps are MIDpoint and INTersection are on. When prompted to pick a point, I will place my cursor near the two objects and then press the TAB key until the desired object is highlighted with the desired OSnap.
Another trick is to customize the CUI file by making all of my F-keys as snap overrides. I keep F1 (help) & F2 (Text Window) intact, but F3 through F12 are snap overrides. I know the F-keys have their own specific functions, but most of those functions are available below at the Status Bar with just a click (eg. click the status bar ORTHO instead of pressing F8)