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perrybrus
Inspiring
May 28, 2018
Answered

Vector shapes snap in movement

  • May 28, 2018
  • 4 replies
  • 7387 views

I can't move vector shapes freely without them snapping in a set increment. So if I have two identical shapes and want to place them next to each other with one pixel distance it's impossible cause the one I'm moving snaps offset to the other. It's impossible to place it freely with one pixel increment. It's like one of them is minus and the other one is plus on a magnet and the destination is set in terms of distance and position. They won't connect. Since there are no snap function to turn on or off in XD then why is this occurring?

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer Randy Edmunds

    Hold down the Cmd key on Mac (or Ctrl key on Windows) to disable snapping while dragging.

    Hope this helps,

    Randy

    4 replies

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    yuanm10379624
    Participant
    October 27, 2020

    I got the same issue. The objects are snapping to some increment. Can't even align things up. This is so frustrating, Someone please fix it...

    O
    Orla_Dillon
    Participant
    December 23, 2020

    The presented solution did not work for me either, however there is a workaround that has worked for me. Simply select the objects that you want to align and while holding down the shift key on Mac drag the bounding box to align the objects as desired. This disables the snapping. You can then make sure everything lines up perfectly with the align panels. I hope this helps. 

    S
    SCJones
    Participant
    October 11, 2019

    I ran into this issue making an icon like a clock face - a circle with two lines like the hour and minute hands. I wanted to align the innermost ends of the 'hands' to make a single shape. I could never get them to align by moving one or the other line because it didn't match up to whatever grid on the canvas that it was snapping to. But I found that by grabbing the endpoint on only one end of the line and moving that end while the other end remained anchored, I could move it without snapping.

    bfelda
    bfelda
    Participant
    January 10, 2019

    A little late but I've run into this and found that I was simply zoomed in too far.  When working with vectors, you can't easily see how small the vector actually is.  It looks properly shaped without pixelation even when a pixel is quite large.  To test this, use the pen tool set the stroke to 1px and see if that 1px border is about the same size as the stepping you are seeing.

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    perrybrusAuthor
    Inspiring
    January 10, 2019

    I'm experiencing this independent of any zoom level. If I'm working at 100%, 200% or 50% the issue is still there. I was thinking this could have something to do with document purpose. Let's say if you start off designing in a document iPhone 5 and then copy a vector element from there to another document for Android mobile - but I'm having the same issues when I start from scratch with a new vector element I make myself from that new document, so it can't be differences in document setup that creates this.

    Randy Edmunds
    Adobe Employee
    Randy EdmundsCorrect answer
    Adobe Employee
    May 28, 2018

    Hold down the Cmd key on Mac (or Ctrl key on Windows) to disable snapping while dragging.

    Hope this helps,

    Randy

    P
    perrybrusAuthor
    Inspiring
    May 29, 2018

    Didn't change anything.

      Randy Edmunds
      Adobe Employee
      Randy Edmunds
      Adobe Employee
      May 31, 2018

      Snap lines? What do you mean? With "trembeling" I mean an object that doesn't want to sit in a position so it seeks to another cause it is fixed in one set movement increament, just like in PS for instance if you have set the snap function to snap to nearest object, but in XD there's no snapping properties. The object I'm moving will not move freely, it moves in steps / increments. This happens when I'm trying to move the object next to another AND also when I'm trying to move it without any other object close. It doesn't move freely so there is something that's not working in XD for Windows 10. I had a check with a colleague on same setup and he observes the same issue.

      Don't know if it's related or not but the same stuff happens when I'm dragging the handles on a vector object, for instance to match the width of another vector object that is stacked beneath, the object I'm trying to widen by dragging the handles won't match but always snaps into another width, either one "increment" shorter or one wider. When I say increment the only measurement I can think here is 1px cause there are no smaller increment on a desktop screen. I see that it's possible to enter decimals in size attributes in XD but I'm not sure what good that will do as there's no such thing as half a pixel.


      Your original post said "snapping" so that's why I thought you were referring to XD's snapping feature (which does exist ), but based on your latest details this may be something else.

      Could the behavior that you are seeing be related to this bug reported on UserVoice?
      Resizing, undo, layout grid glitches – Adobe XD Feedback : Feature Requests & Bugs

      It's short on details, but I was able to hit it a few times on Mac (I haven't tried on Win10).

      Randy

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