Isometric grid

I have also been looking for an isometric grid for months

finally found one that actually works

http://www.digitalartsonline.co.uk/tutorials/adobe-illustrator/design-isometric-infographic/

cheers ashley

www.glartique.com

Since you specifically mention using pixels as a unit of measure and creating artwork for games, I'd first ask you to answer these questions:

• Do you mean you want a true isometric grid, or the "cheat" isometric grid sometimes used for that? (And do you know the difference?)
• Is the game artwork going to be vector artwork or raster artwork in final form?
• If it's going to be vector artwork in final form, are you employing Flash?
• If it's going to be raster images in final form, do you intend to draw it in Illustrator as vector artwork first, and then rasterize it?

I do alot of isometric drawing, and don't use a grid per se. In Illustrator, I set SmartGuides to 30° increments and use a few isometric Symbols (for repeatedly-needed elements), a drawing of a Unit Cube and isometric protractor (for true measures and off-axis rotations), and a couple of scripts. Using those devices, I draw directly in the isometric without need for a grid.

If you feel you need a grid, you can simply construct one with open paths and either store it on its own locked layer or convert it to pathGuides. The only drawback to that is, it doesn't span the entire pasteboard. But you can build several such grids (for example, at several scales) and just turn them on/off as needed.

If you intend to use a "cheat" grid, you might do well to take a look at Xara Xtreme. That program is inexpensive, and includes that kind of "isometric" page grid.

Corel Designer includes a proper feature set to facilitate correct axonometric (including isometric) drawing.

Inkscape includes a user-definable axonometric grid feature, and can be had for free.

So far as plug-ins, as I recall, HotDoors CAD Tools includes an isometric grid. But the plug-in is not cheap, and you'd be mostly paying for its primary focus: multi-view ortho "drafting" features.

I know of no real reason to use a cheat grid if the final artwork is going to be vector, and don't see much reason to do it if the artwork is going to be raster (unless it will be strictly aliased raster artwork).

If I were building an isometric game with Flash, I'd use entirely vector artwork and would use a true grid, not a cheat grid.

JET

There are plug ins that let you draw lines and object to form isometric drawings and you can set the angles to 30 60 in the AI preferences and then create your own you won grid using the line tool and the Effect>Distort and Transform using the copy function invoke with as many lines you need.

Once you have these lines constructing a grid you can use the View>Guides>Make to turn you grid into  guides.

You can look into CAD tools by Hotdoor as well.

Rick Johnson has plug in called isometric lines.