pen tool - turn off SNAP-TO points

[_Robin_Sandow_]

Hello -- I'm running Illustrator CS3 on a Mac Powerbook. Somehow I've got some sort of "snap-to" feature turned on for the PEN TOOL, and I can't figure out where to tun it OFF.

It's the constraint aspect that is unwanted (the symptoms are: the cursor constantly displays "tool tip" info about all sorts of existing nearby anchor points, various constraint angles, etc -- which is OK as info, but it also keeps snapping to these points in the image when I create a new anchor point, rather than letting me just click wherever I want).

I want to reset to the DEFAULT behavior for creating arbitrary anchor points. This forced "snap-to" business is driving me nuts -- and I can't find where to turn this feature OFF. Someone point me in the right direction please.
Thanks -- Robin

[Kurt Gold]

You are talking about the likeable Smart Guides.

If you don't like them right now, just turn them off in the View menu or modify their settings in the Illustrator preferences.

[Wade S Zimmerman]

View >Snap ( Command>Option>") to point an the tip is the place where you are and the green lines are lining up with another anchor somewhere in your are.

Smart Guides which are on by default. you can turn them off View>Smart Guides.(Command>U)

[_Robin_Sandow_]

Thanks -- good info from both Kurt and Wade -- I appreciate the help. I suspected that there was some menu item for this (probably "hidden in plain sight"), but I just couldn't find it.

Adobe HELP didn't seem to have this topic for the keyword "pen tool", which also surprised me.

I bet the SMART GUIDES are very helpful under certain circumstances -- but they were creating huge problems for what I was doing.

Thanks again -- Robin

[Wade S Zimmerman]

Since smart guides are a feature you can toggle you should explore them and the way they work at first seem intrusive they are good to have available at a moment notice.

It does not take long to get use as well.

Makes lining point with the pen tool and other drawing tools a snap as you noticed.