Smart guides are dumb and dumber.

[Garry16B8]

How does on reduce the scope of smart guides? All I want to do is extend a line on its path, as in "on" guide, but it constantly finds other objects at vast distances that are complete unwanted and redender the tool useless.

My work around is to copy the line and place them end point to end point, merge the anchors, delete the new anchor and finally cut the line to the desired length. What a hack.

As a side, I find Adobe help impossible to navigate and only come here out of hours of wondering, is there a better way?

[Anubhav M]

Hello @Garry16B8,

Could you try adjusting the Smart Guide Preferences to see if it helps:

Go to Edit > Preferences > Smart Guides (Windows) or Illustrator > Preferences > Smart Guides (Mac)
Lower the Snapping Tolerance to reduce the distance at which Smart Guides snap to nearby objects

Also, try using the Direct Selection Tool and share your observations:

Select the endpoint of the line with the Direct Selection Tool (White Arrow).
Drag the endpoint while holding the Shift key to constrain the movement to the original angle.

If the problem persists, please share a small screen recording of your workflow and the problem, along with details of the version of the OS/Illustrator installed, so I can better assist you.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Anubhav

[Garry16B8]

I have the Tolerance set at 4pt, default? The hold shift key only works are pre-set angles, I have arbitrary angles.

With some experimentation, I am guessing line is being extended in the same direction whenever the words, "Line Extenion" appears at the opposed end of the line being extended, i.e. the message of "on" isn't required. This a bit more tolerable.