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elizabeths92856672
New Participant
June 8, 2019
Question

Newbie Question: Cannot get grid tool to match grid set in preferences

  • June 8, 2019
  • 2 replies
  • 2245 views

Hi All,

I'm still learning illustrator (Photoshopper here) and I'm having a problem with the grid tool vs the grid I set up in my preferences as the guide. This is for a pattern so I really need a printable grid in the background that lines up with my objects. Both the grid tool and the grid (guide) are set to:

Gridline: every 1 inch

Dividers: 6

Any help to fix this would be very appreciated.

    This topic has been closed for replies.

    2 replies

    Khara Plicanic
    Khara Plicanic
    Community Expert
    July 8, 2020

    Thank you for asking this question and for phrasing it in such a way that when I googled for the same problem, I found this thread!

    Jacob Bugge
    Jacob Bugge
    Community Expert
    June 8, 2019

    Elisabeth,

    You may ignore the grid in the preferences, and do it in one of a few ways:

    A) With the Grid Tool to form an outer square/rectangle with inner lines as a Group:

    1) Click on the Artboard with the Grid Tool, set the total size of the desired printable grid and set the number of dividers in each direction to the number of squares less one to create the whole grid as a Group in one go;

    2) Deselect and with the Selection Tool ClickDrag the Group to snap to the origin of the Artboard.

    B) With Effect to form (only) separate full lines:

    1) Click on the Artboard with the Line Segment Tool and set the Length to the desired width of the Grid and set the Angle to 90 degrees (or create such a line in another way), then Effect>Distort & Transform, set the Horizontal Move to the size of the squares and the Copies to their number;

    2) Object>Expand Appearance, then Object>Transform>Rotate by 90 degrees and click Copy;

    3) Select everything and Ctrl/Cmd+G if you wish to have the grid as a Group.

    There are other ways.

    Some say that Illy (job description Adobe Illustrator) moves in mysterious ways, one of her ways being that with the grid

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    elizabeths92856672Author
    New Participant
    June 9, 2019

    Hi Jacob,

    Thanks so much for your response. Indeed, Illustrator seems to move in mysterious ways to me.

    I cannot ignore the gird set by preferences because this is the grid guide (if you will) that I am using to produce my pattern. I need it as each square is a portion of the pattern. I need a printable grid that duplicates this grid so those her purchase the pattern can follow the pattern. Does that make sense?

    Jacob Bugge
    Jacob Bugge
    Community Expert
    June 12, 2019

    Elizabeth,

    Apologizing for the long delay, I have pondered over the (hidden) meaning and reinterpreted the original description and screenshot.

    As I (mis)understand it now, you have the guides in place, one for each 1/6 inch, but the grid to be printed gives you grief.

    My guess is that you have used the Grid Tool more or less similarly to my suggestion A) in the first post, but you have set the wrong number of dividers. It has to be one less than the intended number of squares in the Grid, and my guess is that you have set it to be equal to the intended number of squares, which gives you one square too many; you can try to count them if the Grid width/height is not too large.

    To simplify your viewing things, you may RightClick the Ruler and temporarily set the Unit to Picas in the dropdown, which will give you the correct Gridlines at whole numbers; you can just reset to Inches afterwards. 1 Pica = 1/6 inch, the intended distance between gridlines.

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