Smart Guides in CS4/CS5

I've been using Illustrator since version 8.0 and don't feel comfortable jumping over from version CS3 to CS4 or CS5, mainly because I find that "Smart Guides" (which is an option I relay on most of the time) have became less-Smart than they were in CS3.
I need total accuracy on may job, but somehow shapes do not snap the same way using smart guides as they did before. Can't tell exactly why this is but its an annoying thing! Don't know the reason why Adobe changed them in the first place they worked fine as they were.
First experienced this on CS4 and thought that this might be a bug that would be corrected later on but have noticed they the same way on CS5 afterwards.
Did anyone experience the same issue? Comments? Suggestions?
Thanks in advance.

Be more specific. Preferably, provide illustrated examples.
Basically, smart guides have been improved considerably. They are different from the old smart guides, though.

Similar Messages

Anyone notice the Smart Guides bug in CS5?

ID CS5 has a Smart Guides bug when resizing frames to match the size of other frames. When releasing the mouse after the Smart Guides pop up showing the sizes are equal the frame size changes. When analyzing this it appears the frame does not resize to where the SmartGuides popped up but where the cursor is located. There is also jumpiness between the position of cursor and where the Smart Guides pop up. This behavior occurs vertically and horizontally. While some jumpiness still exist, it works reliably when frames are aligned. In other words, if a frame is resized to a point where two sides are aligned then the size of the frame does not change when the mouse is released.
I have verified the bug in both Windows and Mac versions of IDCS5.
None of the behavior exist with Smart Guides in ID CS4.
Is anyone else experiencing this behavior?

Thanks for checking Peter.
I am using a laptop, Mac OSX 10.5.8, with ATI Radeon X1600. The issue still existed wtih my Wacom tablet mouse and a Logitech mouse. I also just uninstalled the program and reinstalled it and the issue still existed.
This issue also exists on an iMac with Windows 7 running ID CS5 for Windows.
Are you using a Mac by any chance? The issue does not exist so much when the frames are aligned. So, if you are trying it out and Smart Guides creates a line connecting the two frames you need to move them out of alignment. Also, if your cursor is dead center over the edge of the frame all is ok. What it's really doing is snapping to where the cursor is and not to where the Smart Guides popped up. I'll be really surprised if you're not seeing it with a Mac.

Legacy Smart Guides in CS5?

Wondering if there is any talk of being able to opt for "legacy" Smart Guides in Illustrator CS5? I would upgrade for that feature alone. The Smart Guides in CS4 are infuriating. I know this is an old gripe. And, yes, I'm aware of tweaking preferences and holding down command key. It's still not the same...and not even satisfactory. I would love a simple one-click option in prefs that would allow for the user to abandon the new smart guides in favor of the good ol' pre-CS4 smart guides.
Anyone know?

I hesitated to try to explain the old behavior of the guides, but I wasn't confident that I could convey the idea without making it more confusing to those who don't know what we are talking about. But, you pretty much nailed it. It is infuriating when I am dragging an object and hovering over a point on another object, expecting to be able to constrain my angles of movement from that point (as in CS3), and it just doesn't work. And to make things even worse, sometimes the point that I want to align with seems to be the only point on the entire artboard that I CAN'T align with. It feels like a deliberate prank. "Smart" guide lines are lighting up all over the place like "Do you want to line up with this point? How 'bout now? No? This one? That one? Here? Here? Here? Here? Here? Here? Here?" NO GODDAMMIT! I want to line up with the point that I am hovering over....not every single other shape on the board.
That is the behavior that I was alluding to when I described this Adobe "improvement" to be Microsoft-Office-like. I don't know if any of you have had the misfortune of having to use Microsoft Word over the years, but if you have, then you know what I am talking about. You type in the word "Dear" and the program assumes that you are trying to type a letter and starts making all sorts of suggestions and formatting changes and pulling up names from your contacts. Or you type a bullet point and all of the sudden your margins and font point size and indentations and everything else changes because the "smart" program makes assumptions about what you are trying to do. 99.9% of the time the software is wrong and you spend 10 minutes undoing everything the program just did to "help" you. It used to not be that way.
I have grown to expect that sort of behavior from Microsoft and their bloatware. Now I fear that we will be seeing more and more of this from Adobe in the future. I think at some point certain software titles reach a point of maturity where the product works so well that the engineers and programmers resort to needless tinkering in order to justify their existence and put out a new and "improved" version when corporate says so. Bummer.
It would be one thing if it were a give-and-take scenario. If I found some of the new smart guide behaviors to be an improvement I would possibly accept the absense of the old behaoviors. But that is not the case. There is not one single new aspect to the smart guides that I find to be an improvement. That feature is now completely blown for me in Illustrator....and probably will be forever. It may seem like a tiny gripe to some people...but when you consider that I probably logged in over 2,000 hours on CS3 and grew to rely heavily on the behavior of its smart guides, these later versions of Illustrator have been like learning a whole new program in some ways.
If only I could convince all of my clients to upgrade from CS4/5 to CS3...

CS5 Photoshop - How do I disable Smart Guides

Hello,
Smart guides are driving me mad. It never selects the region I'm selecting. It causes the selection to always jump a little up or to the left or right and then I have to zoom in to readjust the selection. The innacurate selection thanks to these guides are driving me absolutely crazy! Is there a way to disable them because I can't seem to find it.
CS5's logic is really aggravating and slows down the creativew process as I have to interrupt my flow constantly.
Any help is appreciated
~TheEternalAbyss

I'm not sure if I can get a screenshot that would be helpful. I can try to get some, but in the meantime I can try to describe step by step what I'm trying to do:
1. I select the Marquee toool in order to make a selection around an object I want to modify
2. Then I am simply making my selection
3. The result is the my selection is just slightly off from where I had selected
4. Then in order to fix it I have to zoom in and modify the selection using ctrl/alt+selecting with my mouse
I hope this made it a bit clearer.

Problem with smart guides in CS5 with converting type object to outlines.

Hi There,
I recently upgraded to Illustrator CS5, and am having some issues with the smart guides. I create some type with the text tool, then convert that type object to outlines. Now, when I want another graphical object to "snap" to any of the anchors of the outlined text graphic, the smart guides don't kick in! The problem does not seem to occurr if I make a standard graphic with other tools, only when I create a graphic from a type object. I need to be able to snap to graphical objects that are created via the convert type to outlines command. Has anybody experienced this issue before? It's kinda frustrating.
The issue didn't seem to happen in CS3, and I've noticed the design of the smart guides is a bit different in the CS5 version as well. Am I missing something?
Any tips would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

When you switched to CS5 did you turn on view >> snap to Point
If your snapping tolernace is set to a small value, you may need to zoom in more to get snapping to work, or just increase the value. Also make sure you have the appropriate items checked (eg:Anchor Path Labels)
Edit Preferences >> Smart Guides >> Snapping Tolerance

Smart Guides CS4

I'm studying up on inDesign CS4 though Adobe TV. Deke's tutorial on making a text frame shows the frame snaping to guidelines and margins. The dimension arrows appear indicating the frame area is complete top to bottom, left to right.
My settings have snap to guides and smart guides both turned on (check mark). However, the only time I see the dimensions arrows is when I snap to the edge of the page.
I'm snapping to guides and margins, but the arrows do not appear. Am I missing a setting?
William-01

I understand now. Thanks!

CS5 Smart Guides: Can't Turn Off?

Maybe I'm missing something, but I can't seem to turn off the smart guides in CS5. The menu item is unchecked; turning them on and then back off again does nothing.
Is this a known issue? Operator error? Something else?

Wow that was quick.
In reply to:
And how do you figure turning off frame edges is going to make it LESS likely that you'd move the wrong object?
Well it wasn't in previous versions and now it is. Therefore I can gauge my performance based on previous versions.
For example at this moment I have a 2 sided A4 brochure that has to be at the printer by the morning. The job is for a surf company. The file contains a place illustrator file of a pretty complex illustration. There are photos and text boxes and on top of that I have several cut and pasted vector files from Illustrator as part of the theme that I need editable so I can change colours, gradients and transparencies. So all up there is a lot going on. I have quite a few more layers than usual, so that I can lock layers to prevent the "smart highlighting" happening. But in the design process I need a lot of elements active to be tweeked to get the file the way I want it to look.
Now I have a new mac with lots of RAM, but still when you have a complex file with lots of stuff going on, and you want to zoom in and change something quickly because the client who is sharing screen with you on skype wants to put a gradient fade behind a some text to give it some pop... which then makes a millisecond of redraw time happen and your mouse is also loaded to place an image at the same time into a frame, I have found that when you are moving your mouse across the page, while the "smart frame edges" function is occurring, the highlighted frame sometimes will dump the loaded image or eye dropped colour into an unintentional frame or element. It doesnt happen all the time but it is enough to make you want to write in a forum like this. I do this kind of work enough to know it is stifling the creative process. If I was designing a catalogue with a photo on one side and a description on the other there wouldn't be as much of a concern.
Sorry if the spelling is bad its almost 2am and I still have about an hour to go.

CS4 Smart Guides; snapping one anchor to another

Just upgraded to CS4, I *really* can't get my head around these Smart Guides.
I've been in the preferences and tried every combination of settings, tell me if this is correct:
If I draw two boxes, grab the anchor point in the corner of one box, and try and drag it to the anchor of the other box, Smart Guides will no longer snap to that anchor.
This is getting super frustrating, thanks for any help if I'm missing something.

Dr Griggs wrote:
Thanks for the video, but you mentioned in it you had to "Hold down Command" to make it work. I found out that was the answer for CS4. It's just super disappointing that there's no toggle for this.
To my understanding, no version of Illustrator before has ever made you do this. So that's great, after upgrading I have an extra button press to my common workflow. Awesome.
Now if you asked me why I would have told you that I had been in the rectangle tool so I was holding don the Command key to switch to the direct selection tool.
It is not necessary to hold down the command key in order for this to work. You can use the direct select tool as well if you have switched to it but I use the command key so that I cn have a different too selected such as the rectangle or pen tool when I am drawing.
Snap to point works as expected.
I hope this answers your question. Would you like to see a video? Keep in mind the selection tool would need to have the bounding box hidden or you will resize it if you try to drag a corner.But that would have been the case in any version.

Smart objects from PS CS5 being edited in AI CS4

I have both the CS4 and CS5 creative suits loaded on my machine.
Just recently when I edit smart objects in Photoshop CS5 it launches Illustrator CS4 to edit the objects. I am also seeing this in InDesign where it will choose AI CS4 when I select edit original.
Is there a way to change the default to use CS5 products?
Thanks,
Phil

Try changing the file association of the .AI file format from CS4 to CS5 through Windows, usually done by right clicking on a .AI file and choosing Open With->Chose default program

Illustrator CS4 Smart Guides Don't Match Transform Panel

Does anybody have any idea why my smart guide dimensions don't match my transform pallet?
For example I draw a square and the smart guide measurements say .25 x .25 but the transform panel says 0.2515 in x 0.2515 in.
Any suggestions. Thanks

I don't really understand you, I'm afraid. do you mean to snap to the tangent handles?
Mylenium

Smart Guide/Snap to point not working

Hi
I am trying to remove a circular shape from a rectangle in illustrator, the retangles width is 10px and the diameter of the circle is 13px, I centre the circle ontop of the rectangle ( or I appear to) but when I use the Shape mode tool minus front, the circle is no longer centred ( see images)
I have tried switching off smart guides and snap to grid and am still having the same problem.
In the above image you can see once I have divided the 13px circle from the rectangle it has moved off to one side.
Also when I am trying to manually place the circle ( rather than using the centre guides ) I can only move it by a large degree it alway moves further than I move the mouse, could this be because of a pixel grid? I do not think I am using this. ( can see in the above image where I am trying to place the circle and when I let go of the mouse, the grey circle is where it lands
From the 2 images below you can see that there is a 1px difference on either side of the extracted circle I was trying to get centred
I should mention that the 'Align to pixel grid' in the transform menu is inactive when I am trying to do this, as I initially thought that this may be the cause of my problems, but it made no difference

Rebecca,
So why does the minus front tool mess up alignment so much?
No clue. I believe this issue has never been reported.
At a first glance, it really looked like an Align to Pixel Grid issue, and also the fact that it works when both object widths have an odd (or even) number of pixels.
But that is apart from the fact that you stated that it was off. If it were on, Align to Pixel Grid would apply to the circle, to the rectangle, or to both.
Obviously, it is possible to (direct) select each and check. It is also possible to check the Y value of the centre for both in the Transform palette and see that they are actually identical before applying the Pathfinder.
And if on, Align to Pixel Grid should also affect/destroy the Object>Path>Divide Objects Below way. And it should make it impossible to even place both objects centre aligned when one is an odd number of pixels wide and the other is an even number wide.
As the issue is described, it may indicate some Pathfinder>Minus Front malfunctioning.
It may be worth trying some of the following things (you may have tried/done some of them already) and see whether it helps (the following is a general list of things you may try when it is not in a specific file; 3) and 4) are specifically aimed at possibly corrupt preferences):
1) Close down Illy and open again;
2) Restart the computer;
3) Close down Illy and press Ctrl+Alt+Shift/Cmd+Option+Shift during startup (easy but irreversible);
4) Move the folder with Illy closed (more tedious but also more thorough and reversible);
5) Look through and try out the relevant among the Other options (Item 7) is a list of usual suspects among other applications that may disturb and confuse Illy, other items may also be relevant);
Even more seriously, you may:
6) Uninstall, run the Cleaner Tool if you have CS3/CS4/CS5/CS6, and reinstall.
http://www.adobe.com/support/contact/cscleanertool.html

Smart guides labels appears but sometimes NOT.

When I am using smart guides in illustrator cs6 it is problem which makes me nervous.
When I select point, handles appear. When I move next to handle top the label appear. But SOMETIMES NOT appear, SOMETIMES APPEAR. It is terrible.
- It might be nice when labels ALWAYS APPEAR, WHEN I AM NEXT TO HANDLE TOP or NEXT TO THE ANCHOR POINT.
Because then I know, that when label appear, I can work with that concrete handle, or point.
I know, that it depends of the snapping tolerance, which I can set in Preferences. But when the snapping tolerance is too high, it is unpleasant to draw anything. When snapping tollerance is high i can draw objects on A4 leter which is usual, but my lines and handles are attached anytime when I do not want.
When I do not use smart guides it is unpleasant to draw lines too. Sometimes I grab handle when I want, but sometimes I fail.
I think it may be a good solution if you fix it so that the snapping tollerance will be lower, but labels will appear sooner and reliably.
I like Illustrator, InDesign and Photoshop. But this is the reason, why Illustrator makes me crazy, when I work there. Thanks

David,
I do not have align to pixel grid or snap to grid turned on
It sounds as if Illy thinks the former.
The following is a general list of things you may try when the issue is not in a specific file (you may have tried/done some of them already); 1) and 2) are the easy ones for temporary strangenesses, and 3) and 4) are specifically aimed at possibly corrupt preferences); 5) is a list in itself, and 6) is the last resort.
1) Close down Illy and open again;
2) Restart the computer (you may do that up to 3 times);
3) Close down Illy and press Ctrl+Alt+Shift/Cmd+Option+Shift during startup (easy but irreversible);
4) Move the folder (follow the link with that name) with Illy closed (more tedious but also more thorough and reversible);
5) Look through and try out the relevant among the Other options (follow the link with that name, Item 7) is a list of usual suspects among other applications that may disturb and confuse Illy, Item 15) applies to CC, CS6, and maybe CS5);
Even more seriously, you may:
6) Uninstall, run the Cleaner Tool (if you have CS3/CS4/CS5/CS6/CC), and reinstall.
http://www.adobe.com/support/contact/cscleanertool.html

Smart Guides- Not that Smart?

Problem: Can't snap a curcle's center to a multi-angled (45 and 90 degree) path
Device and Program details: Illustrator CS6 running on a 2009 iMac (3.06 Ghz Processer and 16 GB RAM)
I've worked with Ai for years but can't remember running into this problem but it seems so simple. When I click, hold and drag center of the circle over the angled path it pretends its not even there. But when I make a sigle straight line, the circle will snap to that path. So my question is, can smart guides even do this (and if so, how) or is this a glitch with the new CS6?
I've experimented with the Smart Guide preferences but nothing seems to work. If you have any feedback please let me know.
Here is a pic of the the object and path I'm trying to snap:

They changed the behavior of Smart Guides with CS5, I think. (Maybe it was CS4) In some circumstances, you need to hold cmd to get it to snap.
If that doesn't work, are there any compound shapes that encircle the area shown? Sometimes they can be an invisible block to clicks and snaps, even though there isn't anything visible...

Smart guides headache,

Below is a link to a tutorial I found on perspective in ai cs5. After downpoading the ai file,
I looked at it in outline view Ctrl+y.I zoomed into the drawing and saw all the object alignment flaws, a great example
of how cs4/cs5 faulty smart guides have added countless hours of frustrating extra work.
My compliments to Anil Ahuja for the fine work, it must have driven you mad all that faulty snapping.
PLEASE FIX THE SMART GUIDES ISSUES ADOBE
http://blogs.adobe.com/infiniteresolution/

I'm very sure I'm patched to 6.04 at work (home now, but very sure as it came out in Sept 09 and I'm running new 27"ers [g]).
When I shift-drag an item to hold the alignment to the original position, if a smart-guide-sensed boundary is within the snap distance to the original position, holding shift moves the object to the smart-guided-sensed alignment, and will not snap to the previous position. Turning off smart guides solves the problem. No mention of it here: http://indesignsecrets.com/indesign-cs4-6-0-4-update-now-available.php
A particularly annoying problem as it doesn't move the object much (snap distance?). Could be easy to overlook. How long this has been going on I'm not even sure. When I get some time at work, I'll try 6.00 through 6.04. I'm not sure when I noticed the problem. Maybe it's a SL / Leopard thing as I just moved from Tiger.

Smart Guides able to recognise parallel lines

Here is a feature I would love to see Adobe include as an update for Illustrator CS5; the ability for the smart guides to recognise when a stroke being drawn or moved becomes parallel to the stroke nearest to it, [perhaps this distance could be adjusted via Preferences].
At the moment the smart guides tell us when our object is in alignment with others, but for working with the pen tool, a quick appearance of a smart guide line overlapping a stroke which is currently lying parallel to another stoke would be a lovely feature, and would enable much time-saving for things like architectural drawings, where ensuring accuracy is paramount.
Personally I'm amazed to find myself on the "suggest new features" page for a CS5 application. When I tried CS4 I was in awe, it was so obviously superior to CS3, which in itself was truly revolutionary to someone who had only used Photoshop 10 until CS3. I couldn't see that there was room to go further from CS4 -but you amazed us all Adobe: CS5 is truly awesome. I'm still a student right now -but I know that although there is other graphic design software out there, without becoming totally fluent in the CS suite, finding a job would be even more difficult.
Thank you to everyone at the Adobe team for your truly revolutionary software...........but please, please could you write a script or something so that the smart guides recognise a nearby line as being parallel or not.

I think you are getting confused with Illustrator - Smart Guides work differently in Illustrator. 45% angles would suggest that you are expecting Photoshop Smart Guides to work the same way, and as far as Im aware, they don't

Smart Guides in CS4/CS5

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