Smart Guides.

Our school purchased the CS5 Web Design Suite at the educational price. I'm running a MacBook Pro w/ 10.6.8.
I'm doing a tutorial on the Illustrator, and I cannot get the smart guides to work. I've activated them through the "View" drop down menu, and I set up what I wanted in the "Preferences" under "Smart Guides."
Nothing happens with the smart guides.
Perhaps related: when I go to set a guide I hold the shift key so that the guides will snap to each tick mark on the ruler. But nothing happens.
Thank you for your help, and smiles to all.

@Risa: Yes to both.
@Monika: Great questions. When I set a guide I want the edge of the secret blue box surrounding the object I'm moving to attach to that guide so that I can be precise; instead, the object that I am dragging just goes past the guide I set as if it was not there.
Here are my settings.
@Jet: I have those settings, see above.
Thank you all for the responses and questions.
Big smiles to you.

Similar Messages

Snap to? Smart Guides? Not sure what the issue is but it's annoying.

Just made the big step up from CS2 to CS5. Lots of changes as to be expected but otherwise a smooth transition. Nice work Adobe.
One recurring issue has got me baffled and annoyed. It appears to be a snap-to function yet I'm unable to locate the place where it might be disabled.
In my previous version of InDesign resizing window sizes and shapes was a fluid and easy motion. Now it's staggering and akward. The text and picture boxes want to snap on an unseen grid. I understand how this can be a useful function for some kinds of work but it also gets in the way of composing an image.
Any suggestions on how to disable this?
Presently, I have both Smart Guides and Snap to Document Grid UNCHECKED in the View menu yet I'm remain unable to smoothly and fluidly size my text and picture boxes.
Thanks!

There's another new feature, Live Screen Drawing, that's on by default, but for many users it causes real choppiness in moving around on screen. It's at the bottom of the Interface section of the preferences. Try setting it to Delayed. That will allow you to have a live preview when you really want it by clicking, then holding for a moment before you drag, but moving immediately will give you what you are used to in CS2.
I actually think Smart Guides are worth using. They save me a TON of time.

Indesign cs6, smart guides on, transform not proportional

i use my smart guides a lot. i have found that when i go to transform an image using the direct select tool, and the cmd+shift function, the percentage of the scale is not consistant on teh x and y axis (they should be the same). i do have the "constrain proportions" active. i have tested without them being active. it seems, so far, the only time i can recreate the issue is when the smart guides are active.
-osx 10.8.3
-indesign cs6 (cloud subscription)
-smart guides on
-transform window open
-constrain proportions active
-direct select tool
-select image within a frame with direct select tool (white arrow tool)
-use shift+cmd and drag and scale, repeat (small and large areas)
-repeat a few times and watch the horizontal and vertical percentages in the transform window. percentages will not be consistent after a few tries
does anyone else have this issue?
can anyone else recreate this issue?
does anyone have any suggestions on a fix (other than turning off the smart guides)?
thanks in advance
-maria

okay, i finally figured this bad boy out! here is the solve in case you guys come across the problem
-indesign cs6, go to preferences>guides and pasteboard
-go to "smart guide options"
-turn OFF "smart dimensions" and "smart spacing"
all is well with the world, and i can sleep peacefully once again

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.

My smart guides are not working in Illustrator CC

I've check my settings, view, everything. I cannot seem to get smart guides to work. ( and yes, I've made sure I haven't just pressed command U )

J.Beech,
I don't know how but I've fixed it.
That is a pity. It is an old well known issue, or was until you came along, or rather still is because you cannot tell how.

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.

[CS3 - Win] Smart Guides not showing up when Snap To Grid enabled

Has anyone else encountered this bug?
AI CS3 13.02
Smart Guides are turned on, but hovering over items does not show the cyan hints, snapping to anchor points / paths etc does not work. This only occurs when Snap To Grid is enabled. If you then go and turn it off, the Smart Guides start working again as expected.
Is this a known bug?
Tom

Thanks for the reply Mike. Smart Guides work perfectly for me provided Snap to Grid is turned off.
I can see there being a conflict between snapping to grid and smart guides in CS3 - which takes precedence? From a UX perspective, if these two snapping modes are mutually exclusive, there should be at the very least an alert letting you know the other mode is disabled; the menu item should be greyed out. Or if it's truly an either-or situation, then the menu needs to be revised such that both snap to grid and smart guides are within the same submenu, and only one can be selected at a time, toggle with CMD+SHIFT+OPT+U.
T

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 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

Are Smart Guides no longer reliable? Free transform is finnickey as well....

I've noticed that, since downloading CC on its release last year (and keeping consistent with updates), there has been a noticeable unreliability with Smart Guides. I will have a rectangle, for example, that I want to snap to a guide or another shape. The green text will pop up, saying "Guide," so as to let me know it is going to snap to the guide, but it doesn't. I set it down, and it's a nudge or two or three off. Has anyone else encountered this?
I've also noticed a difference in free transforming. It doesn't always happen, but take, for instance, the rectangle in the following series of images. I click it with the Selection Tool once, then attempt to stretch it upward. The bounding box containing the shape is suddenly not form-fitting around the rectangle, and when I stretch, it doesn't stay put the way it should. The bottom edge of the rectangle is moved up, as if the shape is centered within the wrongly-sized bounding box. Is this part of a new feature that I'm not aware of? Would love to get to the bottom of this. It's a hassle having to direct-select the edge I want to pull up.

This is what I'm referring to:
As to your second question: don't ask me ... :-)

Cannot center Smart Guides exactly? CS6

Hello: Level: Newbie OS: Windows 7 64 bit Illustrator CS6
I am learning about Smart Guides but have found myself a bit perplexed.
I have drawn a Circle with the Ellipse tool by clicking and then entering the values: 432x432
Then I hover the mouse over the "center" square which reads: x:260 & y:259.5 which doesn't make sense to me ~ if it is the Center shouldn't the x & y values match? Any way, so then I manually type in the x & y value boxes 260.000 and they both stay at 260.
However, when I pull out the Smart Guides and place the horizontal guide over the center the x & y values also do not match and so I enter the number manually but the values will not stay where I set them.
e.g. The x value states: 259.5 and the y value: 260.000 and no matter how many times I reset the x value it always reverts back to 259.5 ... ???
The vertical smart guide is also off by rougly .5
Now, since I am attempting to make a symmetrical object ... won't this differentiation cause "eye sores" once the artwork is done?
I am (still) attempting to construct a compass with a rose, increments, needle etc. etc. and my first attempt ... and I quote the awesome Jacob ...
looks as if I have dropped it on the floor
So, after all that ramble'n ... I suppose I would like to know from others if this is just the way things are and rather I am suppose to just deal with things being a "bit" off??
Thank you for your time
hope you're having a great day/night

Hey Jacob ...
So, I did the Move the Folder but ... dang'it I'm slow at times ... and so, I am unsure if I followed your directions right ...
I signed into my computer under admin and then when I searched my C drive for the Adobe Illustrator CS6 Settings folder ... two folders came up
One for the Admin account and one for mine
So, I right clicked on both of them and chose ... Move to Desktop ... placing both folders on the Desktop of the Admin
Then I restarted my computer and logged in under my user name not as the Admin & then opened Illustrator but I am still having the same problems.
The Align tool doesn't Align so I gotta eye things out. The first compass I showed you was a result of "listening" to illustrators X/Y/H/W settings.
And when I have the Align to Pixel Grid ON I still do not have integer values when they ought to very well be integers.
So, I just hoping I didn't go about things the right way.
I am now going to go log back into my pc as an Admin and undo the Moved folders and give things a go again.
Jacob ... you've been such a huge support to me that I cannot thank you near enough!!
PS. to check things I made a circle that's 300x300 > the W = 300 and H = 300 and the X = 250 and the Y = 250 < the Align to Pixel Grid is on
Then I choose the Line tool and make a Line of 20px > then directly below I make an other Line of 20px with the Align to Pixel Grid on ...
I select the top 20px Line and the Values are: X = 249.5 and Y = 132 H = < Align Pixel Grid is on
I select the bottom one and X = 250 and Y = 358 and H = 20 and W = 0 < Aliign Pixel Grid on
Then I Group them both and the values are: X = 249.5 and Y = 245 and H = 246 and W = 0
Then I Rotate by 20 degrees and the first set Values are: same as just above
The next set Values are: X = 249.5 and the rest is the same as above
The next set Values are: X = 249.5 and Y = 245 and H = 231.164 and W = 84.137
As I go around the H & W values keep changing. After all you've patiently taught me ... they shouldn't change? OR the H & W do change b/c the bounding boxes outline the Path and Not the line itself ... right?
The 5th copy Values change to: X = 249.5 and Y = 244.999 and so on from there. Not to beat a dead horse but is this how it ought to be?
Uhhh sigh ... ...

Align / smart guides not working

I am having a super-weird problem. I have a black rectangle that I would like to be exactly the same width as a larger white rectangle. When I try aligning the left edges, it is ever so slightly off. When I turn on smart guides and try to transform the black rectangle to snap to the white rectangle's left edge, the same thing happens -- ever so slightly off.
There are only 3 rectangles in the entire .ai, and I have checked to make sure that snap to pixels / snap to grid are turned off. I have quit and restarted the program.
Any clue why align is being funky, or how to fix it?
Thanks!

It sounds like something is going on with the alignment using the align tool. You could, if need be do it the old fashion way by the numbers. Entering numeric values fo X and Y positions to align exactly. This can be done with copy and paste too.
Wait, you may need to check how your aligning in Preferences.
Are you aligning to Preview Bounds or to the actual vectors?
Or… Vector

Illustrator CC Free Transform not Snapping to Guides, No Smart Guides

The Free Transform tool in Illustrator CC won't snap to Guides, and Smart Guides don't seem to work either.
I have all the options checked in Preferences > Smart Guides > Display Options and the Snapping Tolerance turned way up.
In CS6, Free Transform with Smart Guides allowed you to snap to paths, points, alignments and guides.
Also: Any way to hide/minimize the Free Transform popup?

James,
Depending on the urgency of your plight, you may await some cleverer suggestions, or read on.
When seems to be wrong for no apparent reason, and it is not limited to certain (existing) documents, you may consider the following (you may have tried/done some of them already) and see whether it helps, unless someone comes up with a cleverer suggestion.
The following is a general list of things you may try when the issue 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 (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 Other options (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, and reinstall.
http://www.adobe.com/support/contact/cscleanertool.html

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!

Smart guides (with Ctrl): awesome

Normally I (and everyone else, I guess) only post here when I got a question, but I just had to say I really LOVE the Smart guides in IDCS4...!!! And specially the option to use them temporarily with Ctrl (on the Mac). When you have the option on all the time, it can be a bit annoying, so I never have it on, but I always use Ctrl (áfter starting to drag something, not before) to enable it just for what I need to do. It's absolutely awesome. (Maybe this Ctrl-tip is new for some here, so my post is not entirely useless! )
Adobe, you rock: you really made my work a joy with InDesign!!!

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 off by a tiny amount

I've recently been working on a project involving a large amount of stroked paths. I'm tracing a scan of a line drawing and have been using the Scissors tool a lot to trim where one path runs into another. When I do this I turn Smart Guides on and use Scissors to "snip" paths at intersections. I'm careful about only clicking when the intersection is highlighted, but occasionally I notice that the trim is a tiny bit off. Usually I'll spot a line's round cap extending a little past the line it "runs into" (as in the image here), and when I zoom in I can clearly tell that the anchor point I created with the Scissors tool is a little off. Often it's more obvious than the image example I've provided. I then have to use Scissors again, usually at max zoom, and I continue on with a slight queasy feeling in my stomach, knowing there are ones out there I haven't caught.
I can't even be sure if this issue is only related to the Scissors tool, it might just be a Smart Guides thing. This is obviously not a crushing problem, but I think this community can respect a desire for precision in vector artwork, not to mention the fact that when I start adding fills I may run into problems. Pathfinder might work better than Scissors here, but I don't need a workaround, there's no reason Smart Guides should be dysfunctional with Scissors.
I've searched past discussions pretty thoroughly and haven't found anything like this. Maybe it's something with my prefs? I've never messed with them -- just started using Illustrator on this machine several months ago. Also, for this project I'm currently working with pixel units with Align to Pixel Grid turned off, if that helps. Can't recall ever experiencing this issue before, although most of my work in Illustrator has been on different machines.
CS6, late 2013 iMac running 10.9.2. Thanks in advance if you have any ideas!

Tara,
You may be haunted by the Align to Pixel Grid ghost.
If so, select everything and untick Align to Pixel Grid in the Transform palette, and also untick Align New Objects to Pixel Grid in the options there.
To avoid it altogether, use a document type without Align to Pixel Grid as the default (RGB documents for web and the like), or change the default.

Smart Guides.

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