Through support emails I was advised to post technical support question to this user forum. In my previous emails I was informed that there are no "written help files", thus there is no index either. Although I am experienced in ACAD and Corel Designer, I am just starting out with SD and when I try to extrapolate from my experience to SD, I find that there is usually no correspondence. One case in point would be that after having been advised that my "cables" were not "rubber banding" becuase they were not drawn all the way up to the blue highlight that confirms the connection point being made, I then proceeded with my drawing and immediately found further issues that I needed to reference but had no way of consulting an index to address the issues. For example:

1. Grid & Snap:

   a.   How do I lock the drawing to the grid, so that my symbol stubs or better yet my connection points are always aligned with the grid.

   b.   I find that my cables will tend to go out of orthogonal angle when I snap them into place, I suppose that this is most probably due to the alignment of the grid and that they are snapping to the "Blue Connection Point", which I have not been able to sync with the grid, but if I were able to achieve re-aligning my symbols to the grid, I assumed that selecting "Orthogonal Lock" would permit me to freely click the "Cables" in place with out any skew, but upon selecting it, the "Cable Tool" grayed out.

   c.   In my efforts I tried to "select all" and snap to grid, but this did not align the connection points with the grid. What would then be the correct way of aligning the "Symbols" with the grid?

   d.   At one point I was able to connect the "Cables" without any orthogonal error, but contrary to "Cables" that I had previously drawn, these would not "rubber band" "normally". When I would move the symbol to test their "rubber band" connection, one of the attached segments would just extend and pivot to a slant line, instead of maintaining its orthogonal relation as would the previous lines that I had drawn.

   Despite these issues, I am very enthusiastic about SD7 and hope to become proficient, but I must insist that there should be some written and index reference material, and even if it were just movies and/or the forum, there should be some reference to specific topics, instructions and procedures that would avoid one from going "fishing" for an answer.

Hi Rolando,

Thanks for your post - in answer to your questions:

a.   How do I lock the drawing to the grid, so that my symbol stubs or better yet my connection points are always aligned with the grid.

   > Make sure that the Snap to Grid modifier has not been turned off. In Block Schematic drawings all symbols are drawn so that connection stubs are on gridpoints so this modifier is your best friend in this regard.

In Pictorial Schematic drawings, because of the physical proportions of the products being represented, some connection stubs are halfway between gridpoints. In these cases use the document Properties Grid to change the Number of Snaps in Y to 2 - this allows you to snap on and halfway between gridpoints.

b.   I find that my cables will tend to go out of orthogonal angle when I snap them into place

> Yes, this will occur if the penultimate node of your cable is on a gridpoint but the connection point that the final node attaches to is not. The answer above should help you avoid this.

c. What would then be the correct way of aligning the "Symbols" with the grid?
> Prevention is better than cure: the correct procedure is always to have the Snap to Grid modifier On when inserting symbols. If a symbol has been inserted off the grid often the easiest fix is just to delete it, turn Snap to Grid on, and re-insert.

d. one of the attached segments would just extend and pivot to a slant line
> This is normal behaviour if the end segment is not Horizontal i.e. if a segment is not Horizontal initially, its angle is not preserved when the symbol it is attached to is moved. I suspect the symbol was just fractionally off the grid so the segment may have looked horizontal although it may be just off.

Can I ask you to attach to a post an example of a project in which you're enountering these issues? If we fully understand exactly what you're doing it will be possible to diagnose the issue and offer the best answers.

Kind regards,
Rob Robinson
Stardraw.com

I purchased Stradraw Control 2010, but the following would be a deal breaker for purchasing SD7, unless I can be advise of some alternate procedure to the option of deleting my symbols:

1. Be it by chance, error or purposely, I might turn off the "Snap to Grid". How can I grab or sync the stubs and connection points back with the grid, without having to delete and redraw my symbols

2. Is the grid an absolute requirement for cables to obtain and preserve orthogonal rubber banding? Where is this documented, what options are available?

3. I do not mind modifying the "Number of Snaps" and/or realigning the symbols, just need to be instructed in the most reasonable and efficient way to do so.

I have attached my current project file.

Hi Rolando,

1. Arrange | Align to Grid is a good starting point. Aligning Left (always) and Bottom (or alternatively Top) will get most symbols back on the Grid when you have moved them off it. But we recommend, and the drawing defaults are such, that you insert symbols with Snap to Grid on, and move them with Snap to Grid on, and then you won't encounter the need to move them back onto the grid.

2. No, you don't have to use the Grid at all if you don't want to. But for the sake of order we strongly, strongly recommend adhering to the grid.

I spent a couple of minutes re-aligning the symbols in the attached. If you continue to work with Snap to Grid on you should not encounter any further problems.

Kind regards,
Rob Robinson
Stardraw.com

Hello Rob,

   Thank you for promptly answering the questions in my posts, I have gone back to drawing with the instructions and recommendations you have provided and have found the following:

   1.   The Arrange | Align to Grid, "Left", "Bottom" and/or "Top", do tend to realign the symbols with the Grid, but at times they are of no avail and one ends up deleting the Symbol, as to reinsert it again, but then again, despite "Align to Grid" being always on some symbols fail to align to the Grid when inserted and need then to be aligned by "Left", "Bottom" and "Top". Is there some anchor point or some other way to "lock" the symbol to the grid?

   2.   On some occasions, despite having successfully drawn a cable and verified that it is correctly "Rubber Banding", some cables reveal the "Blue Stub" at their connection points instead of remaining black for the full length of the cable. This is requiring me to delete and redraw these cables, only to have this occur again at the very same point or some where else in the drawing.

   3.   As I mentioned in previous posts, I can not seem to find a place to look up direct answers to issues and details, that have and inevitably will continue to pop up. For example:

      A.   In some cases I do not need or want to connect a cable to an input or output, but do want to place a short stub and label stating the nature or detail of the in / out signal. What is the correct way of doing this, so that when the symbol is moved the labels stay attached and move in unison with the symbol?

      B.   In the print preview section, what does two, three, four and six page mean? Can the drawing be printed across various pages, is so, how?

   Well, it is getting late (early am), so let me leave it at this for now. I real appreciate your support, specially when there are no written references, but with your tutoring, I am starting to get something done.

Thanks again

Hi Rolando,

I'm pleased that it's starting to come together for you.

1. By design, symbols in the Block Schematic module should align to the grid. Can you tell me which symbols are failing to align when they are first inserted? This will help us to diagnose the issue - it may be something to do with the way the symbol operates e.g. it may require a parent frame or chassis (if it's an optional module for a configurable product), or it could possibly be an error in the specific symbol.

2. Stubs on top of cables: the 'stacking' order, or 'Z-Order', of objects is defined by the order in which they are created. Later objects generally appear on top of earlier objects. You can change the order of objects using Arrange | Order, for example to bring the cable to the front. All Order commands have FastKey equivalents which are shown in the Order menu so, for example, with a cable selected you can bring it to the front by hitting Ctrl+Shift+F

3A. If you just want to annotate something with a Line and Text, I would just use the Line tool and Text tool. To keep these objects with the symbol when it is moved, Group them to the symbol.

3B. Please ignore multiple page print preview for now - this is reserved for functionality that is not yet available. Apologies for any confusion this may have caused.

Kind regards,
Rob Robinson
Stardraw.com