Show/Snap Others never works

[dhbrown]

I've never gotten this command to work in the 18 months I've used it; according to the Help, the Show/Snap Others is supposed to, among other things, snap to the non-active classes. It doesn't. I can't get any other class except the Active class to be recognized with this command, so I must always use the Show/Snap/Modify others and be careful not to modify classes I don't want to modify.

Again, is it possible I have something selected/deselected somewhere? Thanks.

[Guest]

There are 4 rules to keep in mind:

To snap and/or select objects across layers and classes:

1. Class Options must permit the action

2. Layer Options must permit the action

3. If snapping/selecting across layers, the layers are set to the same scale

4. If snapping/selecting across layers, all layers must be set to a Top/Plan view

[Pat Stanford]

I normally work in Show/Snap/Modify Others for classes and Show/Snap Others for layers, so I just went and tried this.

With Show/Snap Others classes turned on, I was able to snap to object in classes other than the active class without a problem.

Are the classes you can't snap to on a different layer? In order to snap to objects on a different layer, the layers have to be at the same scale and in the same view (top/plan, top, front, etc.)

Try this:

1. Create a new blank document.

2. Change the Class Options to Show/Snap Others.

3. Draw some objects in the None class.

4. Change the Active Class to Dimension

5. See if you can snap to the objects in the None class.

Pat

[dhbrown]

Still no good. First off, I didn't know about the layers having to be the same also. (I always work in the same scale across layers so I'm safe there...) I did like you said and it worked fine. That isn't the problem, I should have mentioned that. Dimensioning always works for me no matter what is active. My problem is snapping to any geometry that is not on the same active class. I usually want to do this in order to find out what class/layer a particular geometry is on, without modifying it. I could use the Force Select command but then that jumps me out of the class/layer I want to be in, to the one I want to find out about. With more and more classes, and more and more layers being added, along with more things like 'plants-new','plants-existing','plants-to be removed',etc. being added, it really slows things down when I have to struggle to get to something. I guess I just figured that the Show/Snap Others worked one way, but it works another way. Thanks for your help!

[Pat Stanford]

I think you are misunderstanding the terms.

In order to see what class/layer an object is on, you have to select it.

Show means that it is visible in the drawing.

Snap means that you can fnd the corner/edge/center points of the object to use to draw other objects.

Modify means that the object can me selected and changed (and see about them in the Object Info Palette [OIP]).

So it is doing exactly what the program is supposed to do.

If you have objects that you don't want to be able to modify, but do want to select so you can see ther attributes/layer/class, you can lock those objects, but then you have to unlock them when it is time to modify them.

Pat

[dhbrown]

You're exactly right, Pat. I was misunderstanding the terms! Thanks for clearing that up for me!