Snapping no (longer) working? Here’s how to fix it

Modified on Tue, 16 Sep at 10:44 AM

Snap options while drawing

You try to click a point or a line, but your cursor doesn’t grab anything. No crosshair appears, and it looks like Pythagoras doesn’t “see” your objects. Sound familiar? Then the snap function may be disabled or incorrectly configured.

What is snapping?

Snapping ensures your mouse cursor automatically locks onto geometric elements such as:

vertices of lines
endpoints of arcs
circle centers
intersections of objects

As soon as snapping is active, you’ll see a crosshair at possible snap points.

Overview

Step	Action
Show toolbar	Menu Window > Toolbars > Selection
Configure snapping	Open Snap Info and check what you want to snap to
Directed snapping	Hold shortcut key while drawing
Check zoom level	Zoom in enough for snapping to activate
Check layers	Must be visible, unlocked, correct overlay

Activate the Selection toolbar

Go to View > Toolbars > Selection.

In this toolbar, you can quickly activate the right snap modes via the Snap Info button.

Click on ‘Snap Info’ (dropdown menu)

This opens a list of all object types you can snap to.

Here you can set what is allowed to be grabbed by default:

Tick all types if you want to snap to everything by default: Points, symbols, texts, polygons, circles, lines, arcs, etc.
If you don’t check any object types, snapping will not work at all — even if it looks activated.

Use shortcut keys for directed snapping

While drawing, you can temporarily snap only to a specific object type by holding down a shortcut key.

For example: hold the A key to snap only to arcs while drawing – even if other types are checked by default.

Object type	Key
Points	P
Lines	B
Arcs	A
Circles	C
Polygons	O
Symbols	P
Annotations	M

This is useful when you have many overlapping objects and want precise control over what you grab.

Zoom in enough

Snapping only works within a radius of about ±2 mm on your screen.

If you are zoomed out too far, the snap point won’t be detected. The crosshair won’t appear, even if snapping is active.

Check layers and coordinate system

Make sure your object is on a visible and unlocked layer.
Work preferably in the Local coordinate system (check in the Control Panel).

Extra tips

Use Shift or Ctrl to combine snapping with multiple selections or custom modes.
The Control Panel gives you live information about the object under the crosshair – useful to confirm you are snapping to the right element.

Still having issues?

Send a screenshot of your Snap settings along with an example drawing to support. Also mention which object types you are trying to snap to.