Snap to option and Guides?

#1

I got to toy around the app this morning and once you grasp the basics, it’s very neat!

One thing I like when I work because I’m a bit lazy sometimes, is the ability to snap stuff in between them or to some guides. That’s a feature I can’t live without in Axure (grid snap and guides/smart guides) if you’d like to have a reference. It’s also pretty well done in Affinity Designer.

That surely sound a bit “rigid” when we’re talking about at tool allowing to make really responsive design but when I work my way around a first draft it really helps putting things together at first without having to dabble in the positioning and the likes.

I tried to look on the forum if it had been mention before but didn’t find anything that seemed related :\

#2

Kevin and I have chatted about this a bit. I agree that snapping / smart guides can be nice when you’re working in a freeform manner. They feel familiar.

That said, here’s our reasoning for why we haven’t implemented these yet:

  • The primary purpose of snapping is alignment and spacing of elements. Those are things that Subform’s layout engine does really well! We want to encourage people to not be too reliant on the traditional, freeform, pixel-pushing way to doing things and experiment with the layout features.

  • Snapping algorithms are difficult to get right. I think we’re all probably familiar with things jumping around and not snapping to exactly where we want them in tools like Sketch and Photoshop. (I’ll take a look at Affinity and Axure’s implementations)

It’s still something I’d like to consider going forward—particularly how it might work in concert with the layout features. Probably a bit down the priority list right now, though.

#3

I totally agree that your layout engine could allow us designer to do without guides and grids :stuck_out_tongue:

In my personal case, it’s more a concern of being able to just place things on the canvas first and structure them after (like laying out the pieces of the puzzle).

At the moment it’s a bit harder to eventually use Subform as a way to draft something by getting all the required elements in the artboard and then dable around without risking breaking things that may have been carefully placed first, especially when getting to know the specifics of Subform (what would we be without history and ctrl+z!)

It’s a learning curve for sure and maybe we’ll have to get use to not have those crutches anymore in order to get the tools we dream of!

#4

I think in free-form mode you could use snapping to your advantage but I dont find it necessary. Mainly because I use the freeform mode to create layout ideas and then fix then into parenting order after I found a result I’m happy with.

So in this case I don’t find it neccesary to snap items together I would end up switching to parenting mode before the final product anyway.