Smart Mouse is a drawing aid that can help the cursor precisely snap to a point on another object when you are drawing. Snap constraints like Smart Mouse are particularly useful when creating technical illustrations or documents in which micron-precision is paramount since it can snap the pointer to the corners, edges, and other points of objects.
Smart Mouse cannot be used at the same time as Snap to Grid. To turn off Snap To Grid by choosing Layout | Grids and Guides | Snap to Grids. If there is no checkmark, the option is already turned off. If Snap To Grid is on, the pointer will snap to the grid and not to active Smart Mouse constraints.
To open the Smart Mouse palette, do one of the following:
To turn on the Smart Mouse, do one of the following:
Customize the following Snapping settings:
Show snapping type indicators | Select the snapping type indicators you would like to display as you hover over the object. Indicator only: Displays a circle in the color shown. Click the color palette to choose another color. With Symbols: Displays the symbol of the snapping type selected. With Names: Displays the name of the snapping type. Click the color palette to choose another color. |
Snapping radius | Specifies the number of pixels the mouse pointer will be away from an object before snapping points can be detected. If you release the object as soon as the indicator appears, the object will snap to the detected point. |
The Smart Mouse tool has 8 types of constraints for your use. The constraints make the pointer (and objects that you draw or drag) snap to corners or centers of objects. The pointer will even snap to divisions, such as the midpoints of line segments, edges of vector objects, four quadrant points, tangent lines, perpendicular lines, and intersections.
The most effective use of the Smart Mouse Constraints is to activate as few snapping types as possible to achieve your desired operation.
Select one of the following snapping types:
Snapping Type | Smart Mouse Snaps Pointer to |
Anchor point of vector object | Any starting or ending point of path (line or curve) segments, including quadrant points. |
Center | The center of a line or object. |
Division of line segment | Path segments as divided by the value in the number field. e.g.) With a value of 4, the pointer will snap to each 1/4 point of a path segment. |
Edge | Any edge or path of a vector object. |
Quadrant | The four points of a circle, oval, or arc: 0°, 90°, 180°, and 270°. |
Tangent | The edge of a circle, oval, arc, or Bezier curve that a line will touch, but not intersect. |
Perpendicular | The 90° angle of a line segment. |
Intersection | The geometric intersection of path segments. |
By default, Smart Mouse will only detect snapping points on your current layer. If you want Smart Mouse to detect snapping points across all layers, select the Select Across Layers checkbox in the Properties bar.