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Grids

Objects in a gschem schematic or symbol are placed using a grid. There are two grids active at any time: the snap grid, and the display grid. The current grid settings are shown in the gschem status bar as “Grid(100,100)”, where the first number describes the snap grid and the second the display grid.

Snap grid

The snap grid is used by editing operations to help you position objects so that they connect up properly. The size of grid can be increased with Options→Scale up grid spacing, and decreased with Options→Scale down grid spacing. It can be set to a particular value with Options→Snap grid spacing….

The current snapping mode can be cycled with Options→Toggle Snap On/Off. There are three snapping modes available:

  1. In normal mode, movements are by multiples of the snap grid size, but objects that are not aligned with the grid will not be forced back into line with it.
  2. In resnap mode, “Resnap Active” is shown in the status bar. In this mode, objects that are not aligned with the grid will be forced back onto it. This can be useful if you have an object that's aligned to a different size grid to the one you are using.
  3. In snap off mode, “Snap Off” is shown in the status bar. In this mode, objects are not snapped to the grid at all.

You must be careful when editing with snap disabled: slightly off-grid pins, nets and components can be very difficult to connect up correctly.

Display grid

The display grid is shown at the smallest multiple of the snap grid size that makes sense to display at the current zoom level. You can cycle the style of grid displayed using Options→Cycle grid styles.