4 <img src="/images/toolbar-grid.png" alt="Snap & Grid">
10 <h2 id="grid_controls-snap">Snap</h2>
13 <dfn>Snap</dfn> will cause region drags and other mouse-driven
14 operations to jump to positions determined by the nearest snap
15 setting when the mouse is close enough to this snap point. Snapping
16 is sometimes (improperly) referred to as magnetism.
19 The Snap options are set in the <a
20 href="@@preferences#preferences-editor-snap">Preferences</a>. Those
21 include the Snap Threshold which determines how close the mouse has
22 to be to a snap anchor to induce a snap, and the snap anchors
27 <li>Region Sync points</li>
28 <li>Region Starts</li>
33 <h2 id="grid_controls-grid">Grid</h2>
35 The <em>Grid</em> helps visually placing items in time. It will draw
36 lines at selected intervals as chosen in the drop-down selector.
37 Musical grid settings (<em>Bar</em> to <em>Sextuplets</em>) obviously
38 depend on the <a href="@@tempo-and-meter">tempo and time signature</a>, so
39 changing the tempo or time signature will rescale the grid, while absolute
40 grid settings (<em>Timecode</em>, etc…) won't be affected.
44 A word about time signature in this context: a time signature
45 consists of 2 numbers. The upper one determines how many beats are in
46 a bar, the lower one, what division of a note a beat represents (e.g.
47 : <em>4</em> stands for a quarter note). At e.g. 80 <abbr
48 title="beats per minute">bpm</abbr>, one beat lasts 1/80th min, so
49 0.75 sec. If the time signature is 3/4, there are 3 beats in a bar so
50 a bar lasts for 3 × 0.75 = 2.25 sec. Choosing <em>1/8 Note</em>
51 as the grid setting will draw grid lines every 0.75 ÷ 1/4
52 × 1/8 = 0.375 sec.
56 The grid density can be either based on musical time:
60 <li><em>No Grid</em>: hides the Grid</li>
61 <li><em>Bar</em>: shows one grid line per bar (e.g, in 4/4 at 120bpm, one line every 2 seconds)</li>
62 <li><em>1/4</em>: shows one grid line per quarter bar, or 4 grid lines per bar (e.g, in 4/4 at 120bpm, one line every .5 seconds)</li>
64 <li><em>1/128</em>: shows one grid line per 128<sup>th</sup> bar, or 128 grid lines per bar</li>
65 <li><em>Triplets</em>: groups the ternary divisions of time:
67 <li><em>1/3 (8th triplet)</em>: shows one grid line per third bar</li>
69 <li><em>1/24 (64th triplet)</em>: shows one grid line per 24<sup>th</sup> bar</li>
72 <li><em>Quintuplets</em>: groups the 1/5<sup>th</sup> divisions of time:
74 <li><em>1/5 (8th quintuplet)</em>: shows one grid line per fifth bar</li>
76 <li><em>1/20 (32th quintuplet)</em>: shows one grid line per 20<sup>th</sup> bar</li>
79 <li><em>Septuplets</em>: groups the 1/7<sup>th</sup> divisions of time:
81 <li><em>1/7 (8th septuplet)</em>: shows one grid line per seventh bar</li>
83 <li><em>1/28 (32th septuplet)</em>: shows one grid line per 28<sup>th</sup> bar</li>
93 <li><em>Timecode</em>: shows one grid every <a href="@@on-clock-and-time">frame</a></li>
94 <li><em>MinSec</em>: shows one grid line every thousandth of a second</li>
95 <li><em>CD Frames</em>: shows one grid line per CD Frame (1/75<sup>th</sup> second)</li>
99 The grid consist of lines running vertically in the edit canvas. When
100 zooming too far out, the grid can become too coarse. Ardour tries not
101 to show “too many” or “too few” grid lines depending on the zoom level,
102 based on the <em>Approximate Grid/Ruler granularity (pixels)</em> <a
103 href="@@preferences#preferences-editor-snap">Preferences</a> parameter.
104 As a consequence, when the Grid is in the Snap anchors, it is possible
105 that items snap in-between the grid lines sometimes. That’s expected
109 <h3>Syncing Regions to the Grid</h2>
112 By default, a region's beginning will be used as the reference for
113 both types of snapping, this behaviour can be changed by setting a
114 <dfn>sync point</dfn> in the region, by selecting the region(s) and
115 pressing <kbd>V</kbd>. This will set the sync point to the current <a
116 href="@@edit-point-control">edit point</a>.
119 <h3>Keyboard modifiers</h3>
122 Snapping can be temporarily disabled by using a keyboard modifier while
123 editing, <kbd class="mod2n"></kbd> by default.
126 Snapping can also be temporarily set to relative, i.e. snapping will
127 occur relative to the current position of the dragged item. E.g. if
128 the Grid is in the Snap options, and the grid is set to
129 <em>Bars</em>, using this keyboard modifier while dragging will snap
130 at every bar relative to the region's beginning (or sync point)
131 instead of the absolute musical bars.
134 The keyboard modifiers are defined in the <a
135 href="@@preferences#preferences-editor-modifiers">Preferences</a>.