-<img class="left" src="/images/toolbar-grid.png" alt="Editor toolbar's grid">
+<h2> What is “Snap” and “Grid”?</h2>
+<figure class="left">
+ <img src="/images/toolbar-grid.png" alt="Editor toolbar's grid">
+ <figcaption>
+ Editor toolbar's grid.
+ </figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+<p>
+“Snap” will cause drags and other mouse-driven operations to jump to
+positions determined by the nearest snap setting. Snap can be set to
+multiple options: markers, region start/ends, and the grid (those
+are all enabled by default. change them in prefs).
+</p>
+<p>
+Grid can be enabled, and it will draw lines at selected intervals;
+which can be musical, like 16th notes, or can be timecode based
+(minutes and seconds). You can leave the Grid enabled, but snap
+disabled, if you just want to see the lines but not snap to them.
+</p>
+<p>
+For example: if the Grid is set to “beats” and Snap-to-grid is
+enabled, then any operations such as split, paste, or range-select
+will happen exactly on a beat, according to the musical timeline and
+tempo.
+</p>
<p>
- Ardour's editor utilizes a <dfn>grid</dfn> to assist in the placement of regions
- on the timeline, or with editing functions that need to happen at a specific
- point in time. This <dfn>snapping</dfn> of the cursor and various objects to the
- grid can be toggled on or off, as does its behaviour, and grid units.
+Alternatively, you can leave “Snap” enabled (so your mouse actions
+can snap to Markers, or region edges) but disable the Grid.
+</p>
+
+<h2>A Warning, of sorts</h2>
+
+<p class="warning">
+The grid consist of lines running vertically in the edit canvas. If
+you zoom too far out, you might see a coarser grid than you
+expect. Ardour tries not to show “too many” or “too few” grid lines
+depending on the zoom level. You might find that items snap in-between
+the grid lines sometimes. That’s expected behavior. If you can’t see
+or snap to the grid you’d like to use, you may have to zoom in or out.
</p>
<h2>About Snapping</h2>
<p>
- There are two ways to think about aligning material to a grid. The first and
- most obvious one is where an object's position is clamped to grid lines. In
- Ardour, this is called <dfn>absolute snap</dfn> and is commonly used when
- working with sampled material where audio begins exactly at the beginning of a
- file, note or region.
+ There are two ways to think about aligning material. The first and
+ most obvious one is where an object's position is clamped to the
+ snap positions. In Ardour, this is called <dfn>absolute snap</dfn>
+ and is commonly used when working with sampled material where audio
+ begins exactly at the beginning of a file, note or region.
</p>
<p>
- The second, <dfn>relative snap</dfn>, is used when an object's position relative
- to the grid lines is important. In music, this allows to move objects around
- without changing the "feel" (or timing) of a performance.
+ The second, <dfn>relative snap</dfn>, is used when an object's
+ position relative to the snap positions is important. In music, this
+ allows to move objects around without changing the "feel" (or
+ timing) of a performance.
</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>
- The realtive snap and snap modifiers (along with other modifier keys) may be set
+ The relative snap and snap modifiers (along with other modifier keys) may be set
in <kbd class="menu">Edit > Preferences > User Interaction</kbd>
</p>
otherwise unused key. For example, the snap modifier may be chosen to be the
<kbd class="mod2n"></kbd> key and the relative snap modifier to be the <kbd
class="mod2n"></kbd> and <kbd class="mod4n"></kbd> keys.
-</p>.
+</p>
<h2>Snap Modes</h2>
to the grid:
</p>
-<dl class="wide-table">
- <dt><kbd class="menu">No Grid</kbd></dt>
- <dd>disables the grid. All objects move freely in this mode.</br>
+<table class="dl">
+ <tr><th><kbd class="menu">No Grid</kbd></th>
+ <td>disables the grid. All objects move freely in this mode.</br>
In <kbd class="menu">No Grid</kbd> mode, the grid may be temporarily activated
by pressing the snap modifier (for absolute snap) or switch to relative snap
- by pressing the relative snap modifier.</dd>
- <dt><kbd class="menu">Grid</kbd></dt>
- <dd>activates normal snapping. All positions of objects snap to the grid. (See
+ by pressing the relative snap modifier.</td></tr>
+ <tr><th><kbd class="menu">Grid</kbd></th>
+ <td>activates normal snapping. All positions of objects snap to the grid. (See
<a href="#gridunits">Grid Units</a> below to change the grid).
Moving an object in "Grid"-mode, does not change its position until
the mouse is far enough for the object to reach the next grid line.</br>
New objects will always be created at grid
points.</br>
Holding down the snap modifier will disable the current grid
- setting and allow you to move the object freely.</dd>
- <dt><kbd class="menu">Magnetic</kbd></dt>
- <dd>is a less strict type of snapping. Objects can still be moved to any
+ setting and allow moving the object freely.</td></tr>
+ <tr><th><kbd class="menu">Magnetic</kbd></th>
+ <td>is a less strict type of snapping. Objects can still be moved to any
position, but positions close to the relative or absolute grid points will snap.
In order to move an object very close to a snap point, it may be necessary to
zoom in to prevent snapping to that point, or to use the snap modifier to
disable snap completely.</br> As with Grid mode, the snap modifier will disable
snap completely while the absolute snap modifier will move the "notch" of
- Magnetic snap to the grid lines.</dd>
-</dl>
+ Magnetic snap to the grid lines.</td></tr>
+</table>
<h2>Syncing Regions to the Grid</h2>
elements. The grid can be set to several different units:
</p>
-<dl class="wide-table">
- <dt><kbd class="menu">CD Frames</kbd></dt>
- <dd>A CD Frame is 1/75th of a second. Snapping to CD Frames (using absolute snap) can be used to avoid issues with CD track lengths.</dd>
- <dt><kbd class="menu">Timecode Frames/Seconds/Minutes</kbd></dt>
- <dd>The duration of a frame depends on the timecode settings for the session.</dd>
- <dt><kbd class="menu">Seconds/Minutes</kbd></dt>
- <dd>These are absolute time units, unaffected by sample rate or timecode settings</dd>
- <dt><kbd class="menu">Beats/N</kbd></dt>
- <dd>Set the grid to units of 1/N beats, where N can be 128, 64, 32, 16, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2. The duration of a grid unit will depend on the tempo and meter in effect at that point in the timeline.</dd>
- <dt><kbd class="menu">Beats</kbd></dt>
- <dd>Set the grid to whole beats. The duration of a grid unit will depend on the tempo and meter in effect at that point in the timeline.</dd>
- <dt><kbd class="menu">Bars</kbd></dt>
- <dd>Set the grid to whole bars. The duration of a grid unit will depend on the tempo and meter in effect at that point in the timeline.</dd>
- <dt><kbd class="menu">Markers</kbd></dt>
- <dd>The grid lines are the markers.</dd>
- <dt><kbd class="menu">Region Starts</kbd></dt>
- <dd>The grid lines are constructed from region start points (see below).</dd>
- <dt><kbd class="menu">Region Ends</kbd></dt>
- <dd>The grid lines are constructed from region end points (see below).</dd>
- <dt><kbd class="menu">Region Syncs</kbd></dt>
- <dd>The grid lines are constructed from region sync points.</dd>
- <dt><kbd class="menu">Region Bounds</kbd></dt>
- <dd>The grid lines are constructed from region start or end points.</dd>
-</dl>
+<table class="dl">
+ <tr><th><kbd class="menu">CD Frames</kbd></th>
+ <td>A CD Frame is 1/75th of a second. Snapping to CD Frames (using absolute snap) can be used to avoid issues with CD track lengths.</td></tr>
+ <tr><th><kbd class="menu">Timecode Frames/Seconds/Minutes</kbd></th>
+ <td>The duration of a frame depends on the timecode settings for the session.</td></tr>
+ <tr><th><kbd class="menu">Seconds/Minutes</kbd></th>
+ <td>These are absolute time units, unaffected by sample rate or timecode settings</td></tr>
+ <tr><th><kbd class="menu">Beats/N</kbd></th>
+ <td>Set the grid to units of 1/N beats, where N can be 128, 64, 32, 16, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2. The duration of a grid unit will depend on the tempo and meter in effect at that point in the timeline.</td></tr>
+ <tr><th><kbd class="menu">Beats</kbd></th>
+ <td>Set the grid to whole beats. The duration of a grid unit will depend on the tempo and meter in effect at that point in the timeline.</td></tr>
+ <tr><th><kbd class="menu">Bars</kbd></th>
+ <td>Set the grid to whole bars. The duration of a grid unit will depend on the tempo and meter in effect at that point in the timeline.</td></tr>
+ <tr><th><kbd class="menu">Markers</kbd></th>
+ <td>The grid lines are the markers.</td></tr>
+ <tr><th><kbd class="menu">Region Starts</kbd></th>
+ <td>The grid lines are constructed from region start points (see below).</td></tr>
+ <tr><th><kbd class="menu">Region Ends</kbd></th>
+ <td>The grid lines are constructed from region end points (see below).</td></tr>
+ <tr><th><kbd class="menu">Region Syncs</kbd></th>
+ <td>The grid lines are constructed from region sync points.</td></tr>
+ <tr><th><kbd class="menu">Region Bounds</kbd></th>
+ <td>The grid lines are constructed from region start or end points.</td></tr>
+</table>
<p>
To use Region starts/ends/syncs/bounds as snap choices, it is necessary to have either:
unusable. This option should not be used in conjunction with the use any of the
Region grid units.
</p>
+
projects / ardour-manual / blobdiff