Grid Settings
A grid behind the drawing helps you line up atoms and annotations. The Grid Settings dialog sets the grid’s pattern, spacing and color, and whether drags snap to it. Open it from View > Grid Settings…, by right-clicking the grid button in the action bar, or with Ctrl+Shift+'.
Showing the grid
View > Show Grid (Ctrl+') toggles the grid on and off without opening the dialog. The shortcut is bound to the physical quote key, so it works the same on non-US keyboard layouts. When you zoom out far enough that grid cells would land closer than 4 px on screen, the grid hides itself to avoid moire patterns.
Appearance
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Type | Dots, Square or Hex (pointy-top). |
| Spacing | Cell size in pixels, from 2 to 500. Disabled while Match bond length is checked. |
| Match bond length | Locks the spacing to the document’s bond length, so atoms dragged onto the grid land at bonding distance. The label shows the current value and updates if you change the structure preset while the dialog is open. |
| Color | A swatch that reads “auto” until you pick a color. Auto follows the current theme; Use theme returns to it. |
| Opacity | 0 to 100%; the default is 30%. |
Every change previews live on the canvas behind the dialog. OK saves the result; Cancel, Escape, or closing the dialog reverts to the settings you opened with.
Snapping
Check Snap to grid by default to make drags snap to grid intersections whenever the grid is on. Either way, holding G during a drag inverts the current behavior for that drag only: it turns snapping on when the default is off, and releases it when the default is on. Release G and the drag goes back to the default.
Advanced: major lines
Expand the Advanced section for graph-paper style emphasis lines:
- Major lines every draws every Nth grid line darker. Enter 0 to turn major lines off; the maximum is 50.
- Major boost adds opacity to the major lines on top of the base Opacity. With a base of 30% and a boost of 20%, major lines draw at 50%.
Major lines do not apply to hex grids; both controls are disabled when Hex is selected.
See also
- Select tool for how grid snap interacts with smart guides while dragging
- Page Setup & Pages for page boundaries and margin guides