Fixing Jagged or Off-Angle Walls and Lines

The information in this article applies to:

QUESTION

When I draw a straight wall or CAD line, it doesn't look right on my screen.  The line appears jagged, or off-angle, as shown in the image below. 


What is causing this, and how can I stop it from occurring?

ANSWER

It is often important that objects be drawn at exact angles. This can be accomplished using Angle Snaps, which allow you to draw lines, walls, and other objects at specified Allowed Angles. Angle Snaps also affect the way objects rotate, the radius of arcs, and a variety of other operations.

If you have turned off Angle Snaps, your walls may appear jagged in floor plan view. Also, you may notice the Angle Snap Indicator attached to your cursor indicating that angle snaps are turned off.

This can ultimately lead to room definition issues or problems with dimensioning, so it is best to correct the file as soon as you notice the behavior.

There are a number of ways to turn Angle Snaps on or off.

To turn Angle Snaps on or off

• Temporarily disable all snaps by holding down the Ctrl/Command while you click and drag to either draw or edit an object.
  
  
• Click the Angle Snaps toggle button on the Toggle Modes toolbar.
  
  
  
  

  This toolbar is docked to the right side of the program window if you are using the standard default toolbar configuration.
  It will display a blue border around it along with a small check mark near the lower right of the icon when this tool is enabled.

• Select Edit> Snap Settings> Angle Snaps from the menu.
  
  
• Select Edit> Preferences  from the menu on a Windows PC or Chief Architect> Preferences on a Mac, and turn the feature on or off on the Snap Properties panel of the Preferences dialog.
  
  
  
  

Once you have toggled Angle Snaps back on, you will still need to correct any walls or lines which have been drawn incorrectly by specifying a valid angle for the object.

Correcting the angle of a wall

1. Using the Select Objects  tool, click to select the off-angle wall.
   
   
   
2. Click on the Off Angle Indicator that looks like a yellow triangle with an exclamation point located at the center of the wall, then select Fix Off Angle Wall.
   
   
   
   
   
3. Enter a New Angle the wall should conform to, and select to Lock the start, center, or end point of the wall, then click OK.
   
   
   
   
   
4. Repeat this process to correct any other off angle walls in the plan. If there are any walls that are intentionally off angle that you would like to ignore, you can either select Ignore Off Angle Wall or Ignore All Off Angle Walls.