FEDEVEL
Platform forum

Julian(-.(-.-).-) , 10-23-2025, 11:40 AM

Hello everyone! I am currently taking the course "Learn Altium Essentials Second Edition." In Lesson 4: Doing PCB Layout, I noticed that something works differently for me in Altium (25.6.2) than it does for Robert. When Robert draws a line at 1:05:44 / 1:52:04, you can see that he is working with a grid of 0.1 mm, but away from the grid at pin 23 with X - 22.6 mm and Y - 26.25 mm. He can draw a very straight line, and his mouse pointer is not automatically "pinned/snapped" to the grid. When I do this, a line is formed and the tip of the mouse pointer always creates a 45-degree turn downwards or upwards. How can I achieve the same result as Robert, so that I can draw a straight line without any turns, as shown in the video?

Best regards,

Julian

Robert Feranec , 10-23-2025, 12:35 PM

please can you add screenshot?

Julian(-.(-.-).-) , 10-23-2025, 12:52 PM

Hi Robert, here is the screenshot

QDrives , 10-23-2025, 07:38 PM

Are you referring to the "look ahead mode"? Keyboard shortcut "1".

Julian(-.(-.-).-) , 10-24-2025, 07:14 AM

Thank you! 🙂
Not quite what I meant, but that works very well for me. I thought that there might be a setting/preference that allows you to work on a grid size determined by the component (0.025 mm) without the line necessarily having to be on the currently set grid size (0.1 mm). Do you know what I mean?

Robert Feranec , 10-24-2025, 07:19 AM

I dont remeber but if you hold CTRL or ALT when you are routing then it will not snap to grid

Robert Feranec , 10-24-2025, 07:21 AM

also, click into empty space and in properties panel there are many options to tweak snaping, you may want to play with them

Julian(-.(-.-).-) , 10-24-2025, 07:25 AM

Thank you very much 🙂

QDrives , 10-24-2025, 06:22 PM

It is CTRL to stop snapping to grid.
Hotkey CTRL-E to specify what other things to snap to.
Shift-E to select which layers (no, current or all).