What is Osnap

Many people just don’t use this really valuable tool at first, and after some time they are asking themselves how on earth could they model without it.

I sure know I’m one of them.

Imagine you are working on some sort of technical project, I don’t know, you are designing a house, or making some sort of technical documentation for any kind of object. How would you feel if you had to do final documentation and blueprints without a ruler, compass, set square… Pretty impossible, right? Well, this is the same thing about Osnap. If you never use it, it is impossible to model accurate models.

You will find yourself in situations where osnap will simply get in your way, so you can disable or enable it at your will.

Maybe to better understand, I will first explain what Snap is. Some of you who are new to modeling in general, probably don’t know what snap is. So here it is. Snapping is simply a helper for accuracy. Notice how my cursors kind of stickies for the grid intersections? Well, thats it!

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By default after installing a fresh copy of your Rhinoceros the Osnap toolbar is disabled. You simply click on Osnap in the bottom toolbar to open it. Now, you have all sorts of options for Osnap, and one of them is Disable. Naturally, if the check box is checked, then it is Disabled, if not, it is Enabled.

Ok, I’ll explain each option our OSnap has.

End

When this is checked, your cursor snaps to the end of all objects, lines, edges, surfaces…

Near

When this is checked, your cursor snaps near any object. That means you can create lines on other edges, or anywhere where some other object already resides.

Point

Snaps to Point objects only.

Mid

Snaps to middle of lines, curves, edges.

Cen

Snaps to center of an object, usually if you have some curvy objects, it determines where the center of it is. Center of arc, circle, or similar.

Int

Snaps on intersection of objects. Lines and edges usually.

Perp

If you want to start (or end) a line but make it perpendicular to some reference line, this is what you need.

Tan

If you are creating a line that needs to be tangent on circle or similar, this is it.

Quad

Snaps to quads.

Knot

Snaps to knots.