Most components in CET Designer have snap points. These snap points allow components to automatically attach to each other. Snapping works in various ways. Some components snap together at their edges. Others snap together leaving space in between, and still others snap along a line. The snapping behavior is rule-based.

Snap points look different in the 2D view and the 3D view and whether they are snapped or not:

• The yellow square (in the 3D view the square appears as a cylinder) identifies that the component is selected and not snapped to another component at that connection point.
• The yellow triangle (in the 3D view the triangle appears as a cone) identifies that the component is selected and snapped to another component at that connection point.

Deactivating snapping

There may be times when you want to disable the snapping function. Snapping can be temporarily disabled by pressing and holding the Shift key while a component is being placed in the drawing area.

To deactivate the snapping function over a period of time, click the Disable snapping icon on the 2D view or the 3D view toolbar:

This tool is also used for disabling snapping for components that are already in the drawing. Select a component and click the Disable snapping icon to disable snapping until you enable it again.

Changing snapping locations

To take manual control over basic surface snapping, you can use the Graphical snapping feature. This way you can control if you would like components to snap only to the ends of other components but not the middle, edges, etc. Note that manipulating the graphical snapping does not override the yellow snap points on components, i.e. rules-based snapping.

1. From the 2D or 3D view toolbar, select the Graphical snapping tool. If the icon is grayed out, you'll need to click it to activate it which will give you access to the Graphical Snapping toolbox:
   
2. From the toolbox, select how you want new components to snap to existing objects in the drawing.
3. Now, when a new component is brought into the drawing view, it will only snap to selected Snapping locations.

Changing the snap size

The size of a component’s yellow snap points can be adjusted.

Follow these steps:

• Go to the File menu and select Control Panel.
• On the General tab, there is a drop-down menu for the Snap Point Size.
• Select the desired size. For components in the drawing area, you will see the results instantly.
  
  Changing Snap Size in the Control Panel