Grid Settings controls every line the app draws over your chart: the stitch grid, the bold block lines, diagonals, guide bars, centre lines and page breaks. Each has its own thickness and colour.
It is part of Settings. On the Settings tab these are your defaults for new projects; inside a project the same controls shape that project only. The Settings Tab explains how the two work together.
The Groups
Grid Lines |
| Show Grid Counts: The row and column numbers around the edge of the grid, so you always know where you are. |
| Show Grid Lines: The master switch. Turn it off and every thin, thick and diagonal line vanishes, but your individual choices are kept for when you switch back. |
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Thin and Thick Lines |
| [Screenshot: chart close-up showing thin grid lines and thick block lines] Thin Grid Lines: Faint lines around every individual stitch grid square, with their own thickness and colour. |
| Thick Grid Lines: Bolder lines marking blocks of grid squares, commonly every 10, to make counting easier. Set the thickness, the spacing and the colour. |
| Offsets (in a project): With a chart open you can also shift the bold lines left, right, up or down, to line them up exactly with the chart’s own printed grid. |
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Diagonal Lines |
| Pattern: Add diagonals across each block: one direction, the other, or both, making the centre of a square easy to spot at a glance. |
| Style: Straight, or stepped above or below the true diagonal, to match how you like to count. |
| Thickness and colour: As with every line here, make them bold or subtle and pick a colour that stands out on your chart. |
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Guide Bars |
| [Screenshot: guide bars on the chart] Show Guide Bars: Four movable bars you place around the area you are working on, to hold your place. |
| In a project: Extra tools appear with a chart open: diagonal guide bars, Auto-place to snap the bars around the area on screen, and Restrict Chart to Guide Region, which limits the symbol list, marking and highlighting to the region and dims everything outside. Full guide. |
| Thickness and colour: The guide bar colour is semi-transparent, so your chart shows through the bars. |
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Centre Lines and Page Breaks |
| [Screenshot: centre lines crossing the middle of a chart] Show Chart Center Lines: Lines through the middle of the whole chart, not each page. Handy for centring your work on the fabric. Show them as full lines or a single dot. |
| Nudges (in a project): Offset X and Y let you shift the centre lines by whole grid squares, useful for pieces with an off-centre starting point. |
| Page Breaks: Lines marking where one chart page ends and the next begins, so multi-page charts read as one. |
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Chart Pages (in a project) |
| Show Chart Pages: Toggle the chart image itself on or off, leaving just your grid and markings. |
| Chart Opacity: Fade the chart pages. Very useful on colour charts, where full-strength printing can fight with your markup. |
| Chart Rotation: Rotate all chart pages 90 degrees at a time, for charts scanned sideways. |
| Background Color: The colour behind the chart in the preview step. |
Did you know?
- The master Show Grid Lines switch is the quick way to declutter for a screenshot, then bring everything back exactly as it was.
- Diagonal guide bars only appear in the grid-only layout, and give slope guidance for irregular shapes.
Keep Exploring
- Up a level: The Settings Tab: all six sections and how defaults work.
- Guide Bars: the full guide to placing, locking and working inside guide bars.
- Markup Settings: how your marked and parked stitches are coloured.