Isometric and axonometric grids

Affinity Designer makes use of a highly customisable isometric and other axonometric grids, perfect for isometric designs, UI/game design, digital design models, mock ups or designs which benefit from this style.

isometric grid
Isometric drawing and grid

About isometric and axonometric grids

Isometric and other axonometric grids are, by nature, parallel projections. This means that grid lines never converge to a vanishing point as in perspective projections. Perspective projections are not supported in Affinity.

Affinity Designer lets you set up different axonometric grid types from the Grid context toolbar and change their grid spacing, divisions and grid colour. Once an axonometric grid is enabled, planes (front, side and top) can be switched between so you can automatically draw and transform geometric shapes and artistic text directly onto the active plane. Curves, closed shapes and placed images can be manually made to fit the active plane too.

Front plane
Front, side and top planes of isometric grid showing selected object transformed to fit in-plane.

About snapping controls

Grids work best when combined with snapping. Object handles and curve nodes snap precisely to any grid line and line intersections.

Using Cycle Selection boxes

Cycle Selection Box When drawing curves on plane, take advantage of the Cycle Selection Box setting on the Move Tool’s context toolbar. When tapped, the 'Planar bounds' option displayed will transform the curve’s selection box (not the object) to that of the current plane, allowing easier positioning/snapping of curve to grid.

Document Menu To set your isometric or other axonometric grid:
  1. From the Document menu, select Grid.
  2. From the context toolbar, change the Grid Mode to any option other than Standard or Auto.
  3. Adjust the settings on the context toolbar. These may vary depending on the Grid Mode you have selected.
Edit Menu To jump between grid planes:
  1. From the Edit menu, tap Enable Planes to allow switching between planes.
  2. Tap Front Plane, Side Plane or Top Plane.
To set the grid spacing:
Document Menu To set grid snapping:
  1. From the Document menu, select Snapping.
  2. Select a Preset, e.g. Curve drawing, ensuring that Snap to grid is also enabled.

This ensures that objects will fit accurately to grid lines.

Edit Menu To draw geometric shapes directly on the grid:
  1. From the Edit menu, enable Edit In Plane.
  2. With a shape tool selected, drag out a chosen shape. You can snap your shape to the grid on creation when dragging initially from any grid intersecion or when repositioning and/or scaling the shape.
Edit Menu To fit two-dimensional objects to plane:
  1. Select a curve, closed shape, artistic text or image.
  2. From the Edit menu, choose a plane (Front Plane, Side Plane, Top Plane) to send the object to.
  3. On the same menu, select Fit In Plane.
Edit Menu To transform any object on the grid:

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