Q: Is it possible to get AW Drawing to print the grid?

HI MLyle,

The Graphics Grid is an alignment tool used to assist the user in aligning objects on the page. It is not part of the document, so it is not included in the printed version.

You can, however, draw a grid on the page, and that grid will print with the rest of the document.

I would suggest doing the construction in a new Drawing document, then saving that document. This will allow copying the grid from that document and pasting it into your current document when you want to print a patten with the grid.

The easiest way to produce a printible grid is to draw a horizontal line the full width of the page, then duplicate that line until you have one for each grid line you want to print.

Move the bottom line to the bottom of the page and use Arrange >Align with Grid to place it exactly on the bottom grid line line. Don't worry about left-right placing at the moment.

Move the topmost line to the top grid line on the page, and drag it left to align with the left edge of the page. Go Arrange > Align with Grid to move it exactly into place.

Select all of the lines by clicking on the first, then shift-clicking on each of the others to add it to the selection. (Hint: The position of the top and bottom lines is critical; of the others, not so much. Leave the top and bottom lines to last when making this selection. If either moves when selected, press command-z to undo that change, then re-select the line.)

With all lines selected, make two trips to the Arrange menu:

Arrange > Align Objects...

     Top to bottom: Distribute Space

     Left to right: Align left edges.

Arrange > Group objects.

Repeat for vertical lines.

When both vertical and horizontal lines are in place and grouped, select both sets and go Arrange > Group.
(A surprise here: Because the corners of both groups are in the same location, the handles at the corners will apear when one group is selects, then disappear when the other is added to the selection. They will reappear when the two groups are combined into a single group.)

Use the Pen, Line weight and Color buttons at the bottom of the tools palette to set the grid lines to thin and one of the grey shades to make the grid less obtrusive, if desired.

Regards,

Barry