They work here at 1600 even I haven't tried higher but I would think you either have to reset the preferences or you might have a conflict, perhaps you have plug in or a haxie installed or perhaps an issue with your particular configuration?
I tested some more. There is definitely something crooked going on. I created a new document, a4, cmyk, drew 2 suqares starded playing with zooming in on them and trying to move one side of a square congruent to the other's. I found that zooming in from a 100% size to directly e.g. 1334% the smart guides will cease to work. *always* I havent' been able to find out a logical system to this error yet. I also get the erroneous behaviour if I gradually zoom in with the loop. But it isn't consistent. Sometime it stops working at 800, sometimes a 3200. In any case: This *is* frustrating.
I have no extras installed. Just the Suitecase Fusion 2 plugin. And I have trashed the prefs.
Philip I can zoom t0 3200 and plain an simple as it can be I have no problems with the smart guides they function fine.
Now when you removed the plug in did you by any chance first quit Illustrator then Trash the settings folder the Adobe Illustrator CS4 Settings folder in your User's Preferences?
If not you would have to do so other wise things just might seem like they were the same.
I am not saying i tis Suitcase I said I would suspect it but I would think there is a conflict or a corruption of some kind on your system. But i can assure you it is nit universal.
If you want I can do a small video demonstrating that it works fine here.
And you can trust me though I have just a few plug ins which I know are rock solid there are other software on my system that if it could it would cause problems like this but everything I fine with and without additional software or plug ins installed.
So it has to be something associated with your system. Could be anything.
Wade, thanks for you detailed reply. Appreciate it. I did exactly as you suggested. I created a new User, restarted, logged in as that user and tested the smart guides. The default settings of Illustrator have been untouched. Here's the video: <http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/815924/cs4_smart_guides.mov>
The only thought I have on this is if you ere to use the direct select tool you would select only that side and you would reshaping that side but you would not be able to notice that is what you are doing instead of moving it, which it would actually appear to you is what you are doing.
Well, I have to agree with Philipp. There seems to be an issue with smart guides when zoomed in.
I tried the same test. Drew two boxes and zoomed in so that it looked like I had two vertical edges on screen. Grabbed one line and moved it towards the other and smart guides did nothing. Line just passed over the other and nothing happened. Here's the odd bit. At the same magnification if I scrolled down to also show the bottom edge of the boxes then smart guides snapped as it should.
I think this bug boild down to a simple programming mistake. It stops working if the reference points (corner or center) are outside the viewport. You can easily test this by drawing 2 very long rectangles. As soon as you zoom into a section in a way that no corner or center points are on the screen, smart guides loose their wits. I absolutely can reproduce this according to the above rule set. Try this one: 1) Create a A4 document and draw 2 high rectangles taking up the whole format. 2) Keep the zoom at 100%. 3) Now, resize and scroll the viewport (the document window) in a way that neither corner nor centerpoints of these 2 rectangles are visible. 4) smart guides are effectively outsmarted by this.
Well I get a different response then that It is a stranger thing then just being out side of the view. If I have one object selected then zoom in to say 2400% then deselect the object and the reselect the same object the move it the smart guides are actually there and working as expected. But it I do not have an object selected and the zoom in then select the one of the object then what you say is true.
Very strange. I have to tell you I know that this was an issue but it was supposed to be fixed from what I understand. But clearly as you point out it is not fixed.
So unfortunately if you need the smart guides when zoomed in closely the way to assure they are there is to first select one of the objects the zoom in then deselect it then select it again and now the smart guides will be present no matter what percentage you zoom in at.
Odd in deed and definitely a bug as you point out.
>Lewis when you zoomed in you some how got the direct select too active you were reshaping the rectangle not moving it. <<
It's out of habit. I only work with the direct selection tool and hold down the command key when I need item tool. You can see in the my clip the arrow head toggles between solid and hollow as I press the command key.
Anyway, back to the issue above. I think I'm onto something. If you hold down the command key while dragging the path it snaps. The video below shows the first pass over the path without the command key and the second pass with command key.
I can see how this would be beneficial when you zoom in at higher magnification to tweak some point/paths but don't want smart guides snapping to nearby paths.
If it was sufficiently documented it would be a feature. Without that it's a bug.