Vanishing grid lines

[buttonSmasher]

Good day, all,

I am using Altium v16.1.11 (Build 255), and am having an issue with the grid lines.  At some point, the PcbDoc I am working on lost its grid.  It just completely disappeared... toggling does nothing, attempting to add another in addition to the default produces no results.  I had this issue one time in the past, and was forced to use a backup of the file.  I am curious if I am just missing something, or have fat fingered some hidden option.  Has anyone else ran into this issue?  Thank you for your time.

Ryan Crawford

Edit from below:

All grid settings are the same between my backup and my fubar files.  Backup file has a grid, fubar doesn't.

My best solution so far:

1.  Select all, copy board layout
2.  Open backup of board prior to grid issue
3.  Delete contents of backup
4.  Edit:  Paste Special:  Keep net name
5.  Save as new file

If I come up with anything else, I will update.  Thank you guys for scratching your heads with me.

Ryan

[kiran_shrestha]

I have not got this type of problem till now, my current altium is 16.1.7 build 188. These might be some of your solutions
1) You have zoomed in so much.
2) your grid size is so large.
3) Try hitting CTRL+G and check the gird properties.

[buttonSmasher]

Thank you for your response.  Zoom level and grid size have no effect.  Grid properties are nothing abnormal, 10 mil steps, 5x multiplier, course display set to lines, fine to dots.

Ryan

[T3sl4co1l]

If the grid colors are very close to the PCB area color, that's obviously a problem (especially on LCDs with poor color rendering and contrast).  If you use a dot grid, it may be nearly invisible on high resolution (4k?) monitors.  The grid does go away if you are zoomed out, and you can zoom in to less than one grid space so you'd only see zero or one grid marks in that case.

Grids are also contagious between PCB files (no, not kidding!).  If you open another file (maybe an Altium example), does the grid change?  If you open an old version of your work, does it change back?

Grid color can be changed on the Layers screen (L), or CTRL+G.

Note that grid only shows over the PCB area, so you need to define some area (place a closed loop of lines or arcs, select it, D-S-D (Design / Board Shape / Define from Selected Primitives).  Grids can also be customized in the Grid Manager, so check that that's cleared too.

If none of these help... can you send a minimal-case file?

Tim

[buttonSmasher]

It's gone, man, lol.  Seems like a rare/unique issue.  I thought about just comparing two similar files, unfortunately Altium doesn't use plain text files for these documents, so it would be difficult.  I can't seem to replicate it, otherwise I'd try to provide a minimal case example.  Suffice it to say:  all grid settings are the same between my backup and my fubar files.  Backup file has a grid, fubar doesn't.

My best solution so far:

1.  Select all, copy board layout
2.  Open backup of board prior to grid issue
3.  Delete contents of backup
4.  Edit:  Paste Special:  Keep net name
5.  Save as new file

If I come up with anything else, I will update.  Thank you guys for scratching your heads with me.

Ryan

[Bud]

I have seen funny things happening on Win 7 if i was using a non-Aero desktop theme. If you are on Win 7 try switching to Aero. If you are on Aero or not on Win 7 try a computer with a newer graphics adapter.

[free_electron]

open the grid manager
(G) on the keyboard then select grid manager from the popup

bottom left  click menu  then click 'reset all to system grid colors'

[technotronix]

What if I am running with windows 8?

[kiran_shrestha]

Then , it might be because you wanted to hide your PCB DRC errors and turn off all the layers from layer menu
Hit L and turn on all layers.

[cblanch]

I just found this thread through a search. I know it's outdated but I'm pretty sure I know how to fix the problem. So for anyone else who lands here through a search.. I believe the grid lines disappearing issue was caused by the 'default grid color - small' or 'default grid color - large' being turned off in the view configurations window.

[Mandragora]

Thanks cblanch, it solved this problem.