It should be possible to rotate grids

[Gatonegro]

In the configuration of a grid, there should be an extra option to set the "rotation".

Case of use: I was trying to build a design made up of hexagons which would tile one against each other. To this end, an axonometric grid is useful, because I could make the hexagons snap to the grid. However, I need the hexagons with the flat sides up (and down), whereas the axonometric grid draws a pattern of hexagons (well, triangles, really) with the flat sides vertical, resulting in corners up and down. This forces me to design with a 90 degree rotation, and then turn it around.

The simple fix would be to actually allow a free rotation on the grid (any grid).

[Tobia (tobia)]

To the submitter: you can still draw horizontal hexagons on a vertical axonometric grid, you just have to double the grid resolution and snap your hexagon vertices every two grid intersections.

Still, the Y axis of axonometric grids is fixed to vertical, which is inappropriate to some applications. One option would be to add a configurable degree for the Y axis, along with X and Z. And make sure that horizontal axes are drawn correctly (see bug #583141)

[Tobia (tobia)]

Sorry, I meant: increase the grid resolution by √3 and pull the hexagon sides over the altitudes of two adjacent triangles. Or set the X and Z axes to 60 degrees and disregard the vertical lines. Still, it's a workaround.

[su_v (suv-lp)]

Another workaround (as long as grids can't be rotated and axonometric grids don't have additional parameters) :

In <https://bugs.launchpad.net/inkscape/+bug/179560> a new extension was recently attached which draws an isometric grid with various parameters (size, thickness, subdivisions).

You could rotate the inserted grid (nested groups of paths) by 90° and use 'Snap to path intersections' instead of 'Snap to grid' to draw your hexagons (keep the inserted grid on a separate, locked layer to prevent accidentally selecting and moving it).

[su_v (suv-lp)]

… or you might consider a different workflow for creating the tilings:

> I was trying to build a design made up of hexagons
> which would tile one against each other.

Did you investigate using 'Tiled Clones' for this? See for example <http://tavmjong.free.fr/INKSCAPE/MANUAL/html/Tiles-Shift.html>: at the bottom of the page is an example to create a simple tiling with hexagons. Once you have created the tiled clones, you could e.g. group them and rotate the group by 90°.

[su_v (suv-lp)]

Sample tiling of hexagons (with the flat sides up (and down)) created using 'Edit > Clone > Create Tiled Clones…'

[Gatonegro (gatonegro)]

Thank you all for the suggestions -- they are good workarounds.

The ability to rotate a grid would still be very useful, though, because not always using the solutions listed here will do the job (and, besides, they are not too evident either).

[su_v (suv-lp)]

> The ability to rotate a grid would still be very useful

Agreed ;)