Grid label increments
The Grid Line tool automatically increments the Label for each grid line as it is placed. Generally, the next character in the alphanumeric sequence is used for automatic incrementation; however, there are exceptions:
The tool cannot assign a Label value that is already in use by a grid line, and will skip that character and use the next character that is not already in use.
The tool skips all characters in the Do Not Include Characters field in the Grid Line Preferences dialog box and the Re-sequence Grid Line dialog box.
Copy and paste operations and duplicate operations also automatically increment when adding grid lines. Duplicate operations with this behavior include the Duplicate command, Ctrl-drag (Windows) or Option-drag (Mac), and the Duplicate mode of the Offset tool and the Move by Points tool.
The following rules apply for automatic incrementation:
Rule |
Examples |
Only the rightmost character block of a label increments |
12.1a → 12.1b 01c.9 → 01c.10 |
If an incrementing portion of a label string can be interpreted as a number, embedded decimal points are observed and numerically incremented |
A1.9 → A2.0 |
Leading-zero padding determines the length of a number string or sub-string |
3.09 → 3.10 |
Characters of different cases are recognized as different blocks within a label, and only the rightmost is incremented |
Ac → Ad Az → Aaa |
The last character of any fixed-length character sequence (such as an alphabet) increments to a doubled initial character of that sequence, with the case preserved; the last doubled character of a fixed-length sequence increments to a tripled initial character of that sequence, and so on The following fixed-length character sets are recognized: Roman upper-case (ASCII 65-90) and lower-case (ASCII 97-122) Modern Greek upper-case and lower-case (Unicode 0370-03FF, with exclusions and reordering) Hirakana Iroha, (Unicode 3040-309F, with exclusions and reordering) Katakana Iroha, (Unicode 30A1-30FB, with exclusions and reordering) Modern Cyrillic, (Unicode 0400-04FF, with exclusions and reordering) |
z → aa Ω → AA ZZ → AAA |
When grid lines are resequenced, these automatic incrementation rules apply.