What You'll Be Creating

This Quick Tip will show you—in just a few easy steps—how to make a useful isometric grid. You will learn how to use the Rectangular Grid Tool with the "SSR technique", and in less than two minutes you'll be ready to draw your isometric designs.

Are you a beginner to isometric designs? Then check out our awesome Isometric Generators available on GraphicRiver for fast effects!

Follow along with us over on our Envato Tuts+ YouTube channel. Video created by Andrei Stefan.

1. How to Create the Grid

Step 1



Open a new document. The dimensions will depend on what you will create on the grid we'll make, and also the color mode. We'll start now by selecting the Rectangular Grid Tool.

Step 2

Set the parameters of the Rectangle Grid Tool. Press Enter and set the values for Number under both Vertical Dividers and Horizontal Dividers to around 30. This value depends on the proportions of your project, so chose a number that suits your needs.

Step 3

Now, you have two alternatives. You can specify the exact values for the Width and Height in the previous step (which I don't recommend). In this case, you must set the same value for both Width and Height to obtain a square grid. Or you can ignore those values and just drag with your mouse, holding Shift, to make one large square, a bit larger than your document (you will see later why).

What we are going to do next is called "the SSR method". This is a method to make 3D isometric graphics from 2D. For our grid, we will use this technique for the top plane.

2. How to Scale the Grid

Select the grid and go to Object > Transform > Scale, check Non-Uniform, and set Vertical to 86.602%.

3. How to Shear the Grid

Keep the grid selected from now on. Go to Object > Transform > Shear and set the Angle to 30 degrees.

4. How to Rotate the Grid

Step 1



Finally, we have to rotate the grid. Object > Transform > Rotate and set an Angle of -30 degrees.

Step 2



Now that the lines are set, all you need to do is to make Guides out of them. Be sure you have the grid selected, and go to View > Guides > Make Guides (Control-5).

Conclusion

You now have a playground for your ideas, and this should take only two or three minutes. By taking the time out to use this technique, you can make some great-looking isometric illustrations and know that you're using the right perspective. Have fun!

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The action creates an angled Guides Grid at an angle of 30 degrees on the artboard (size 2000×2000 pixels). The size (x8, x16, x32, x64, x128) is indicated for the side isometric cells. This grid is designed to create illustrations using isometric projection.

This Photoshop action is especially designed to help artists to work with Isometry in Photoshop at the most popular pixel sizes: 16 / 32 / 48 / 64 / 80 px.

Learn more about isometric vector art with these tutorials and resources: