How does object snapping work in Inkscape?

Question

I am trying to understand how the snapping of object translations works in Inkscape.

In my experience, objects do not snap to targets in object manipulation mode F1, and neither do their rotation centers; but in node manipulation F2, nodes do snap to targets.

Is there a rule to this? In addition to making the right selections in the snap toolbar, does one need to press some key when making a translation for a desired snapping to occur? Does the level of geometric complexity in an Inkscape drawing, with its taxation of a computer's calculating resources, have an effect on snapping?

Answer 1

When doing an object translation with the mouse, the node in the dragged object nearest to the mouse pointer will be selected for snapping.

For example, if you want to align the top left corner of an odd-sized rectangle to a grid, grab the rectangle near its top left corner. This way, the other 3 corners don't compete trying to snap to the grid.

For reference, here is the manual for snapping in Inkscape.