# TikZ grid with arbitrary base vectors

How can I draw a grid of help lines like \draw [help lines] (0,0) grid (3,2); but use other base vectors (not (1,0) and (0,1)) instead?

E.g. choosing (1,1) and (1,0) should ideally give me a grid something like this

• Would this help ? tex.stackexchange.com/questions/42557/… – percusse Nov 9 '16 at 13:08
• Oh, using coordinate transformation seems to be a good approach! I just started using TikZ so I did not know it was that powerful... – Simon Fromme Nov 9 '16 at 13:21
• One detail is that you don't need a low level command for transformations, I was probably thingkin too complicated. cm key does the same (you can read about it on the manual) – percusse Nov 9 '16 at 13:37

You can use the xslant=<factor> where <factor> is, of course, a number which in degrees will be the inverse cotangent of <factor>:

\documentclass[tikz, border=2mm]{standalone}

\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}
\begin{scope}
\clip (0,0) rectangle (3,2);
\draw [help lines,xslant=1] (-5,-5) grid (5,5);
\end{scope}
\draw (0,0) -- (45:1);
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}