Hi max,

> But often there are snaps nearby and I just lose the direction for a while, so I want to
> lock it along that direction so I never have to pick that up again if I lose it.

Yeah the next beta should solve this - basically when shift is down it will both lock the current straight snap line to be active and also while it's down straight snap has a higher priority and object snaps won't be targeted unless they are right on that active straight snap line.

- Michael