object snap not aquiring intended destination point

Hi, I work on drawings with AC2K that are so dense with 3dsolids and
xrefs of
3dsolids that the wire frame view is pretty much useless. I would be
quite content to snap only to visible egdes.  Is there a way to do
this?

Because of the complexity of the drawings, I have to work in
View/Shade = Flat
Shaded or Hidden.   This, plus cycling the select (ctrl key), at least
helps
me select a specific object.  Then when I try to move that object to
some "end" object snap, the point actually aquired is some hidden end
point way the hell back there and not what I wanted.

I've used the HIDE command before, which seems to temporarily lock out
all  hidden snaps, but that benefit dissappears if you have to zoom or
pan to the destination.

AutoCAD obviously knows the visible edges (else it couldn't do hidden
line removal) so why can't I tell it to snap only to the visible end
points?

Any solution to this?