Aligning via spread is behaving differently vertically compared to horizontally

[Gazumbo]

I'm new to Affinity Designer. I've just followed a tutorial to create a repeating pattern. All ok until the last part where the instructor centred the document by aligning the document by spread both horizontally and vertically. For him, it worked as intended, for me it only works on the horizontal axis, when doing the vertical axis it's scrunches everything together. I've attached a 'before align', 'after horizontal align' and then 'after vertical align' to show what is happening. Any advice on where I'm going wrong would be appreciated, thank you.

 

Edited May 7, 2021 by Gazumbo

[GarryP]

Welcome to the forums @Gazumbo

Without knowing which tutorial you are following it’s difficult for us to know what instructions you are following.
Without being able to see all of your application window it’s difficult for us to know what you are working with.
Please give us:
1. A link to the tutorial (if it’s shareable with the public);
2. A full-screen screen grab showing the Layers Panel open with the relevant layer selected.

[Gazumbo]

7 hours ago, GarryP said:

Welcome to the forums @Gazumbo

Without knowing which tutorial you are following it’s difficult for us to know what instructions you are following.
Without being able to see all of your application window it’s difficult for us to know what you are working with.
Please give us:
1. A link to the tutorial (if it’s shareable with the public);
2. A full-screen screen grab showing the Layers Panel open with the relevant layer selected.

Hi Garry, thanks for your help. This is the tutorial I followed - link. - I've linked it at the relevant timestamp.

I've attached screenshot showing the layers and align panel and added a full page screenshot as well.

 

 

 

Edited May 8, 2021 by Gazumbo

[Gazumbo]

Ignore this post - I hadn't exactly copied the instructor..

I noticed that the instructor had all layers in one group, I had each row of 4 layers in a separate group (so 4 groups each containing 4 layers). I just tried it with the way the instructor grouped the layers and now both axis are scrunching the layers together - as in the screenshot above.

Edited May 8, 2021 by Gazumbo

[Gazumbo]

@GarryP - I've found where I was going wrong. I had duplicated the individual layers inside the group instead of duplicating the original group itself. It works as it does in the video now. I am bit confused though, why does it make a difference as to whether you select the layers to align or the groups of layers?

Incorrect grouping...

 

Correct grouping...

[GarryP]

If you group the layers and then align the group, the whole group will be aligned as you specify.
On the other hand, if you select the individual layers and then align them, they will all be aligned individually.
Equally, if you have four groups, select them and align them, each group will be aligned individually.
Alignment affects the things you have selected, not the things inside the things you have selected.

P.S. I don’t understand why you have so many clipping masks in your version. I suspect that you did something differently to the instructions earlier on.

[R C-R]

10 hours ago, GarryP said:

Alignment affects the things you have selected, not the things inside the things you have selected.

That pretty much sums it up nicely! 😀