Size / Rotate objects to same

[Ash]

Apps: All
Platforms: Windows, macOS and iPad

Within alignment options you will see three new options to make all items in your current selection adopt the same width, height or rotation. By default this will transform all objects to match the first item selected, or alternatively if a key object has been nominated (alt-click) it will use that as the source.

Additionally you can choose to maintain the aspect ratio of the objects being resized.

On desktop this is available via the alignment dropdown:

And on iPad via the alignment options panel which you can get to via the transform panel:

 

[Affinity Info Bot]

Known Issues in this feature
A list of unresolved issues for this feature, reported by users

• AF-2057 - Make Same gives unexpected results on 2 node curves

Released Fixes
A list of issues for this feature, available in the current beta build

Upcoming Fixes
A list of issues for this feature, which will be available in a forthcoming build

[n_shcherbakov]

Oh yeah, very nice

[Mithferion]

I believe this has been requested before: In the case of the Desktop version, having a Panel dedicated for this alignment actions would be better than the current Dropdown option. Still, nice additions.  

Best regards!

[pruus]

Well done! Thanks

[ronnyb]

Awesome addition, the only thing is the icons are VERY similar. Perhaps the Rotate icon could use a circular dashed line instead of the same square. Since square rotation doesn't make sense visually, it obfuscates that icons function and adds confusion to the other 2. But great functionality!!

[walt.farrell]

I'm curious why these new functions were added to Alignment rather than being added to Transform, though. They feel more like object transformation actions than object alignment actions. Am I missing some aspect of how this works?

[bbrother]

@Ash any chance fo rollback/undo to old behavior and allow users to select "Align to" option in the Alignment panel first before the actual align operation?
Curent after a change between app version it is greyed out until you choose an align option. There wher complaints about that change.

[ronnyb]

2 hours ago, walt.farrell said:

I'm curious why these new functions were added to Alignment rather than being added to Transform, though. They feel more like object transformation actions than object alignment actions. Am I missing some aspect of how this works?

Alignment can also be seen as a type of transformation, but it happens across a set of objects. Similarly, Aligning rotation implies transforming one or several objects in relation to another object.

[MikeTO]

I see Ronny's point, alignment is a form of transformation, but as Walt pointed out, it seems like an odd place for the feature.

That being said, I'm currently creating a lot of family trees in Designer which is tedious. I aligned and changed the width of rectangles many times yesterday. While I might expect these to be in separate windows, it would actually save me time to have them grouped like they are now. I just tried it and it worked great.

But the placement of the controls does feel off.

[paolo.limoncelli]

Thanks!

2 hours ago, Mithferion said:

I believe this has been requested before: In the case of the Desktop version, having a Panel dedicated for this alignment actions would be better than the current Dropdown option. Still, nice additions.  

Best regards!

+1 for this! 😜

[Affinityconfusesme]

+1 for a separate panel for alignment controls.

[loukash]

3 hours ago, Mithferion said:

having a Panel dedicated for this alignment actions would be better than the current Dropdown option.

There is a thing why it shouldn't be a "regular" panel:
The Apply/Cancel buttons.

Regular Studio panels don't and shouldn't have these buttons.

But it should be a regular floating window with these buttons, available from a menu, not just as a toolbar button popout. This is a usability issue, as I, for example, often have the main toolbar disabled to have more canvas estate…

[Mithferion]

4 minutes ago, loukash said:

There is a thing why it shouldn't be a "regular" panel:
The Apply/Cancel buttons.

Regular Studio panels don't and shouldn't have these buttons.

But it should be a regular floating window with these buttons, available from a menu.

Good point. In Inkscape, there is no need for those buttons, so there shouldn't be there if they create a dedicated Panel:

Best regards!

[loukash]

1 minute ago, Mithferion said:

shouldn't be there if they create a dedicated Panel

But then every change would be immediately live which I don't consider a good idea in this special case.
I, for one, actually prefer the Apply/Cancel solution which is more transparent than just doing an Undo upon a failed alignment attempt.

[Mithferion]

12 minutes ago, loukash said:

But then every change would be immediately live which I don't consider a good idea in this special case.
I, for one, actually prefer the Apply/Cancel solution which is more transparent than just doing an Undo upon a failed alignment attempt.

Maybe there is something that I'm missing but when using the Alignment Panel, it does make the changes live and it leaves them there. 

Any chance you can upload a video showing how you use it?

Best regards!

[loukash]

6 minutes ago, Mithferion said:

it does make the changes live and it leaves them there

Yep. Unless you press the Cancel button.
Look, the current implementation is rather suboptimal, but at least it shows the user that whatever they try to accomplish, it's reversible with a single click on the Cancel button. This is a Good Thing™ because the Align options can have unexpected consequences.

[Mithferion]

13 minutes ago, loukash said:

Yep. Unless you press the Cancel button.

Ah, that's true. Didn't think of that.

I'd think that an option called "restore" in the hypotetical Panel would suffice but I'm guessing you wouldn't be a fan of that.

Best regards!

[loukash]

3 minutes ago, Mithferion said:

I'd think that an option called "restore" in the hypotetical Panel would suffice

The thing here would be: How many panel modifications are an Undo step? Or where does "Restore" begin?  
Since modificiations in Studio panels are always live, step by step, every single change is then also an Undo step.

But aligning objects often requires multiple steps, since you can only enable each option one by one.
Hence the Apply/Cancel workflow is in fact a good solution.
It's just the current UI which is… uh, mediocre.

[Mithferion]

4 minutes ago, loukash said:

The thing here would be: How many panel modifications are an Undo step? Or where does "Restore" begin?  

I'd think that it begins the moment when you have your selection and you make your first move. I know it's not perfect but other than what options do we have? I myself am not fan of floating windows.

Best regards!

[loukash]

2 minutes ago, Mithferion said:

but other than what options do we have? I myself am not fan of floating windows.

For most parts – although Serif isn't necessarily consequent here – are panels actually object inspectors: select an object(s) and a panel would display the editable attributes of the selection.
That's not the case with aligning because there are no attributes to begin with.
So conceptually, a panel is the wrong UI.

[Mithferion]

10 minutes ago, loukash said:

For most parts – although Serif isn't necessarily consequent here – are panels actually object inspectors: select an object(s) and a panel would display the editable attributes of the selection.

In a way, it'd be similar to the Isometric Panel where you perform actions but I get your point that that's the case for the most part.

Best regards!

[albertkinng]

OMG YES!

[Frozen Death Knight]

Fantastic feature. Though, one thing I am not a fan of is that the checkbox for maintaining aspect ratio is greyed out and unusable unless you click the coloured buttons. I just want to have the option to have this on by default when I open the panel without the extra clicking every time.

Also, the panel could be designed like the Move Data Entry panel by being active while doing other changes. For instance, I tried alt+L clicking another object to make it a key object to change which object affected rotations, but that also applied the match rotation I did with this new feature at the same time. It would be nice if it only applied when I tell it to while making edits like it was done with Move Data Entry.

Another thing that would be appreciated is having a regular floating panel version of Alignment. As of now you need to click the button at the top of the toolbar to use or open the Layer menu. Having a floating panel version and the ability to make a shortcut for it would be a solid quality of life change to go along with this improved feature set.

[PaulEC]

1 hour ago, Frozen Death Knight said:

one thing I am not a fan of is that the checkbox for maintaining aspect ratio is greyed out and unusable unless you click the coloured buttons. I just want to have the option to have this on by default when I open the panel without the extra clicking every time.

This is another of those things that should be sticky, iow, it should stay as the user sets it until they decide to change it, rather than having to be set every time.