Alignment of a group of items according to one of the items

[GiuBer]

Hi, I am trying to align two graphs according to their X axes. It's the most used function on Graphpad Prism.

Basically, I have one group of items (1), and I want to align one of these items (2) to another item (3) that is not part of the group.
I want that (2) is aligned to (3) and I want all the other items in (1) to follow (2) around, since they are part of a group.

In my particular case:
(1) Group of objects that make the graph: axes, axes labels, datapoints and all the graph components.
(2) The X axis of the abobe mentioned graph.
(3) The X axis of another graph.

Thank you for your help!

[GarryP]

Welcome to the forums @GiuBer

I think I sort of understand what you want to do but could you give us a visual example of what you have got so we can be more sure of the requirements before we start giving suggestions?

[NotMyFault]

3 hours ago, GiuBer said:

Hi, I am trying to align two graphs according to their X axes. It's the most used function on Graphpad Prism.

Basically, I have one group of items (1), and I want to align one of these items (2) to another item (3) that is not part of the group.
I want that (2) is aligned to (3) and I want all the other items in (1) to follow (2) around, since they are part of a group.

In my particular case:
(1) Group of objects that make the graph: axes, axes labels, datapoints and all the graph components.
(2) The X axis of the abobe mentioned graph.
(3) The X axis of another graph.

Thank you for your help!

Which App are you using, Publisher, Designer, Photo ?

[NotMyFault]

I assume there is no direct way.

workaround using rulers:

• use move tool and „enable transform origin“
• set origin of both groups as needed
• set snapping options to snap to rulers
• use move tool to set rulers at reference object origin
• select 2nd group and move so that it snaps to ruler

 

[GiuBer]

28 minutes ago, GarryP said:

Welcome to the forums @GiuBer

I think I sort of understand what you want to do but could you give us a visual example of what you have got so we can be more sure of the requirements before we start giving suggestions?

Hi @GarryP, thanks for you reply!
Here you can find a short video of what I want to achieve. I am working with Affinity Designer 2.
Thanks! 

 

[GarryP]

Thanks for the video.

Just to be clear, you only want to align the blue lines vertically, but you don’t need (or want) the rectangles (or blue lines) to also be aligned horizontally?

[GiuBer]

That's correct.
I want the groups to stay as they are, and I want to align vertically the blue lines of the groups.
If we had, say four groups it would look like this (see attached image). On the right side of the image there's the desired result (obtained by nudging pixel by pixel).

Thanks again!
 

[GiuBer]

1 hour ago, NotMyFault said:

I assume there is no direct way.

workaround using rulers:

• use move tool and „enable transform origin“
• set origin of both groups as needed
• set snapping options to snap to rulers
• use move tool to set rulers at reference object origin
• select 2nd group and move so that it snaps to ruler

 

Thanks @NotMyFault for your suggestion!
I tried that but I cannot seem to find a way to snap to the Transform Origin. Is there one?
I am using Affinity Designer 2. Apologies for not specifying before!

Edited August 14 by GiuBer

[carl123]

1 hour ago, GiuBer said:

I am using Affinity Designer 2. Apologies for not specifying before!

Did you buy any of the other apps as there is a possible solution in Affinity Photo?

If not, I'll take another look tomorrow

APhoto file attached which will work also open/work in Designer but you really need APhoto to understand it

move-the-blue-lines.afphoto

[lepr]

4 hours ago, GiuBer said:

I cannot seem to find a way to snap to the Transform Origin. Is there one?

A Transform Origin is not a snap target, currently. However, it can snap to other targets, and it can be used as a handle for moving objects. On macOS, ctrl key makes the Transform Origin act as a handle. The Status Bar should state the equivalent modifier on Windows.

The attached video shows a solution to your problem that works in all Affinity apps.

 

 

 

 

 

[NotMyFault]

Another dirty trick:

for the x-axis, use a very large heigh (no color) rectangle with the axis centered as child. Then put this into every group.

now all groups are of equal height and with the axis as center. Align all groups to the center, done.

[lacerto]

16 hours ago, lepr said:

The Status Bar should state the equivalent modifier on Windows

It is on Windows that awkward Left+Right mouse button drag, so that this alignment operation is better to do by switching to Designer Persona and using Point Transform Tool. It seems it is not mentioned in this context on the Status bar (or perhaps just does not fit on my 14-inch laptop screen).

[lepr]

40 minutes ago, lacerto said:

It is on Windows that awkward Left+Right mouse button drag, so that this alignment operation is better to do by switching to Design Persona and using Point Transform Tool

On macOS, the ctrl modifier is used for the operation in Point Transform Tool exactly the same as in Move Tool. Does the modifier differ from one tool to the other on Windows?

Edited August 14 by lepr
reworded second sentence

[lepr]

Here is a video of Point Transform Tool, but that is not available to all users of Affinity apps. It doesn't require use of the Transform Origin, but it does still require the ctrl modifier on macOS, so I expect it requires the awkward dual mouse button contortion on Windows.

 

 

[lacerto]

Yes, LRMB is still needed in that case. Perhaps it is just me but I always release mouse buttons in the wrong (reverse) order, which results in erroneous transformation. Moving transformation origins first, even if it is an extra step, is therefore easier for me. But I suppose that if I needed to do LRMB dragging a lot, I'd rather just use my mac to perform such tasks.

I assume that Alt+Ctrl would be available on Windows most of the time to match the macOS Ctrl, but it is of course programmatically simpler to decide on a unique event that handles on Windows the macOS Ctrl modifier key related operations...

[GiuBer]

14 hours ago, carl123 said:

Did you buy any of the other apps as there is a possible solution in Affinity Photo?

If not, I'll take another look tomorrow

APhoto file attached which will work also open/work in Designer but you really need APhoto to understand it

move-the-blue-lines.afphoto 13.48 kB · 7 downloads

Hi @carl123, thank you!

I only have Affinity Designer 2. I opened your file and it works!!
But I cannot replicate it: I see that you created groups, and then somehow you added additional lines on top of the ones that are part of each group.
Is it a feature of APhoto?

[GiuBer]

11 hours ago, lepr said:

A Transform Origin is not a snap target, currently. However, it can snap to other targets, and it can be used as a handle for moving objects. On macOS, ctrl key makes the Transform Origin act as a handle. The Status Bar should state the equivalent modifier on Windows.

The attached video shows a solution to your problem that works in all Affinity apps.

 

 

 

 

 

Hi @lepr, thanks! That's it!
I matched your snapping settings and now the Transform Origin snaps, and with ctrl (I'm on MacOS as well) I can drag the group around and snap it according to the Transform Origin location.

Solved it😀

Thanks a lot!!

Edited August 15 by GiuBer

[lepr]

4 minutes ago, GiuBer said:

Hi @lepr, thanks! That's it!
I matched your snapping settings and now the Transform Origin snaps, and with ctrl (I'm on MacOS as well) I can drag the group around and snap it according to the Transform Origin location.

Solved it😀

Thanks a lot!!

You’re welcome. Since you have Designer, see my second video where the process is simpler because Point Transform Tool is used and the Transform Origin is not required. 

[carl123]

2 minutes ago, GiuBer said:

I only have Affinity Designer 2. I opened your file and it works!!
But I cannot replicate it: I see that you created groups, and then somehow you added additional lines on top of the ones that are part of each group.
Is it a feature of APhoto?

In APhoto you have a Links panel, this allows you to link one layer to another so that certain changes to one layer are mimicked by the other layer.

All I did was link the "Transform" attribute of an addition line outside the group to that particular group, so that when I moved that line the group mimicked my movements.

It's a powerful option but as you only have Designer and have received other feedback on how it can be done in Designer there's no need to try to replicate it (in Designer)

 

[GiuBer]

1 hour ago, carl123 said:

In APhoto you have a Links panel, this allows you to link one layer to another so that certain changes to one layer are mimicked by the other layer.

All I did was link the "Transform" attribute of an addition line outside the group to that particular group, so that when I moved that line the group mimicked my movements.

It's a powerful option but as you only have Designer and have received other feedback on how it can be done in Designer there's no need to try to replicate it (in Designer)

 

 

12 hours ago, lepr said:

Here is a video of Point Transform Tool, but that is not available to all users of Affinity apps. It doesn't require use of the Transform Origin, but it does still require the ctrl modifier on macOS, so I expect it requires the awkward dual mouse button contortion on Windows.

 

 

 

This is even better, that is exactly the tool I needed.
Thanks @lepr!