Alignment not working Properly

[BobsDaubs]

Alignment is not acting as I would expect it to. I would expect to have some way to choose a candidate to align to, but I don't see any way to choose.

 

1. I created 3 rectangles and defined their left edges with a guide line. See 1st screenshot.

2. I selected all 3 rectangles. It doesn't appear to matter which order they are selected.

3. I choose align center from the top tool bar.

4.AD moves all 3 rectangles and centers them up on the green one as can be seen by looking at the guides. See second       screenshot

 

I must be missing something. This can't be right, can it? There has to be some rhyme or reason as to which rectangle they align to. It shouldn't move all 3 of them. What if I wanted them center aligned on the red rectangle. How would I do it?

 

It is also weird how it does align left or align right. If I choose align left they all align to the left edge of the orange one. If I choose align right they all align to the right edge of the red one. What if I wanted them aligned left or right to the green one? 

 

Align top or align bottom is similarly messed up as well.

 

Is there supposed to be a method to choose which one they align to?

[dominik]

 

Alignment is not acting as I would expect it to. I would expect to have some way to choose a candidate to align to, but I don't see any way to choose.

 

1. I created 3 rectangles and defined their left edges with a guide line. See 1st screenshot.

2. I selected all 3 rectangles. It doesn't appear to matter which order they are selected.

3. I choose align center from the top tool bar.

4.AD moves all 3 rectangles and centers them up on the green one as can be seen by looking at the guides. See second       screenshot

 

I must be missing something. This can't be right, can it? There has to be some rhyme or reason as to which rectangle they align to. It shouldn't move all 3 of them. What if I wanted them center aligned on the red rectangle. How would I do it?

 

It is also weird how it does align left or align right. If I choose align left they all align to the left edge of the orange one. If I choose align right they all align to the right edge of the red one. What if I wanted them aligned left or right to the green one? 

 

Align top or align bottom is similarly messed up as well.

 

Is there supposed to be a method to choose which one they align to?

 

 

Hi BobsDaubs,

 

there was a discussion on this topic in the questions forum a couple of weeks ago.

It seems this function is not there yet but in the plans.

 

I would appreciate to have this, too.

 

d.

[Sean P]

Hi BobDaubs,

Currently there are 3 ways to aligning objects:
Selection Bounds (The boundry displayed with multiple objects selected

Spread (The entire page area)

Margins (Inside the margins if set).

 
Presumably you have Selection Bounds set, and seeing as your green rectangle is roughly centred to the other two objects this is why it appears in step 4 as though it is centering them to that object. Have a little play a bit more but just keeping in mind the selection boundary of all objects if you are using 'Selection Bounds'.

[JET_Affinity]

I know this is a beta (bug testing; parity with Mac version). But for what it's worth, I don't like the interface for locking and aligning (they should be related).

 

According to Affinity Help,  "Locking prevents a layer or layer objects from being moved, resized, flipped or rotated."

 

Now please consider:

 

One of the longstanding problems with Adobe Illustrator is the inability to select a locked object. This is also one of many fundamental differences between Illustrator and its far more functionally elegant historic rival, Freehand. In Freehand, locking an object also prevented its being transformed. However, it did not prevent its being selected on the page, with the selection tool. This fundamental advantage cascades to other functionality. For example:

 

• If your document has multiple locked objects, you can simply select any one(s) you want to either temporarily or permanently unlock. This is both more intuitive and more efficient; the user has nothing additional to understand about the interface. (Whereas in Illustrator, you have to either Unlock All or--like Affinity--dig through the Layers palette to locate the object(s) you want to unlock).

 

• Moreover, being able to select a locked object in FreeHand allows it to serve as an anchor object for alignments. Freehand didn't need any additional separate interface behavior just to specify an object to "lock" as the "anchor" object for alignment and distribution. This was both intuitive and efficient.

 

Affinity shows a modified selection box when an object is Locked until it is deselected. Clicking it again does not display the locked Selection Box, implying that locked objects are not selectable. But you can select ("target"?) a locked object in the Layers palette, and doing so re-displays the locked Selection Box. But what is the point of doing that? Just to let you verify that you have "selected" the desired object after having to dig for it through the scrolling Layers palette?

 

Moreover, once you have "selected" ("targeted"?) a locked object in the Layers palette, if you then ShiftClick another object (either on the page or in the Layers palette) the surrounding Selection Box is now of the "locked" variety, and you can't do anything with even the unlocked object(s) in the current selection.

 

This all seems unnecessarily convoluted, unintuitive, and largely pointless.

 

Why should one have to dig through a Layers palette just to tediously look for a locked object which one wants to unlock?

 

After tediously locating the desired locked object in the Layers palette and clicking its listing, its display of a "locked" Selection Box is only marginally better than Illustrator's treatment which does not have a "locked" version of a bounding box. In either program, once you've found the listing for a locked object in the Layers palette, you have right there access to the clickable lock icon, and another click selects it and displays its normal bounding box.

 

So while working out the sorely-needed interface for designating a "key" object for alignment and distribution, please consider:

 

1. Make locked objects selectable on the page with the Move Tool (displaying its modified bounding box to indicate it as locked), just as they are selectable in the Layers palette.

2. Allow a selected locked object to serve as the key object in alignment and distribution functions.

 

This would be more intuitive and useful (in a word, more elegant) than the existing almost self-contradictory and confusing interface. Consider: Pretty much every drawing programs allows you to lock and unlock Guides (and pathGuides--paths "converted" to Guides). But a locked Guide still has a functional purpose. It interacts with unlocked objects as a snap-able guide. That's the whole point of a locked Guide.

 

Affinity's current treatment also still makes a locked object snap-able when moving other objects. So as it is, a locked path in Affinity acts like a pathGuide in other programs. But it's not a Guide. So why not just let it also serve as the "anchor" reference for alignment, distribution, etc.?

 

If anyone sees any fundamental and significant advantage in Affinity's treatment of locked objects, please feel free to expound. If I'm missing some inherent advantage, I'd very much like to know.

 

JET

[MEB]

Hi Jet,

This was already discussed and explained in other threads (locked layers behaviour) so i will not get in details here, but overall there's still some features which only offer/cover the basic functions and do not match all possible functionality you find in other more mature apps. This is mostly due to the age of the software which is still quite recent compared to other solutions and the time/resources available to implement all that functionality. Despite being considered essential (or basic) features from users coming from other apps, there's still quite a large number of them to work on/develop so it takes time to cover them all with the development resources/teams we have available.

 

It may look that some features are clunky (like the cases you describe) but that's mostly because they weren't totally developed yet and are just there to cover the basics.

Alignment to key objects is coming at some point and the lock functionality will certainly be reviewed/expanded as the application develops/grows/matures.

[JET_Affinity]

...and the lock functionality will certainly be reviewed/expanded as the application develops/grows/matures.

Thanks, MEB.

 

JET