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enter X,Y coordinates for rotation center


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You can enter new values, and that will move the rotation centre, but it will also move the entire object.

 

Would it be possible to add an option so that only the rotation centre is moved? ears.gif

Alfred spacer.png
Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for Windows • Windows 10 Home/Pro
Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for iPad • iPadOS 17.4.1 (iPad 7th gen)

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  • 1 year later...

I just came across a good use case for being able to enter the coordinates of the rotation center independently of the shape. I was trying to arrange numbers around a circle to create a compass. I wanted to rotate the numbers around the center of the circle rather than the center of the number. I wanted to place the "0" at the top in a precise location, then duplicate the number, rotating it 10 degrees at a time about the center of the circle. It took me a while to realize that the only way I could move the rotation center independently of the text was to drag it with the mouse. I couldn't nudge it with the arrow keys, and if I tried to enter x, y coordinates into the Transform panel, it moved both the rotation center and the text, which is not what I wanted.

I gave up and decided to employ a trick, which involved placing a square whose bottom-center lined up with the center of the circle. I then grouped this object with the text object. Then I selected the bottom-center square in the transform grid. I performed the rotations using the duplicate feature, then I un-grouped all the objects and deleted all the squares. What a pain!

I imagine there was a simpler solution, perhaps involving guides (???), but the point is, I had to really think about how to solve this, which doesn't make for a great user experience (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don't_Make_Me_Think).

Affinity is actually really close to getting this feature right. All it needs is the ability to "unlock" the rotation center from the object it applies to so that it can be nudged with the arrow keys or positioned with numerical coordinates. This is almost like the feature that lets you toggle the lock for the width/height, but instead it's a lock between the object and its rotation center. So, basically, it's just one button that could be placed next to the "show rotation center" button.

I realize this issue is pretty old, but I hope Affinity would still consider this.

Compass.png

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12 minutes ago, >|< said:

A much simpler method would have been to make use of snapping instead of a helper rectangle. The text's pivot could have been dragged and snapped to the centre of the circle and then the duplicating rotations of the text would have pivoted around the centre of the circle.

 

 

I think the reason I didn't employ snapping is that there were other objects around the perimeter of the circle that were getting snapped to, and I couldn't tell if it was snapping to the center of the circle of something else. Perhaps I could have hidden those objects, I don't know, but the point is, the requested feature (being able to unlock the rotation center from its object) would be helpful to a lot of users and should be considered.

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