Question: How can I snap objects along a curve

[ThereIsHope]

Hello guys!

 

I want to align an object or objects (be shapes, symbols, etc) along a path. Something like dragging my object over a curve and have it snap on it on the object's active anchor point, or the closest point in the bounding box. But I can't figure it out. Is this even possible?

 

I tried with "snap to object geometry" but it doesn't do what I want to achieve, or I can't find a way to make it happen.

 

Any suggestions?

 

Many thanks!

[firstdefence]

Have you tried using the node tool (A) selecting all the nodes in the shape you want to "snap to the path" and keeping "snap to object geometry" turned on then zooming in and following the path with the node point that you want to meet the path.

Note: Convert the shape to a curve prior to selecting the Node Tool (A)

[gdenby]

Hi, ThereIsHope,

 

As firstdefence mentions, you can position shapes along the edges of other shapes.

 

But you mention alignment, as well as snap. At present, AD allows font objects to follow paths. This includes fonts that are images. My understanding is that fonts have their baseline built into the font description, allowing the baseline to be placed tangentially to a curve.  There isn't an automatic follow path yet in AD. One may align objects by bounding boxes and center points, both automatically and manually. Alignment to irregular forms is not yet supported.

[ThereIsHope]

Hi firstdefence! Thanks for the suggestion. I tried it and it works. The only problem is that I'm using Symbols and it seems they can't be converted to curves. Kind of makes sense though.

 

Hey gdenby! Yes, ideally I would like them to align to the curve like fonts do. But following the curve path would be of enough help. I see then. I will do it manually. Hopefully something like this will be added in the future.

 

Thanks guys!

 

 

[Guest]

Good evening ThereIsHope

To achieve the desired result you can create a brush with the shape that must follow a line.
Once the brush is created, you draw the curve that the shapes must follow. "Expand Stroke". Invert the colors to have white or transparent filling.
With the "Node" tool open the curve at both ends to obtain two parallel lines. Group the two lines together to avoid any accidental displacement of one of the lines that would break the parallelism between them.
Select the line that is to be transformed into objects according to the other line, apply the brush created to it.
You can adjust the color thickness or add an effect to the support line.