howto place an item at a precise distance from another

[Clavote]

Hi All

in AD

how would you place an item at say 20 mm from a point on another item?

also how to duplicate an object at y-20mm?

coming from Autosketch where this was easy

Tank you in advance

Clavote

 

 

[toltec]

Assuming you don't want to use guides or a grid, you can use the Transform panel.

It will probably be in pixels but enter mm and it will work it out for you, or change the document units.

Click on one of the the alignment thingy squares (nine blue squares) to decide where the measurements are read from.

 

Edit. See the posts below by @Pšenda where you can enter an expression such as "-=(h+20mm)" in the X or Y box to set a gap. 

 

If you want units in mm, click on the View Tool (hand) and change the units on the Context Toolbar.

 

BTW. If you hold down the Ctrl key and move the mouse, it shows various dimensions, depending on where the mouse pointer is. Very useful for precision positioning.

 

If you move an item by 20 mm. Press Ctrl + J and that will duplicate it and move by 20 mm. It's called Power Duplicate. Like Step and Repeat.

 

[Pšenda]

5 hours ago, Clavote said:

how to duplicate an object at y-20mm?

Duplicate object (Ctrl + C, Ctrl + V), and set to Y enter in Transform panel "-=20mm".

https://affinity.help/photo/English.lproj/pages/Workspace/expressions.html

 

[toltec]

12 minutes ago, Pšenda said:

Duplicate object (Ctrl + C, Ctrl + V), and set to Y enter in Transform panel "-=20mm".

https://affinity.help/photo/English.lproj/pages/Workspace/expressions.html

 

Does that not just move the copied object 20mm ?

i.e. a copy of an object that was 30mm wide would overlap by 10mm.

So, if your original object was 30mm wide, you would have to do "-=50mm" to position them 20 mm apart.

Good solution otherwise 

P.S. you could also do Ctrl + J to duplicate, rather than Ctrl + C then Ctl + V to halve the number of key presses. That would also then work with Power Duplicate, which the OP seems to want.

[Pšenda]

4 minutes ago, toltec said:

just move the copied object 20mm ?

Yes, as requested "y-20mm" :-) 

[toltec]

1 minute ago, Pšenda said:

Yes, as requested "y-20mm" :-) 

Ah, but which point ? 

[Pšenda]

3 minutes ago, toltec said:

 Ah, but which point ? 

Why should not he? Maybe if you need to draw lines at 20 mm.

If you want to make a "distance" between objects, you can use "-=(h+20mm).

[toltec]

11 hours ago, Pšenda said:

Why should not he? Maybe if you need to draw lines at 20 mm.

If you want to make a "distance" between objects, you can use "-=(h+20mm).

I often lay out things like this and need to control the gaps between the images.

They are not usually that regular in size or shape so I can't always make templates.

So, I take a point on the right hand edge of the first image, and transform to a point on the left hand edge of the second image. If you get my point 

How does the "H" work for that ?

[Pšenda]

1 hour ago, toltec said:

How does the "H" work for that ?

H - height, W - width. Looks at help (Transform variables). 

https://affinity.help/photo/English.lproj/pages/Workspace/expressions.html

 

[firstdefence]

You can move objects in steps of ten units by clicking in any of the boxes in the Transform Panel, then press & hold ⇧ (Shift) and using the scroll wheel on your mouse or using the Arrow keys if you don't have a scroll wheel. Also clicking in any of the transform boxes and just pressing the Arrow keys will change the numbers to integer numbers if you don't want fractional numbers.

Learned this when R C-R mentioned it in a post recently.

 

Typing +20 after the existing digits will also move an object 20 units

[toltec]

10 hours ago, Pšenda said:

H - height, W - width. Looks at help (Transform variables). 

https://affinity.help/photo/English.lproj/pages/Workspace/expressions.html

 

We don't want to adjust the size of the object (h or w) but the position of the object on the page (x or y), in particular the gap between two object.

[toltec]

1 hour ago, firstdefence said:

You can move objects in steps of ten units by clicking in any of the boxes in the Transform Panel, then press & hold ⇧ (Shift) and using the scroll wheel on your mouse or using the Arrow keys if you don't have a scroll wheel. Also clicking in any of the transform boxes and just pressing the Arrow keys will change the numbers to integer numbers if you don't want fractional numbers.

Learned this when R C-R mentioned it in a post recently.

 

Typing +20 after the existing digits will also move an object 20 units

Very good, but there still seems to be no direct way of setting a gap between two objects.

[Pšenda]

7 minutes ago, toltec said:

gap between two object.

Therefore, you need to know and specify the dimensions of the object (its H and W)!

[toltec]

1 minute ago, Pšenda said:

Therefore, you need to know and specify the dimensions of the object (its H and W)!

Exactly, that's the downside, a fair bit of working out involved.

It would be nice if there was an easier way of setting a gap. 

[Pšenda]

1 hour ago, toltec said:

Exactly, that's the downside, a fair bit of working out involved.

As I wrote, just write "-=(h+20mm)".

[toltec]

15 minutes ago, Pšenda said:

As I wrote, just write "-=(h+20mm)".

Ah yes, very good 

Didn't work the first time I tried it so I obviously did something wrong.

Thanks, that will actually make several of my tasks a lot easier 

[Pšenda]

47 minutes ago, toltec said:

lot easier

Even the brackets do not have to be written there (I wrote them for clarity) or even "mm" (if you have them set as unit of the document). It's easier not to go anymore :-)

[Clavote]

Thank you all
lot to learn
but

still no way to directly create a new objet with an X or Y offset to a "reference"point.

or I still need another explanation maybe

The fastest way I found was to create the new object, snap it to the "reference" point then x+20

very helpful people here !!!!

Clavote

also I couldn't find a keyboard shortcut to directly enter a value in the 4 transform boxes (X,Y,W,H)

 

[toltec]

2 hours ago, Clavote said:

still no way to directly create a new objet with an X or Y offset to a "reference"point.

What reference point do you mean ?

A reference point on the first object or on the page ?

 

[Clavote]

on the first object

[toltec]

Well, if you use the alignment square box (nine squares) that gives you the position, depending on which square you select.

So, for an X coordinate that gives you left edge, centre or right edge.

You could then enter an X coordinate based on either of those. Needs a bit of maths. So, press Ctrl + J to duplicate it, then say, enter 220 in the X box for a 20 mm gap.

or you could duplicate the first object Ctrl + J and enter an expression in the Y box of +=w+20 which calculates the width of the box (20 mm in this case) and adds 20mm to that. So a 40 mm movement in total, giving a 20 mm gap.

Probably not as precise, or as easy as you would like but I think that is the best on offer. You would probably be better off with setting a grid or using guides.

 

Another option would be to create a box and position that. In snapping options, object's bounding boxes can be set to snap to other bounding boxes. Below I used the box to snap the left edge of the second object to the centre point of the first object.

I often use objects in this way, hiding (or deleting) the "guide" boxes when I'm done.

I am sure more tools will be added to Designer as time permits.

 

 

[Clavote]

Thanks
have a nice evening

 

[firstdefence]

Maybe a "Space" option in the transform Panel for selected items based on the choice on the alignment box. 

[firstdefence]

Cool tip to space objects.