Grids and guides questions

[V Silly]

Hello folks, I would like to know whether it is possible to have grids centered on the page rather than starting on the left or right. I looked in grid manager and I did not see anything relating to position of the grids on the page. Same question for the rulers, it would be great if I could have the zero point on the rulers be in the center of the page rather than the left or right.

I would also like to know how to convert guides to artwork. For example if I drag guides out from the horizontal and vertical rulers to show the centerpoint and I want those lines to be printing lines, how do I convert them from just a guide into visible art? Also when I have selected all artwork and moved it, the guides stay behind and do not move with the artwork. Is this not the best way to create a horizontal and vertical centerline?

Thanks for answering these questions, it can be time-consuming to hunt in the tutorials for the answer to a specific issue so I do appreciate the replies available here. Best regards

 

[R C-R]

It is not possible to change the starting point of grids & rulers in the current 1.6 retail versions, but it is possible in the 1.7 customer betas, so that feature should be available when the 1.7 retail updates are released.

Guides cannot be converted to artwork. You can use snapping to center artwork on the document centerlines -- just make sure "Snap to spread" & "Include spread mid points" are enabled in the snapping manager. Alternately, in the Guides Manager click the "Percent" checkbox & enter 50% to place a guide on a document centerline, or use snapping to center one dragged out from the ruler.

[V Silly]

Thank you this was very helpful. Is there a way to drag an object from its centerpoint? I tried it with the black arrow and it moved the centerpoint. The white arrow transforms the object.

[R C-R]

27 minutes ago, V Silly said:

Is there a way to drag an object from its centerpoint?

What are you trying to do that would require you to do that? Just select the object with the Move Tool (the one with the black arrow icon) & drag it. As long as you don't drag on a selection handle (or the rotation center if it is visible) you can move the object to wherever you want. Use the various snapping options available in the Snapping Manager if needed to align the object to something else in the document.

The tool with the white arrow icon is the Node Tool. It is used to modify or add nodes to a vector object.

[gdenby]

Hi, V Silly,

There is no need to drag from the center point. It is more properly called the center of rotation, and by default is located at the center of the object's rectangular bounding box. When visible, it can be dragged so the object geometry rotates from a point different than the object center. 

 As R C-R just mentioned, the snapping options are what will show how something is positioned relative to other objects and/or the document. You will see alert lines when alignment position are reached.

[V Silly]

Thanks guys, I was using illustrator for 20 years so I keep trying to do things the way I used to do them in illustrator. In illustrator you can use the white or black arrow to drag from a point and the center is a draggable point. So I had been used to centering objects by dragging the center points together. I can see that this program has a different ways of working that I will need to learn. Seems to be better and some ways. Thanks again

[lepr]

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[R C-R]

2 hours ago, >|< said:

That feature has been implemented in the 1.7 betas: on a Mac, hold control while dragging the pivot point to make the object move along with the pivot.

I never quite understood the point of that. I just move the Move Tool pointer over an edge of unfilled shape & drag or drag from anywhere in a filled shape. That can be done one-handed, with no need to press the Control key, which has to be done after the drag starts to avoid opening the context menu.

[lepr]

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[R C-R]

16 minutes ago, >|< said:

It's very useful for precision movement of object(s) so that a specific location in relation to the object(s) can be snapped to a target location.

OK, but how did you get the group's center of rotation to align precisely on the center of the large cog prior to dragging the group onto the wheel? I could not figure out any precision way to do that.

What am I missing?

[lepr]

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