Little step saves time, reduces agro

[amoore]

I've been redoing a series of web banners, which requires setting up the content in a drawing file, then copying it into an animation file. When you paste from a drawing file to an animation file, the object doesn't usually land in the same place relative to the canvas, so I wasted a lot of time trying to use matching guidelines. Silly me.

I finally figured out that I could snap the ruler origins to the upper left corner of the banner background image to get the same coordinates in both files. Then, it's just a question of checking the coordinates in the drawing file and reproducing them in the animation file after you paste. (Pasting in place won't work.)

To snap the ruler origin, turn on Snap to Objects and make sure your ruler coordinate directions are going the same way in both files (Options | Grid and Ruler tab). Then grab the crosshair where the rulers meet and drag it to the corner of the image. Voila!

One thing to be aware of: Note the coordinates in the drawing file before you copy the object. Xtreme has a weird little bug that temporarily changes the the unit type for the x coordinate when you execute a copy command.