Duh, Phil's being stupid (again, so what's new?)

[philhendry]

Hi Folks,

I seem to be being thick, and hope someone can help out!

Suppose I have a grid, or a network of guidelines, and I want to place a series of circles, with their centres centred on the vertices of the grid or network. What Xara seems to want to do is to align the circles using their edges, rather than their centres. How can I get it to do what I want?

I must have spent about two hours last night b*****ing about with it, to no avail! [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_confused.gif[/img]

Cheers,
Phil

A professor is someone who talks in someone else's sleep. W.H. Auden, 1907-73

[philhendry]

Hi Folks,

I seem to be being thick, and hope someone can help out!

Suppose I have a grid, or a network of guidelines, and I want to place a series of circles, with their centres centred on the vertices of the grid or network. What Xara seems to want to do is to align the circles using their edges, rather than their centres. How can I get it to do what I want?

I must have spent about two hours last night b*****ing about with it, to no avail! [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_confused.gif[/img]

Cheers,
Phil

A professor is someone who talks in someone else's sleep. W.H. Auden, 1907-73

[Ross Macintosh]

I haven't tried this but it might work. Locate a very small no-fill/no-line shape at the center of the circle and then group it with the circle. Perhaps then the center shape will snap to the grid and get the desire you want.

Another method could be to locate the very small invisible shape on the grid position you want. Select it and the circle and use the arrange tool.

Hope these ideas help you stop pulling your hair out.

Regards,Ross

<a href=http://www.designstop.com/>DesignStop.Com</a>

[bjwe]

Phil,

if your circles are all the same size you could change the grid size to equal the radius of the circle. For example, if the circle radius is 25px set the grid size major interval to 125px with 5 sub-divisions (Utilities|Options|Grid & Ruler). The circle edges will then snap to the gridlines surrounding the centre point you want.

Brian

[rubem]

Easily align objects to grid. There's one of the few things that CorelDRAW does at least 100 times better than Xara since Day One. [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_redface.gif[/img]

Rubem

[This message was edited by Rubem Pechansky on April 25, 2001 at 07:13 AM.]

[Sean Sedwards]

There isn't a convenient 'align to vertex' but there are all sorts of workarounds, depending on what you're trying to achieve, i.e. are the lines part of the drawing or just guides?

Assuming your lines are orthogonal, set up the grid spacing via Utilities > Options > Grid... and use it with Window > Snap to Grid to make sure your lines conform. Draw the circles and _without deselecting the Ellipse Tool_, pick them up using the centre mark and place them over the vertices. It may also be possible to draw them in place if you select the radius method on the InfoBar.

If your line directions / spacing are arbitrary in one direction, you could create a blend of however many circles you want, then select it and a grid line and click the 'Blend Along A Curve' button.

Using the Blend Tool or CTRL-Klone it's also possible to create an equally spaced array which you can align en bloc with the lines.

Regards - Sean

[philhendry]

Thanks for the ideas guys- you've given me some more ideas to try (which will hopefully stop me denting the wall with my skull). [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img]

Cheers,
Phil

Trust the computer industry to shorten 'Year 2000' to 'Y2K'. It was this sort of thinking that caused the problem in the first place.

[Clements]

1). Use a blend of grouped circles.

2). Use distribute equi-space of a circles.

3). Use a manually created DOT GRID. On a separate layer: a). snap to grid on and snap to ojbects off. b). Use the Shape Editor tool (defaulting to create line segments) and click horizonatally on the grid. c). Steps "C" and "D" are not required but give a great visual key for positioning objects. Select all nodes of the line with Shape Editor tool and press Break At Points from the Info Bar and then group the line segments. d). Press F12 (Line Gallery) and with all nodes selected, apply a Dot End point e). Snap to grid off and snap to ojbect on. f). With the Ellipse Tool, select the circle, clone it (Ctrl+K), position ellipse tool cursor on the circle's center "X" and move it to the next dot. g). repeat step F.

I admit Method 3 is involved but can be quite useful. I use it quite often when positioning ellipses at pricise intervals along an isometric axis.

[This message was edited by John S. Clements on April 25, 2001 at 07:40 AM.]

[gwpriester]

Are you trying to get the center of the circle to snap to one of the dots on the grid?

If so, create you circle with the grid visible and snap to grid enabled. When you first create your circle you will notice a + in the center of the circle (this does not hang around for long).

Drag the circle by this + and snap it to the desired location. Press Ctrl K to duplicate the circle and the + is still there. Drag the + to the next location. Repeat as many times as needed.

I just tried this and found out that if the circles are deselected, selecting them with the Ellipse Tool enables the + again so the circle can be moved to a new location.

This do the trick?

Gary

Gary Priester

Moderator Person

Be It Even So Humble...

[jclements]

Gary wrote, "I just tried this and found out that if the circles are deselected, selecting them with the Ellipse Tool enables the + again so the circle can be moved to a new location."

The same process holds true for rectangles selected with the Rectangle Tool.