Object centre crosshairs

[AntonM]

It's currently possible to set an object's rotational centre point (the crosshairs) to 9 explicit and accurate positions by using the wee 3x3 icon (mouseover says it's Set origin position, which is not what I thought a rotational centre would be called).

Any other position requires drag to more or less where you want it, and accuracy can be improved by zooming in, but it's still not an exact way of placing it.

I haven't seen any of the co-ordinate boxes change as I drag the crosshairs around -- have I missed something?

If not -- it would be useful to be able to type in X,Y co-ords to set the rotational centre explicitly and precisely.

Allied to this, the ability to "align centres" about a collection of objects' rotational centres would be useful in some cases.

[gwpriester]

Yes, set rotation position or set center of rotation would make more sense.

I know of no way to numerically change the center of rotation. You have to drag it.

I suspect part of the reason for this is Xara has always used an interactive interface. Unlike Illustrator which used to do most things via a dialog, Xara prefers to do things intuitively. So to change the center of rotation, you drag the bulls eye to the desired location.

One thing you can try if the center has to be in a specific location, is add a horizontal and vertical guideline and then snap the center of rotation to the guidelines. But you may still want to zoom in close to make certain the angle of rotation is directly over the guidelines.

If you need for your guidelines to be in an absolute position, right click on a guideline and select Guide Layer Properties. You can add new guides to precise locations and delete existing guidelines.

[AntonM]

Thanks Gary, the snap to guidelines is a good workaround.