1

Draw IO's align and distribution tools work well except that ALL the objects move to a common location. I would like to be able to align other objects to match the horizontal/vertical location of one particular object rather than an average position of the gestalt.

e.g.: One has painstakingly arranged the first of a series, and one would like to align the rest of the objects beneath the first WITHOUT moving that first object.

There is a "locking" mechanism in that one can pick that first object, use the format view, open the "properties" tab at the bottom, search for "movable" and uncheck it. Now that object won't move. [yah] However, now with that first object "locked" and the others "unlocked," none of the objects will move when "align" is selected.

Improve this question

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
1
Expected behaviour

e.g.: One has painstakingly arranged the first of a series, and one would like to align the rest of the objects beneath the first WITHOUT moving that first object.

I would have expected the same beviour as you describe here.

You also say, that the items align to the average. That seems to be incorrect.

Actual behaviour

Draw.io seems to work differently. I don't have an answer to your question, but when I explain how it (seems) to work, you can perhaps adapt and find a workaround.

It seems that if you select three boxes

  • Align top will align all boxes to the too edge of the top-most box (box 2)
  • Align middle will align all boxes to the top edge of the middle box (box 1)
  • Align bottom will align all boxes to the bottom edge of the bottom-most box (box 3)
Example

See screenshots below or this online diagram.

Before any changes enter image description here

After Align top all boxes are aligned to line (1) enter image description here

After Align middle all boxes are aligned to the middle of box 1. But here, I couldn't find a pattern. Because when I moved box 1 to the north of box 3, Align middle sometimes alinged all other boxes to box 1 and sometimes to box 3. enter image description here

After Align bottom all boxes are aligned to line (8) enter image description here

Improve this answer
2
  • Thank you for going to that trouble. This does provide a certain leverage for work-around. Are you sure that "middle" aligns to the "top" of the boxen? One would assume it actually aligns to the middle of the boxen; but since they are all identical in your example, that's impossible to distinguish. I'd also be curious about an even number of boxen in the "middle" case.
    – ericx
    Commented Jan 18, 2023 at 13:37
  • @ericx You are right: with only 3 boxes and with all of them being the same height, one can't find the pattern. I updated the answer above with four boxes and with them having different heights. And you are right, the Align middle case is somehow non-deterministic -- or I haven't found a pattern yet. See my updated answer for that case.
    – Lernkurve
    Commented Jan 18, 2023 at 18:18
1

After searching for the answer and seeing this post, I played around with the arrange align buttons, and from what I found Align Middle and Align Center will center based on which ever object you select first!

As an Adobe Illustrator user, I wish more programs would implement aligning to key objects.

Improve this answer

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge you have read our privacy policy.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.