Illustrator :: Defining Order Of Objects When Using Distribute?
Dec 6, 2013
VERSION: Illustrator CC Mac
I've always assumed that the order of the layers determined the order and position that shapes are moved in the Distribute function.
I'm having a wierd problem today and the order seems to be defined by something I can't figure out. I'm trying to vertically distribute a set of the same shape and instead of counting the shapes in order from left to right or vise versa the distribute function seems to be randomly picking the order of the shape, not basing it on location or layer order.
In both examples I have used a Vertical Distribute Center and both groups of shapes are ordered from left to right in the layers palette with the left most layer being the first layer and the right most shape being the last.
What is causing the shapes to be distributed in this order? How do I specify what the order is if it isn't based on layer or position order?
Say I have a group that consists solely of five triangles. Is it possible to use simultaneously align or distribute functions on while selecting just those five triangles? It seems like I can align up to four triangles at a time within the group, but when I select all five Illustrator interprets that I'm trying to align the entire group with another object outside of that group. Key objects don't seem to be supported in this situation.
When I use "object/blend/replace spine" it will distribute the objects evenly around the circle, but with no rotation. My issue is that I have objects shaped like people and would like them evenly around the circle, but rotated correctly so that their feet are all touching the circular path and their heads are always facing out. How can I achieve this?
I am working on a personal data visualization project but currently stuck and can't go forward. As you can see below in the image, I created all my data bars and tried to distribute them on a 360 degree path myself.
But clearly, I couldnt able to create a perfect 360 path.
All of the bars are each group objects on their own. I am sure there is a way to distribute them perfectly on Illustrator but I cant find it. There is a option on Blend>Replace Spine but it is not active.
How can I distribute multiple objects without distorting them on a circle path?
I have a few objects that I want to distribute to a circle line. I've tried scatter brush (looked horrible) , pattern brush (what you see here).No matter what I do, those objects are distorted.
Clients may want objects to be as many as 30 or 40, so I hope to avoid switching the objects manually.
Any way to distribute a set of variously-sized 2D objects on a 2D surface in Photoshop or Illustrator? Illustrator lets you align objects evenly along a 1D line, but I want the objects to basically fill a surface evenly.
A simple way of phrasing this is: I have a set of X objects of different size (or shape). I want them to be as close to each other as possible, but without overlapping. It should be easy for software to find the perfect composition to minimize "air gap" between them.
As a result, If I feed the program with shapes of various shape and size, I should get results like this:
wholesale-fabric-discount-store.com/images/Giraffe_Fabric.jpg (air gap between the objects is approx. mininal)
Is there a method to evenly distribute objects around a circle? I understand the horizontal and vertical alignment tools, but I'm not sure how to apply them in this situation. Attached are a sample picture of what I want to accomplish and the .xar file (XDP7).
I love the function in Photoshop in which you can stroke a selection with a brush. Was wondering if that was possible in CorelDraw X4 as well. I know that we can put text on a path, but is that also working with objects?
Since I like making patterns, I would like to place and distrubute objects along a circle or hexagon shape (and other simple shapes).
I'm trying to get the distribute tool to distribute some text objects (for a website menu) evenly. however, using the distribute section of the alignment tool only enables me to set an offset that measure the distance between the left, center or right edge of each object. if the objects are different widths, they will have varying distances between their edges.
Here I have several concentric squares in an uninterrupted stack.I moved the topmost (small orange) one vertically.I then went to the Alignment panel, selected all the squares and clicked on the one I moved.Then I clicked on Vertical Distribute Center.
The right hand picture shows what happened.One of the squares (that big orange one) near the bottom of the stack shot up so that its centre was above the centre of the topmost one in the stack.The centres are evenly distributed but why is the stacking order not controlling the order in which the squares are arranged?
Fortunately the positioning of that big orange square was easy to correct, but something tells me this is not the way things are supposed to happen.Seemingly this does not always happen. I have tried the method on several stacks. Some were o.k., others showed similar behaviour to the above.
I am attempting to create a seemless pattern in illustrator cs5 with a logo a customer provided. I have looked through several tutorials and read most everything I can about the process but seem to be running into a strange problem. I make the pattern like all the lessons say with a rectangle with no fill or stroke set behind all the elements I want in my pattern. When I deifne the pattern it doesn't just include the objects inside the square but also the parts of the elements that leave the square. If I am understanding everything correctly thats not how its supposed to work. I am using illustrator cs5 on mac os x. Here is a screen shot. Back ground square really has no stroke or fill. I am only coloring it in so you can see the example.
how I can use a variable as the target for a Save as PDF option in Illustrator javascript. the variables work fine where there is no enumerated value for the property i.e. opts.generateThumbnails but I can figure out how to get it working opts.compatibility or other properties with enumerated values using a variable as the definition.
The code snippet example below will always give an 'Enumerated Value expected' error when run for the opts.colorCompression option even though the string is correct. If I define the opts as opts.colCompression = compressionQuality.AUTOMATICJPEGHIGH then everythings works
how I can define the compressionQuality.AUTOMATICJPEGHIGH as a variable the will work
Code snippet
opts = new PDFSaveOptions(); opts.compatibility = PDFCompatibility.ACROBAT5; opts.generateThumbnails = thumbnailValue;
I'm in need of fitting 10 groups on a document so that all 10 groups take up the least amount of space. To do that some of the groups need to be rotated when doing this manually. Is there a way for Illustrator to do this automatically? Ditributing and rotating several groups to take up less space on a given document size?
I made a rectangle and converted it into a path. Type in the rectangle 16 words stacked one on top of the other. Used the Fit Headline for each word so it would fit the box no matter what the font size is. Attempted to use the Align tool, but it doesn't work. Used the Character flyout for spacing between each word, but it doesn't make and equal distribution.
I am somewhat new to AI and mostly working in PS, but I don't like the type quality in PS so on to AI. I do not know ID in case ayone was wondering.
I am working in Lesson 5 of Adobe Illustrator CS5 Classroom in a Book, and am having a problem selecting the 2 anchor points to distribute equal space based on the bottom center anchor point of the violin. The note said to reference chapter 2, which I have already been through, but even after reading the Illustrator Help dialog on pg 75, I am still at a loss. how to distribute this equal spacing of 2 anchors relative to one anchor point?
I am fairly new to Illustrator, currently working on a project involving circular return address lables. On the labels, the address text follows a circular path with bullets between the name, street, and city/state/zip. Now that I've entered all of the text onto the curved path, how do I distribute it evenly along that path? In other words, how do I ensure that the same amount of space exists at the beginning and end of my line of text? Right now, there is "leftover" space at the end of the address.
I need an Illustrator script for distribute a collection of diferent symbols along a path. The symbols should be distributed from the beginning to end of path and separated a proportional space each other. Additionally each symbol should be rotated pointing to a "look at" object.
Please look at the attached image for further info.
I'm working in Adobe Illustrator CS6 and neither the Distribute Spaces Option nor Distribute Object Option are working.It doesn't seem to matter if it's a print or web document. Doing the same thing to the same document/graphics in CS5.1 works perfectly.
Copypasteing the correctly distributed objects from CS5.1 to CS6 works ok, and if i then repeat the Distribute spaces option nothing changes and it stays correctly distributed. (read: it doesn't badly distribute like before)
I have a surface and a pipe network. I am trying to print out a picture of these two objects rendered for the engineer to see. I have the surface as a rendered surface, but the pipe network is displaying under the surface (so it is invisible) and I was wondering if there was a way to have the pipe network display "thru" the surface so the engineer can see the pipe network with all the pipes drawn underneath the surface. Is this possible?
Layer manager does not sort objects in alphabetical order. In layers with more than 20 objects, it´s a mess, nothing alphabetical. I click text "layer", it sorts some objects but not all of them.
I use CDX5 to run our laser engraver. A customer brought us in some plastic sheet he'd like us to laser into small little "lenses" that go over LEDs. These little lenses are roughly .5" square with one radiused corner. The material isn't cheap, so of course the customer wants to minimize waste - I can't spread them out.
I just ctrl-D duplicate them into a tightly packed array and send to the laser... Unfortunately, the material isn't very laser-friendly. It sucks up a lot of heat and starts to bulge, which takes the laser out of focus. I can get decent results by doing a few at a time, but that causes too much waste. If I try to do to many in one area, the bulging leads to ruined parts.
Is there a convenient way in CD to randomize the order of objects? If the laser would cut one over here, then another over there, etc, I think the heat buildup would no longer be a factor, and I wouldn't have to babysit the machine. I thought about doing it manually in Object Manager but, ugh, there are like 384 pieces in the layout.
What is the variable that controls the order in which objects are selected? In other words, I want to be able to always select the last object created by default when objects are overlapping without using object cycling.
I am using the command Draw Order and would like to use the Quick Select so that I can select all objects on a specific layer. How do I use the Quick Select in conjuction with the Draw Order command?
how to control the draw order of objects created within an array in a dynamic block?
I have a wipeout, which works fine on the array source, but when the array produces babies, it places them infront of everything (which is only logical), making the wipeout useless.
Can I set array babies to have the same draw order as their parent?
My company upgraded our AutoCAD from 2007 to 2009 this past Monday. I'm getting an error message when trying to change the order of objects in model space.
Command: Unknown command "AI_DRAWORDER". Press F1 for help. Command: Unknown command "FRONT". Press F1 for help.
