Has there ever been talk of MoI being able to align by an arbitrary point of an object? I suppose the user would have to also indicate which axis they wanted to slide along too.

Hi Nick, re: Align by arbitrary point

If I understand correctly, you can use the Transform/Move command or even just object dragging to position a specific point on an object to a different location.

Say for example you've got the following curve and you want to align the tip of the bottom hook to the y axis:



To do that, make sure you have "Object Snap" and "Straight Snap" enabled in the bottom toolbar (they will be highlighted in orange when they are active), then just grab on to the point and slide your mouse over and you will get a snap where the "straight snap" line intersects the y axis (or any other line or construction line that you have drawn in):

Here is a small video to demonstrate:




Just make sure you have both "Straight Snap" and "Object Snap" enabled to get that kind of snapping while dragging.

You can also use the Transform/Move command which lets you pick a specific base point which does not necessarily have to be exactly on the object.

Those would be the methods to use rather than the Transform/Align command, if you want to control a specific point rather then the center or bounding edges which is what the Align command is focused on targeting.


Is that the kind of alignment that you were talking about, or were you looking for something different?

- Michael

Hi Michael,

Yeah, thats pretty much it. I understand what you're illustrating using move and straight snaps.

I was thinking that since MoI was coming up in the world, that the align command palette looks a bit rudimentary. But thats cool, I know you have tons to do... I was just asking. Thanks. :-)

-Nick

Hi Nick,

> I was thinking that since MoI was coming up in the world, that
> the align command palette looks a bit rudimentary. But thats
> cool, I know you have tons to do... I was just asking.
> Thanks. :-)

Hi Nick, no problem - certainly no harm in asking! :)

But I guess if the Align command was modified, it would require adding some kind of extra "custom point" button to it, is that correct?

Then if you pushed that extra "custom point" button there would be an extra stage to the Align command where you picked the point on the object?

One thing that is bad about that situation is it would require an extra step that is not currently needed if you use dragging or Transform/Move to do that same task right now.

Generally if a function is completely covered by an existing command (like in this case dragging or Transform/Move), then I try not to make other commands more complicated only to achieve the same result...

But if what you are thinking of would give you some result that you cannot currently get with the regular dragging or Transform/Move methods, then that would make it more likely to be a good candidate to add in. But if that's the case I'll need some more information, maybe I have not understood it properly.

- Michael

Hi Nick, also with the Move command if you want to align with something that is some distance away, you can pull out a construction line from the point you want to align with, to give you something to intersect the straight snap with, like this:



- Michael