Topic Title

I use Illustrator alot to take our plans/elevations from a CAD drawing to a marketing drawing. One of the things I love is the ability to select two or more objects, click on the one that's the anchor and align them by center, end, top or bottom.

Another related feature is to be able to grab several objects and distribute them evenly. Very useful for window mullions when the client (I'm sure this never happens to anyone else, right?) changes the windows. Much better than having to measure, figure out the distribution and move them.

You should get the align macro. Works good for what your talking about, Aligning

For evenly ditibuting entities, I go to the Geometry, Divide, set the number of divisons, then snap the two points of the distance or pick a line that has the correct lenght. It will add snap points based on the divisions you select. Then just move/copy the windows based on there center points. You can then leave the points or erase them as a group. Not quite as eloquent as the photo editors, but gets the job done.

Hi Josh,
Where can I get this align macro??

Get the Align macro and bunch more here http://world.std.com/~eshu/ctw/ctwx.htm

B59 (Internet Deliverable)
Align Macro 6.0 by Td Blockley Get your ducks in a row with this DataCAD Macro that justifies anything, in any direction to: points, lines, arcs or circles with selective undo! DataCAD 5 and up version only. $15.00

Josh: Thanks for the link to the macro

I would still like it to be a function similar to the graphics programs. Sorry, but that's my background, not CAD so it drives me nuts to see these time consuming ways to complete a simple task.

The geometry way of distributing objects is very inefficient compared to just selecting the objects and hitting the distribute button. In graphics programs you can distribute them by a set distance or evenly between the outer selections, by the center, right or left side of the objects, etc. Since everything in a CAD drawing must be aligned properly, I would think it should be an included basic function. Hopefully it will be one day.

No, your right. The align and spacing tools are super cool in grapic programs compared with what we have in cad. I doubt we'll see that type of align and spacing tools for a while in Datacad, but you never know what might happen.

John,

This is the right place to put as a wish item. You got my vote too.

Thanks,
Miguel