Align Relative to Last Selected Object

Rhino Rhino for Windows
1

Hello,

In drawing programs like CorelDraw (and I believe in Illustrator, AutoCad etc) you can align multiple objects relative to the last selected object. The last selected object does not move during the alignment which is the curcial behaviour. So if I select a square, then a triangle, then an oval and press C, E, T, B, R or L to align horizontally, vertically, top, bottom, right and left, the square and triangle will move to be aligned with the oval and oval stays in place. This is especially useful in two cases, first is when you want to align relative to an object without that object moving and secondly when aligning to an object that has no easily detectable/selectable alignment nodes, points etc.

It’s a really simple and quick feature that I use all the time in other software and miss in Rhino, just select the items you want to align and press a single key to align them where you want relative to the last selected.

Is this ability in Rhino and I’m just missing it? If not, hopefully it’s not too hard to add… Rhino 9??? :grin:

2

Hi @peter23
With “instant aliases” in V9 and the Align command, that should be pretty easy to macro/script. I think you’ll still have to manually pick the alignment point, but using Osnaps that too should be fairly easy.
HTH, Jakob

3

Illustration to demonstrate how quickly aligning objects relative to last-selected in other software works. Also aligning freeform obejcts that don’t have obvious alignment points like the blob below is a real strength of this method.

Rhino-Alignment-Feature-Request
Rhino-Alignment-Feature-Request2094×1445 149 KB

4

Hey Jakob. Having to manually select an alignment point is part of the issue. As you can see in the illustration I’ve now added, freeform blob type shapes don’t really create many useful alignment points in Rhino. Whereas in other drawing software basic alignments can be quickly made without selecting any alignment points.