Transform > Align issues with Mouse with RC3

Rhino Rhino for Mac
1

I select two objects and with the mouse, select the menu
Transform > Align

Description of Normal Behavior
I click Bottom with mouse and at this time, moving the mouse anywhere in the navigation pane does not move the parts. Moving into the Front, Perspective or Right views allows the two parts to move vertically to pick an alignment point by clicking the mouse. Moving the mouse into the Top view stops the movement. Moving the mouse to the Front, Perspective or Right views allows the movement again.

First Issue
Clicking on the Done button or pressing Enter will end this movement with the objects aligned to the bottom object’s original position. To select a different alignment point, the mouse must be used to click on the desired location.

(1a I would like to be able to toggle the alignment point option on and off with a keystroke, check box or perhaps a mouse click. Normally, when I’m aligning objects, I have one object exactly where I want it and the current behavior is simply unnerving to me. If I need to move both objects to a new location, I’d prefer to do that with the objects grouped and as a separate operation. Most likely, I’ll be aligning them with a third object or group.

(1b This is the odd one: I can Select All and then Click the mouse to Unselect. Then I Shift-click to select two objects and Right click to Repeat Transform > Align and select Transform > Align. NOW ALL objects are selected. However, if I select Transform > Align from the Menubar, only the two objects are selected and further attempts to right click and repeat the Transform > Align only selects the two objects. Doing Select All repeats the behavior.

Second issue:
When parts are moving to allow the alignment point to be selected, the mouse can be moved laterally into the gray button area and movement of the two objects is possible. However, moving to the Top view to cancel the movement of the two objects and moving to the gray button area now prohibits movement of the two objects.

(2 This seems to be inconsistent behavior and even inappropriate as the mouse align click is no longer possible when in the left, gray button area. The only choices possible are Done and Cancel.

Third Issue
Clicking on an Alignment button EG Top, Right, Vertical

(3 I’d like to have the additional buttons available following selection of one button. IE I’d like to be able to click Right and then Top to align them rather than repeating the Transform > Align process again.

Fourth Issue
(4 I’d like to see a Center alignment button, instead of having to Align > Horizontal and then Align > Vertical

2

The behavior persists in the 5A857

4

Hi Joy- In Align, the active viewport when the user picks ‘bottom’ determines the direction objects are allowed to move in- that viewport’s CPlane’s Y axis. This is a 2d operation, so in the standard views, one vp will always be ‘non -participating’ if the direction is in that view CPlane’s Z. Does that make sense?

-Pascal

5

I understand that - what I’m proposing is that it be possible to select two alignments simultaneously in a single view. Whatever view is active, two objects can be aligned Top and Left or centered and while the CPlane view might change, two objects can be aligned in the same way.

For the purpose of the idea, take a Front view. Two or more objects could be aligned with each other by top left, top center, top right, left middle, center, right middle, bottom left, bottom center, bottom right.

This would be a multiple alignment that’s independent of which CP. And of course while one has two objects selected and the alignment choices are the same, the actual movement direction is based perpendicularly to the Z plane of whatever CPlane view is active.

All that can occur in two dimensions, and should work the same in any CPlane; top, right, left, front, back bottom. Note, this would not work well with any kind of perspective view as that would be trying to align objects in three dimensions. I don’t do any kind of alignment in perspective view.

This method of alignment is implemented in various 2D graphic programs such as Adobe Illustrator, ACD Canvas, Inkscape, and others. They all have distribution, as well, but I didn’t mention this for the purpose of simplicity.