snapping side to grid while rotating

M
Posted By
Martijn
Mar 8, 2005
Views
602
Replies
2
Status
Closed
Hi,

I have a somewhat complex shape I want to rotate and stretch (using Free Transform). I have moved the pivot point to the middle of the left size and want to rotate and stretch so that the opposite center (that of the right side) snaps to certain crossings made with guides. For illustration, this is my bounding box:

[ ]————[ ]————[ ]
| |
+ [ ]
| |
[ ]————[ ]————[ ]

The + is my pivot point around which is originally centered within the square, but that I have moved to the side.

Thanks for any pointers!

—
Martijn
http://www.sereneconcepts.nl
Related Tags
grid rotate side snap

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TN
Tom Nelson
Mar 9, 2005
Martijn,

You can’t snap while transforming, and the center of a side is not a snap-to point in any case. Here are some ideas:

1. If the object is large, it may be hard to make your transformation accurately by eye. But the keyboard shortcuts ctrl-alt-0 (Mac cmd-opt-0) to zoom to 100% and ctrl-0 (cmd-0) to fit in window still work while you’re transforming.(that’s zero, not oh, BTW) And holding the space bar gives you the grabber hand. So you can zoom in and pan around to match your guides before committing yourself to the transformation.
(or…)
2. Make a separate layer and draw a line from your pivot point to the point on the other side which you want to fit to your guides. Then free-transform it and observe the angle, width and height in the Info palette. You’ll probably have to temporarily widen the line so you can move the pivot point. Then just make it a line again and stretch and rotate away. Free Transform your box to those same readings.

Good luck!
Tom Nelson
Tom Nelson Photography

In article <422e2a99$0$43082$>, Martijn
wrote:

Hi,

I have a somewhat complex shape I want to rotate and stretch (using Free Transform). I have moved the pivot point to the middle of the left size and want to rotate and stretch so that the opposite center (that of the right side) snaps to certain crossings made with guides. For illustration, this is my bounding box:

[ ]————[ ]————[ ]
| |
+ [ ]
| |
[ ]————[ ]————[ ]

The + is my pivot point around which is originally centered within the square, but that I have moved to the side.

Thanks for any pointers!
M
Martijn
Mar 9, 2005
Hi Tom,

I have a somewhat complex shape I want to rotate and stretch (using Free Transform). I have moved the pivot point to the middle of the left size and want to rotate and stretch so that the opposite center (that of the right side) snaps to certain crossings made with guides.

[…] But the keyboard shortcuts ctrl-alt-0 (Mac
cmd-opt-0) to zoom to 100% and ctrl-0 (cmd-0) to fit in window still work while you’re transforming. […]

It’s funny how some keys work during transforming and others don’t… I frequently use the TAB key, but it doesn’t appear to work during transforming.

2. Make a separate layer and draw a line from your pivot point to the point on the other side which you want to fit to your guides. Then free-transform it and observe the angle, width and height in the Info palette. […]

This is comparable to what I did, which was using some simple math to come up with the angels. I guess I had just hoped for some overlooked "magic" 🙂 I have been using PS for many years now, and was actually writing a tutorial relating to paths. Although I have no problem with doing these kind of things by hand, I wanted to offer my readers a more "precise" method.

Thanks for the pointers though. I really like your second suggestion and I will put it in my tutorial (credited to your name, if that’s ok with you).

Thanks,

—
Martijn
http://www.sereneconcepts.nl

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