Align small and big circle to each other

Lieke,

Based on a new reading of your original question, I believe you just need to have the small circle snapped to the bottom of the big circle at some angle.

In that case you can just ClickDrag the small circle by its upper Anchor Point to snap to the bottom Anchor Point of the big circle, and then you can (Group and) rotate the pair as desired; if you wish to keep the big circle in place, you can click its centre with the Rotation Tool before rotating, or if the desired position is just approximate you can just move the pair round as deisred.

And if you wish to have a specific angle between the centres, you can set that angle in connexion with the rotation as well.

Lieke,

You can also have a look at this similar thread,

https://community.adobe.com/t5/illustrator/align-and-snap-shapes-to-each-other/td-p/12088677

I would do it this way:

• Use the Selection tool (black arrow), not the Direct Selection tool
• Deselect both
• With the shapes deselected, drag the edge of one ellipse until it touches the other
• Smart guides will tell you when they touch, and the cursor will change from black to white

~ Jane

There are good plugins for that. See this video for example

Snap to collision tools by Astute Graphics

Lieke,

You can, Smart Guides being your friends:

1) With the Line Segment Tool ClickDrag between the two centres to create a line between them;

2) Switch to the Selection Tool and select the small circle, then Click it at the intersection with the line and ClickDrag it along the line to snap to the intersection with the large circle.

Before 2) you can select the small circle and switch to the Rotate Tool, then Drag one of the Anchor Points to snap to the line from 1), and then ClickDrag by that Anchor Point in 2); you can also rotate the large circle.