Any way to control the positioning guides?

[AndyJ2106]

When I move an object around within the artboard pink guides with measurements appear.  They don't always measure to the 'thing' I'm interested in however which means I end up with a calculator, object sizes and entering values in X and Y properties.  Is there a better way of positioning?  More control over how the guides select a measuring point?

Thanks.

[Preran]

You can press the Ctrl or Cmd key when dragging objects. Smart guides are not displayed when you do that.

Thanks,

Preran

[AndyJ2106]

That's useful to know thanks, but it doesn't really help because given an idea of positioning is useful.  As an example, this morning I was trying to position a piece of text 8 pixels from a rectangle on the artboard.  The smart guide was measuring to the top of the artboard 280+ units away - not at all helpful.  I needed to measure to the nearest thing - the rectangle.  In the end I had to get the calculator out, find the rectangles X,Y coordinate and dimensions, run the calc for the text and manually enter the positioning.  Later when I was trying to size the rectangle I had to get the calculator out and from it's starting coordinate add in numbers for gaps, object sizes to get a height dimension to type in manually. 

That sounds a little crazy to me..it is crazy!..I'm taking it there is no way to control how those smart guides work?

[Randy Edmunds · Accepted solution]

To get a measurement between 2 objects, select one object then put mouse over the other object and press the Alt key. You can also put mouse over selected object and press Alt key to get measurements to edges of artboard.

Randy

[AndyJ2106]

That's brilliant, thanks.  And thanks Preran for prompting me to clarify my question.