Margins around buttons in script panel

[James Ronan]

Hey all,

I can't figure out why margins are not working between the buttons in the panel I've created. They only work around the outside. Is margins the correct property to be tweaking?

Ideally, I'd like between 1-2px but it looks like it is stuck at 10px. Any pointers in the right direction would be much appreciated I'd played around with the bounds property instead of size but that didn't work either.

Here is a simplified version of the script:

//begin script
function myScript(thisObj) {
    var myPanel = (thisObj instanceof Panel) ? thisObj : new Window("palette", "Test", undefined, {
        resizeable: true,
        orientation: 'column',
    });
    myPanel.spacing = 1;
    myPanel.margins = 2;
    var btnSize = [30, 30];
    var btnGrp = myPanel.add('group', undefined);
    btnGrp.orientation = 'row';
    var btn1 = btnGrp.add('button', undefined, '01');
    btn1.size = btnSize;
    var btn2 = btnGrp.add('button', undefined, '02');
    btn2.size = btnSize;
    var btn3 = btnGrp.add('button', undefined, '03');
    btn3.size = btnSize;
    var btn4 = btnGrp.add('button', undefined, '04');
    btn4.size = btnSize;
    myPanel.layout.layout(true);
    if (myPanel instanceof Window) {
        myPanel.show();
    } else {
        myPanel.layout.layout(true);
    }
    myPanel.layout.resize();
    myPanel.onResizing = myPanel.onResize = function() {
        this.layout.resize();
    }
}
myScript(this);
//end of script

[Tomas Sinkunas · Accepted solution]

Well, "button" does not have "margins" property, so you cannot adjust those.

To accomplish what you need, to have to tweek groups spacing those button are in.

var btnGrp = myPanel.add('group', undefined); 
btnGrp.spacing = 2;

[James Ronan]

Hey Tomas! Thanks for replying! This has definitely helped as they are now closer together. Although not as close as I'd of hoped.

Even with ".spacing = 0" or at a negative value there is still a gap between each button. Ideally, I'd like there to be almost no gap between the buttons. See image below. The top is what I'm getting, the bottom is what I'm trying to achieve:

Were you able to get them any closer together? or are they any other ways to reduce the spacing between them?

Thanks again!

[Alan_AEDScripts]

btnGrp.spacing=btnGrp.margins=0;

works fine for me, could be a mac default to leave a pixel between items. There seems to be a pixel or two minimum by default to fit in a panel or window. On PC the buttons stack perfectly beside eachother.

[Tomas Sinkunas]

Witch AE version are you using? AE 2017.2 on mac gives such results with your script with btnGrp.spacing = 0;

[James Ronan]

Doh! Major fail on my side. I had only been running it in ExtendScript and hadn't tested it in After Effects yet. It is working perfectly there...

Didn't know there would be a difference aha. Thanks a lot guys!