After Effects Distribute Layers failing

[derrickt85858897]

I've got six layers selected. Each has a Group in it, with a Path, Stroke and Fill that come from Illustrator (I converted .ai files into vector layers to get these). Normally, I can select them and click Distribute Horizontally in the Align panel and it will work as intended. But for some reason, this -- and evrything else in the Align panel -- does not work. The only thing that does anything is the Align Left button, and that doesn't work as expected; things kind of shuffle to the left, but you can keep clicking it and getting wildly different results. Any thoughts?

[Mo Moolla]

Hi Derrick

First step reset preferences

Reset After Effects Preferences

1. Press Ctrl+Alt+Shift (Windows) or Command+Option+Shift (Mac OS) while the application is starting.
2. A dialog box launches asking you if you want to delete your preferences file. Click OK.
3. To also restore default keyboard shortcuts, Alt-click (Windows) or Option-click (Mac OS) the OK button.

[derrickt85858897]

With respect, I don't want to have to go back and reset all of my preferences with a blanket reset unless it's a last resort. Is there anything specifically related to my problem that you might suggest?

[Mo Moolla]

Try this. Great a new comp. Any old comp will do

Type a few words out on separate layers or even on just one

Try the alignment tool and see if it works in this simple test

If its still wonky u have preferences issues.

If it works we will look at next steps

Mo

[derrickt85858897]

I have done this and it worked fine. Still doesn't work on the old comp tho.

[Mo Moolla]

Can u post a screen grab of your original comp where everything going wrong or a small vid would be even more helpful

[derrickt85858897]

I would, but it randomly started working again. I started re-creating the elements in my composition, but manually copy/psted the numbers for the various properties. Those layers worked fine though the old ones didn't. However, once I deleted *some* of the old layers, they all started working fine. I don't know why that'd happen, but I get the sense that it was a bug.

The exact workflow I did was this: I took layers from a composition where they had parents, copy/pasted them into a new one where they had no parent (I tried both with and without explicitly setting parent to "none"), got rid of all of the keyframes, edited their lengths to match the new comp length, and started trying to do position animation with them. Though I could move them normally, I got the weird alignment bugs as I described earlier.

Thank you for your help, Mo; I don't know exactly how to recreate this as those are the only steps I can think of to do over, but at least it's working now. I'll post again if it returns.

[derrickt85858897]

And of course, it came right back.

Here's a video of the bug in action.

In the video, I use the align tools on a group of yellow blocks just fine. Then I click on the problematic blue blocks, and it doesn't work at all. The background layers were locked, so those shouldn't be affecting anything. To explain the weird shape of the selection box of the flat '100s blocks' to the left, they are, for animation reasons, actually a 10s block that I used a repeater to shape it into a 100 block.

AE Bug - YouTube

[derrickt85858897]

Here's the weird behavior I was talking about with the "align bottom" tool. It works fine on the yellow blocks, but it goes crazy with the blue blocks.

AE Bug 2 - YouTube

[derrickt85858897]

Also, to be clear: the blue and yellow block layers have the same content. The blue ones were the ones that I'd copy pasted, and the yellow ones were the layers I rebuilt from scratch in this composition.

[Mo Moolla]

This is really strange. I tried to recreate it on my side and couldn't.

I really feel you should look at resetting your preferences

Mo

[OussK]

Did you try to restart your AE and purge all RAM and disc cache, go to edit/purge/All Memory and disc cache

[derrickt85858897]

To Mo: I will try resetting my preferences if that's where we're at (will have to do it Monday when I'm back in). Admittedly, as it's working with other layers, I will be surprised if it changes anything. But who knows.

To OssK: I cleared my disc cache and restarted. I even rebooted the machine for good measure.

Thank you both for taking the time to try to help me with this.

[Mo Moolla]

Derrick please let me know how it goes

Mo

[derrickt85858897]

I deleted my prefrences. It did not fix the problem. I do have to reset everything now but that's part of the cost of troubleshooting I suppose.

[OussK]

can you share a small part from your project where you have issue?, so we can test it.

[derrickt85858897]

Ok. I'm using FireFox Send; let me know if you need something different to grab the file. (It'll only last for 24 hours, but I figure that's ok)

Again, thank you for helping me with this.

Firefox Send

[Davide Boscolo]

Did they fix this issue derrickt85858897 ?

I'm still having problem distributing 2D layers.

[Hollow Earth Ltd]

If permanently rasterize is checked on vector layers this won't work.

[Andy Adkins]

I am experiencing this now. Align distribute has always been a little goofy (https://community.adobe.com/t5/after-effects/what-s-up-with-ae-s-distribute-layers/td-p/10275648) but currently distribute has lost functionality completly.

I've got 5 eps layers. Only resized slightly, and distribute does nothing. No they are not already distributed perfectly.

They are ordered bottom layer left through top layer right and it doesn't matter if I collapse transforms or not.

I can make the problem go away by messing around with where the layers are positioned initially, but through a series of undos I put it back in the failing state and saved a copy of the project. Would love to share so you can fix this!!!

[ipri]

Hello!
I had same few moments ago.
In short - I set Parent & Link option to None for layers I will distribute and then Distribution button worked as needed.

[christian_9432]

This completely solved my similar problem. I had my elements attached to a null object. Thank you.

[Free_Palistine]

Hi brother, i hope this message will help to somebody, because the solve of the problem was too easy 😂 😂. 

[Sushir24686963toni]

Lol I didn't even think to resize the Align panel. Thank you so much!

[ricardoruidemouraa]

I was having the same problem... Had a few layers that were animated with easing expressions, once i deleted the expressions the distribution worked perfectly, had to redo the animation and expressions though