Copying shapes and having them evenly spaced?

OK I understand what you are asking.

Suppose you have 4 icons, and you want to drag a copy of them and the result to be 8 evenly spaced icons. Just shift option drag copy this as you have, and then select the 8 icons and click on the align panel Horizontal(or vertical) distribute space.

The other way to do this is to click on the first object, write down what the transform pallette value, then click on the second object and subtract the values to find your distance. You can then double clikc on the move tool and enter the (distance x number of objects) and click copy.

those are all very good way but there is yet to other ways that you might actually need as well

Say you need the objects space even but contained within a certain measurement, such as 8.5 inches make the original shape on say the left side,

then copy the shade and move it to the right 8.5 inches away

then go to Object>Blend>Blend options and select specified steps

then select both objects and command option B or control alt B to make the blend.

Now you have the shapes even distanced to a specified width.

the other way to do this is to position the first object say on the left

select and copy and then paste it the number of copies you need

then select all the copies and move to the position you desire on the right

select all of the copies and the original and then go to

align panel or control panel and select align to selection as the mode

then hit one of the distribute buttons on the control Panel  or align paneledl

the advantage of the latter is you can have a series of different object pasting

Do it once, then hit Command/Ctrl-D to repeat.

Or if you don't want to use an Effect -- make the first drag-copy and release the mouse (ake sure the copy is selected). Then go to the Object menu, to Transform, and select Transform Again. Check out the keyboard shortcut and repeat it as many times as you need copies.

If you must use the drag-copy method for some reason, then, yes, I'd say guides are needed.

You might look into using the Transform Effect. Have a look at this file from Teri Pettit's site:

http://tpettit.best.vwh.net/adobe/Transform_Effects_CS.ai

(You might have to rename with the .ai extension after download.)