distributing all elements evenly

[zBob]

Hello everyone,
I am looking for a method or script to distribute many different elements/symbols evenly on a grid. What I mean is how to scale the length and height without scaling the objects themselves. Thanks for your tips!

[Jacob Bugge]

Bob,

You can scale them up by y/x, then scale each down again with Object>Transform>Transform Each, using the reverse scaling factor x/y.

Specifically, you can select all of them, then:

1) Start with the Transform panel by multiplying the W or H value by y/x, or the with Object>Transform>Scale by inserting 100y/x as Uniform (100 because it works in %),

2) End with the Object>Transform>Transform Each by inserting 100x/y in both directions (100 because it also works in %).

[zBob]

Hi Jacob,

Thanks for your tip - it works, indeed; I have used this trick before. However, it's only sometimes useful, especially not when I got many elements in many different compositions to change - it just takes a lot of time, especially calculating the percentual ratio. I want to use something like Transform Each, with the option to skip the scaling vector itself.

Best

[Jacob Bugge · Accepted solution]

You are welcome, Bob.

"calculating the percentual ratio"

You can leave the calculation to Illy (job description Adobe Illustrator), by inserting the quotient itself, instead of calculating it.

As I mentioned, if you wish to go from x to y, you just write 100y/x, in other words writing 100 times y followed by / and followed by x, just adding 00 after y if it is a whole number, otherwise moving the decimal point/comma two places to the right (and add 0 if y only has one decimal place.

To show some samples with the changes to y shown bold red underlined, this means that if you wish to:

Scale up from x = 13 to y = 36, you just write 3600/13

Scale up from x = 13 to y = 36.723, you just write 3672.3/13

Scale up from x = 13 to y = 36.7, you just write 3670/13

And the opposite for Transform Each, just swapping x and y.

[Jacob Bugge]

Bob,

Remembering and rereading your OP (Original Post) with this, "I am looking for a method or script", I am convinced that it would be easy to create a script that performs those tranformations; for a scripter that is.

[femkeblanco · Accepted solution]

This is a quick script implementation of @Jacob Bugge's idea. 

// select relevant page items
var doc = app.activeDocument;

var array1 = [];
for (var i = 0; i < doc.selection.length; i++) {
    array1.push(doc.selection[i]);
}
array1.sort(function (a, b) {
    return a.left - b.left;
});
var bounds1 = array1[0].geometricBounds;
var x1 = bounds1[0] + ((bounds1[2] - bounds1[0]) / 2);

var array2 = [];
for (var i = 1; i < array1.length; i++) {
    var bounds2 = array1[i].geometricBounds;
    var x2 = bounds2[1] + ((bounds2[3] - bounds2[1]) / 2);
    if (x2 > bounds1[3] && x2 < bounds1[1]) {
        array2.push(array1[i]);
    }
}
array2.sort(function (a, b) {
    return a.left - b.left;
});
var bounds2 = array2[0].geometricBounds;
var x2 = bounds2[0] + ((bounds2[2] - bounds2[0]) / 2);

var x = x2 - x1;
var y = Number(prompt("", "", "y (points)"));

var group = doc.groupItems.add();
for (var i = 0; i < doc.selection.length; i++) {
   doc.selection[i].moveToEnd(group);
}
group.resize(100 * y/x, 100 * y/x);

for (var i = group.pageItems.length - 1; i > -1 ; i--) {
    group.pageItems[i].resize(100 * x/y, 100 * x/y);
    group.pageItems[i].moveAfter(group);
}

[Jacob Bugge]

Excellent, Femke.