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Answered

Is there is any tool in adobe illustrator which can switch place of the objects:

Forum|Forum|5 years ago
October 11, 2020
7 replies
11212 views

Hey, I like to know is there is any tool which can interchange position of two or multiple selected separate object. For example, I have two objects one is placed on left while the other is place in right position. Now I want two switch left object to right and right to left. I know I can manually do that but I want to know if there is any tool for this?

How to

Correct answer paul @ www.piperad.fr

An additional answer that may help script-resistants, 180° rotation series

Here's a trick :

1) get object A and object B in a single selection, rotate together by 180° : they swap position but get upside-down

2) Now get object A and rotate 180°

3) Now get object B and rotate 180°

(if using shortcuts for rotation make this as simple as 5 clicks and 3 shortuts, can be made in 10sec)

Hope it may help 😊

paul @ www.piperad.frCorrect answer

Participant

An additional answer that may help script-resistants, 180° rotation series

Here's a trick :

1) get object A and object B in a single selection, rotate together by 180° : they swap position but get upside-down

2) Now get object A and rotate 180°

3) Now get object B and rotate 180°

(if using shortcuts for rotation make this as simple as 5 clicks and 3 shortuts, can be made in 10sec)

Hope it may help 😊

Jacob Bugge

Community Expert

Strange indeed, Ton.

Maybe another (im)precision bug.

Jacob Bugge

Community Expert

Haziq,

For the simple case of just two objects, you can use the following silly but easy two step way, much better than moving back and forth:

1) Select both objects and Object>Transform>Rotate by 180 degrees,

2) Object>Transform>Transform Each>Rotate by 180 degrees.

Ton Frederiks

Community Expert

Hi Jacob,

strange, but your 2 times transform method as well as the script here: How to swap two objects? are shifting the position of the objects a little

I made a copy of the 2 objects on a layer above a locked version and repeated the transforms a couple of times, the objects are shifting position down.

Myra Ferguson

Community Expert

You can do what you're asking using symbols. First, convert each object into a symbol (select the object, then go to the Symbol panel and click the New Symbol icon at the bottom of the panel, go to the panel menu and select New Symbol..., or press F8). If we used your example where there's an object on the left and an object on the right, click the left object that you turned into a symbol, go to the Symbol panel and click on the symbol that you want to use instead. With the symbol in the Symbol panel selected, go to the panel menu and select Replace Symbol.

H

Haziq5DD6Author

Known Participant

@Myra Ferguson got it. Not the proper method which I am looking for but might be helpful. Thanks for the explanation 👍.

Kurt Gold

Community Expert

Which version of Illustrator are you using?

H

Haziq5DD6Author

Known Participant

@Kurt_Gold I am using Adobe Illustrator CS6

Likes

Jacob Bugge

Community Expert

Haziq,

I am afraid that there are too many possible different cases for a generalized solution, such as different widths (of Bounding Boxes); the easy one would be a pair of symmetric objects with the same width, which could be swopped by Object/Transform>Reflect (horizontally).

But I believe it is possible to use scripts or actions for repeated specific cases.

For a pair of objects where you wish to swop (the centres) in the horizontal direction, tou can move both by the (centre to centre) distance, then move the relevant one back twice by the same amount or once by the double amount.

Edit: Hi Hans-Jürgen, I was a bit delayed in answering.

pixxxelschubser

Community Expert

Hi Jacob,

https://github.com/johnwun/js4ai/blob/master/swapObjects.js

you can see a short description here

http://vectips.com/tricks/10-free-and-extremely-useful-illustrator-scripts/

(the last one)

Jacob Bugge

Community Expert

Indeed, Hans-Jürgen.

I had forgotten about swopObjects, which I have installed as one of many John Wundes scripts.

In this case I believe the applicability of swopObjects depends on the shape/size of the objects, and my believing that multiple solutions may be needed is the wording in the OP, "interchange position of two or multiple selected separate object" which I (mis)took to mean that there can be more than two objects, also again meaning that the intechanging can be in multiple ways, everything getting worse with the number.

pixxxelschubser

Community Expert

Only as script solution.

Swap Objects by John Wundes

or similiar (untestet)

How to swap two objects?

H

Haziq5DD6Author

Known Participant

Not into script. I hope this feature might implement if it is not present in the current version of Adobe Illustrator

Ton Frederiks

Community Expert

The script linked to by pixxxelschubser is really easy to use.

You can try if it does what you want by creating a text only document, copy the code from the web page, paste it in the text only file and save it on your desktop with the extension .jsx instead of .txt.

In illustrator select 2 objects and select the script using File menu > Scripts > Other Script...

If it works for you you can install the script for easier access:

https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/using/automation-scripts.html

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