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Unable to align correctly and create a grid of evenly spaced circle in Illustrator

Forum|Forum|4 years ago
August 25, 2021
6 replies
1210 views

My Align Panel is not working correctly. I'm trying to create a grid of evenly spaced circles. It's not related to the Align to Artboard or Align to Selection settings - I checked that first. I also checked my transformation options after reading some of the forum posts. However, those boxes were already uncheck. Whenever I apply an alignment, the end result is something like this:

I've used the align panel before and it's worked fine. I even started this grid over from scratch, but every time I apply the alignment this happened.

I'm not sure if it's a hidden setting that causing this or what - any advice/insight would be greatly appreciated!

{Renamed by MOD}

Performance

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Correct answer SJRiegel

To create this grid quickly and easily, I would start with one circle, and use two instances of the Transform Effect to build the grid. Once you have your Grid, use Expand Appearance (and upgrouping a couple of times) to allow deletion of individual circles.

S

SJRiegelCorrect answer

Legend

To create this grid quickly and easily, I would start with one circle, and use two instances of the Transform Effect to build the grid. Once you have your Grid, use Expand Appearance (and upgrouping a couple of times) to allow deletion of individual circles.

Anna Lander

Inspiring

as far as I could see, the goal is to greater a straight grid, not sheared (see the lonely circle at the top-right corner :-)).

but your idea is great. Could you create a small tutorial for beginners from your post?

S

SJRiegel

Legend

Anna

For a straight grid, the process would be the same as shown in my screen shots. The only change would be to leave the Vertical Move field at 0.

Start with a circle of a known diameter. go to Effect > Distort and Transform > Transform

That will bring up the pallet shown in my post above. Set the value of your vertical move to match the diameter of your circle.

Then go to the same menu item again, choosing Apply New Effect in the Warning box. This time, add a vertical move value that is equal to your circle diameter.

When you have the grid, Selected Expand Appeance in the Object menu, then ungroup twice to separate the circles so they can be selectively edited or removed.

Anshul_Saini

Community Manager

Hi there,

Sorry to hear about the trouble you are facing. In addition to the suggestion shared by @Mohammad.Harb @Ton Frederiks @Anna Lander, I would suggest you update Illustrator to the latest version (25.4.1) if it is not and let us know how it goes. If, after updating the app, you are still facing this issue, then I would request you to share a few more details like:

Operating System
Is the issue related to a specific document? If yes, could you please share the document with us? You can upload it to the Creative Cloud (https://helpx.adobe.com/in/creative-cloud/help/share.html) and share the download link.
Where are you saving the files (Network Drive/ System HDD/ Shared Folder on System/ External HDD)?
Did this ever happen before?
Does resetting Illustrator Preferences (https://helpx.adobe.com/in/illustrator/using/setting-preferences.html) help to resolve the issue?
Disclaimer: Please note that resetting preferences will remove all the custom settings, and Illustrator will launch with default settings. You can also take a backup of the folders in case you want to. Location is mentioned in the article.

I will be looking forward to hearing from you.

Thanks & Regards,

Anshul Saini

Anna Lander

Inspiring

When you try to distribute all the circles without grouping, the program considers their positions on all three axes ("Z" in this case is a Forward-Backward direction). So distribution becomes much more complex than you can expect. I would suggest one of 2 ways:
1) create the basic grid (use Ctrl/Cmd+D keys, and then remove unneeded items)

2) align/distribute each line/column, group each one, and then align the groups.

M

Meg CookAuthor

Known Participant

Hi Anna,

That was exactly the issue! When I was first creating the grid I built it out with rows of circles, and the align panel was working fine. At some point I ungrouped the circles which was creating the problems.

Once I put the circles back into groups of rows, the align panel worked as expected. Simple solution and silly oversight on my part!

Thank you! 🙂

Anna Lander

Inspiring

Actually, you can remove the unneeded items without ungrouping the rows. Just use the Group Selection tool (white arrow with "+" sign). It selects the objects in the groups and allows them to move/edit/remove.

Anna Lander

Inspiring

Tell please,
1) did you try to distribute the elements in each column, group them and then align columns (e.g. by bottom)?

2) what do those additional items in the central part do (I mean, the circles which are not in the grid in the left and right columns)?

Mohammad.Harb

Community Expert

Use distribute spacing which is located in the third row of align panel , not vertical distribute center.

You can aslo click on an a key object, specify the space then click on distribute vertical .

M

Meg CookAuthor

Known Participant

Hello, I tried your suggestions. Unfortunately this is the result when using distribute spacing:

It's producing identical results.

Align to Key Object is creating a single row of circles regardless of which object I choose as the key object and regardless of the alignment method selected.