How do you select many objects (groups) and align (one face) of them all to a draw line ?
Unless someone knows of an extension that does this, I don’t think you can. For starters, when you select the groups to align, how would SU know which line or face within it was to be aligned?
This is a bit like another problem that often comes up. In SU you need to create containers all the time to overcome the inherent “stickiness” of raw geometry. When you come to move something that, in the real world, would be connected to something else, you often have to move things individually (sometimes by going inside a container to do so). It’s the price you pay for all the other good things about SU!
Could you explain that more fully?
@FarFarAway, There is a plugin that would work for dropping groups to a surface but that would align the bottoms and I suspect you’re referring to moving things horizontally.
The best thing would be to place the groups (or components) so they are aligned in the first place. If you can do that you’ll have to move them, perhaps one at a time. There are some strategies that can make that easier such as moving more than one at a time and adding or removing groups from the selection for subsequent move steps.
Another option could be used if you use components and set the component origins so they can easily be placed on the line.
If it is something like the studs from your other thread, maybe it is easier to delete the misaligned ones and start over making a linear array with the Move tool.
Best example I can think of is a video I watched where the poster had hatching as a separate component. So if he moved a wall, the hatching did not move with it. I realise there are other ways of doing this but the poster was a serious architectural draftsman (might even have been Brightman himself) so he had a good reason for doing it his way. Anyway, this is just an example amongst many.
Hmmm… I think i see. I guess if I had to move several groups or components the same distance and direction, I would select all of them before starting the move. Or, if I was using a component as a hatch, I’d make a nested component of the hatch and the component it was supposed to be attached to. Different workflows for different workers, though.
Dave, it doesn’t always work as cleanly as that. Say you have internal walls in a container and the hatch in another. You go into the wall container to shift a wall that is connected to another at right angles. With SU, the glory of the stickiness is that moving one section of the wall will automatically shorten/lengthen/distort those connected to it. But you would have to come out of that container and go into the hatch container to make related changes there.
Similarly, if you have 2D symbols for things like door swings in a separate container, they won’t move with any changes to openings.
As you (kind of) say: different folks, different strokes!
Yes. I understand there are times when you have to use a different approach.
Yes. That’s what I was getting at.