gEDA-user: The amazing Align/Distribute plugin

[Ben Jackson <ben@xxxxxxx>]

Ok, having "finished" the smartdisperse plugin, I moved on to phase 2 of
my "I'm sick of moving LEDs by hand" master plan.

Introducing Align() and Distribute(), which work much like the similarly
named functions in Visio.  Given that PCB does not have the concept of
"first selected object" to draw on, the reference points can be selected
by arguments.

Both functions always work on all selected elements[*]. Some examples:

:Align(X)
	Objects are moved left/right to align their Marks with
	the Mark of the topmost selected object.  All objects remain
	on or move to the current grid.

:Align(Y,Centers)
	Now objects are aligned up/down to their geometric centers
	rather than their marks.  The reference point is the center
	of the leftmost object.

:Align(Y,Tops,Average,Gridless)
	Feeling bold, you align the tops all selected objects to the
	average of their top edges and let them wander off the grid
	to exactly the average of their tops.

:Align(X,Marks,Crosshair)
	None of the objects are where you want them, so you move the
	crosshair to a likely spot and cause them all to move their X
	coordinates to your new X location.

:Align(X,Marks,Last)
	As above, but instead of the crosshair you just override the
	default "First" to "Last" so the reference object is bottommost
	instead of topmost.

Now you have them in a neat line, but they're all clumped!

:Distribute(Y)
	Objects are spread out evenly from the first (uppermost) to last
	using their marks as the reference point.

:Distribute(X,Lefts,Crosshair,Last)
	You move your crosshair to the left edge of the target area,
	which will be the leftmost edge of the leftmost object.  The
	objects are spread between your crosshair and the original
	location of the Last (rightmost) object.

:Distribute(Y,Gaps)
	You have chosen to select many oddly sized objects, and instead
	of their centers being spread out evenly, you want the space
	(or "gaps") to be even.

You get tricky and bind `Align(X,Marks,Crosshair)' to a key.  Now you
can select an object and hit your key and the object will warp to the
same X coordinate as your cursor.

Source:  http://ad7gd.net/geda/distalign.c

Same compile instructions as before.  Feedback is appreciated!

[*] If it has any flaws, it is that you can't operate non-element objects,
though some melding of autocrop (which knows how to do such things) and
distalign could produce such a capability.

-- 
Ben Jackson AD7GD
<ben@xxxxxxx>
http://www.ben.com/


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