Hi,

I'm using Illustrator CS for WinXP, but any version of Illustrator 7
or higher should be similar.

I want to know step-by-step how to align objects to a curved path.
Sounds like it should be easy? I know how to align text to a path, I
know how to align objects using the Align and Distribute tools. I also
know how to use blends and align blended objects to "spines". (I also
know how to snap to grid, snap to point, snap to guide.)

I have 4 (or more, or maybe less) objects, represented by N below that
I want to align on an
open curve represented by the dots (...)

            .     .....
             .   .     .        .
              ...       .      .
                         ......

           N    N    N  N

                  s.t., the result looks like:

           N.     ...N.
             .   .     .        .
              ..N       .      .
                        N......


Intuitively I would select the N's with the select tool, then select
the curve and do something like "Objects --> Align to path". No such
option exists in Illustrator that I know of.

Please provide step by step instructions on how to achieve this
effect. Ideally, it will be generic enough to handle similar scenarios
for different shaped objects, closed curves, compound paths, etc.

Thanks!

-- Font9a

---

Clarification of Question by font9a-ga on 17 Dec 2003 21:35 PST

Eadfrith,

That was truly an inventive suggestion. Thank you. It certainly meets
the generic and scalable parameters of my original question.

I would like to clarify that I used N in my example above, but really
I want N to be N, M, O, P, whatever... the shapes generally won't be
homogenous. It could be a star, rectangle, ellipse, triangle.

Can you think of a way to align different objects? 


Thanks!

-- Font9a

I'm using Illutrator 9, on Win2K, so I don't know if this will work in version 7. 

Here are the steps I followed:

1. Select a single instance of the shape you wish to distribute along
the path (shape N in your example).

2. If it isn't already visible, show the brushes palette, either via
the window menu or F5.

3. Click on the "New Brush" icon at the bottom of the brushes palette
(on the left, next to the bin). Or, drag and drop the N shape onto the
brushes palette.

4. In the New Brush dialog select "New Scatter Brush" and click OK.

5. Select the path you wish to distribute the shapes along, and set
the stroke to be the new brush you've created.

6. Initially the N shapes will probably be too closely packed along
the path. You can edit this by double clicking on the new brush
pattern and modifying the spacing value to something higher than 100%.
If you check the preview box you'll see the results of the changes as
you make them. You could play around with some of the other properties
too (size, scatter & rotation) just to see how it looks.

7. If you wish to convert the shapes used in the brush stroke into
standalone shapes you can highlight the path and select "Expand
Appearance" from the Object menu. Ungroup the resulting shape and you
can manipulate the individual N shapes separately.

Hope this helps.

Cheers,

Eadfrith

I can't think of a way of automatically distributing multiple shapes
along a path. At least not without writing a plug-in, which would be a
fun project. One issue would be in what order to display each of the
shapes, should they cycle in order or be random etc.

However, if you're willing to do some manual manipulation you could do
the following:

1. Draw a circle whose size that's just large enought to include the
largest of the shapes you wish to distribute.

2. Set the circle to have a simple thin stroke and no fill.

3. Create a scatter brush out of the circle and distribute it along
the path by setting the spacing parameter. (These are the same steps
as in my previous answer except you're now using a simple circle as a
placeholder shape).

4. If they aren't already on, switch on smart guides in the View menu
(I hope you have these in Illustrator 7).

5. With the Alt key down, click on one of the shapes you wish to
distribute, eg. N, and drag it to the first circle on the path. The
smart guide will cause it to be snapped to the path, and you just need
to make sure that it's centred within the circle.

6. Repeat step 5 with the various shapes you wish to distribute.
You'll have to decide the order and whether it's regular or random.

7. Finally, switch off the scatter brush by clicking the leftmost icon
at the bottom of the brush palette (you'll see a tooltip with "Remove
Brush Stroke").

You should now see your shapes evenly distributed along the path.

Obviously this process is going to be slow if you want to repeat the
shapes many times, or if you have a very long path.

Here's another approach you could try that is slightly less manual but
which will get pretty complicated if you have lots of shapes.

1. Create scatter brushes out of each of your shapes.

2. Create one copy of your path for each shape and have them overlap
one another. You can use Paste in Front, Ctrl-F, to do this.

3. Here's the tricky part. You have to edit each of these paths by
cutting off a leading section, so that they all start at a position
that's somewhat offset along the path. You can use the Scissors Tool
to do the cutting, but you'll have to use your judgement as to where
to cut!

4. Now, select each path and apply one of the shaped scatter brushes.

5. Edit each scatter stroke so that the spacing is correct.

Since each path starts at a different position you should see the
shapes staggered with respect to one another, which together with the
scatter spacing will create the even distribution you want.

I realise that neither of these solutions is ideal, but without a
custom plug-in I think it's the best we can do.

Cheers,

Eadfrith

Another, maybe simpler way to do what you want to do manually:

Pick a font and a font size with a letter-to-letter spacing equal to
what you want the spacing of your symbols to be.

Using the curved path as an alignment path for the text tool,
repeatedly type a line of letters e.g. XXXXX. This will leave you with
a bunch of Xes along the curved path.

Now convert the text into outlines. You can now drag each of your
symbols to align with a particular point on each X, e.g. the bottom
left point of the X. Repeat for the next symbol with the next X, and
so on.

Now delete all the Xes, and you'll be left with the symbols aligned
along the curved path.

Depending on how many symbols you have, this could be quick or tedious.

If you also want the symbols to rotate to "flow" along the baseline
(like text on a curved path does), you'll have to rotate each symbol
around the alignment point to match the baseline of each X.

I found what I was looking for.

Create an object and make guides:
View --> Guides --> Make Guides
The use the Smart Guides option to align the other objects to the guide's path.

The object can be almost any object except text.

-- Font9a