UI Builder alignment functions

[Kosmos]

The alignment functions buttons are always disabled for me. I've never ever seen them be available to use. Anyone have this problem, is it just a setting that I'm missing?

[Laffs]

Hold down the "shift" key and select objects useing the mouse, then you will see them enable... The last object selected is the one that evrything else will size/align to

[Kosmos]

Originally Posted by Laffs

Hold down the "shift" key and select objects useing the mouse, then you will see them enable... The last object selected is the one that evrything else will size/align to

I do that all the time, but the buttons are always'grey'
Guess I'm doing it wrong, I'll have to experiment with that again.

[Laffs]

I usualy select things from within the left hand pane, But far as I know it dont matter what pane you use lol..

As of lastnight the window options panel was bugged in game, part of the window frame was fading and the rest was not, the scollbar was visible all the time... I thought it was an alignment issue with my custom windows but I loaded the default UI up and managed to break the windows on there the same way!

So if your playing with windows in the builder and they dont apear properly in game bear that in mind

[Anakreon]

What about the centering icons, same process to enable them as well?

[ger]

Originally Posted by Anakreon

What about the centering icons, same process to enable them as well?

Yes, and the same for the height/width equalization and vertical/horizontal distribution functions.

[Azoz]

Do you have the newest UIbuilder version (released in last or next to last patch) I had the same problem until I started using the new version.

[Kosmos]

Aye, it was User ERROR~!

The Buttons didn't change thier visual appearance enough for me to realize they were enabled.

[Laffs]

Perhaps all that bright ginger hair on you toon has made your eyes go funny lmao j/k

[Anakreon]

I figured I could throw this into here as it deals with these and creating another thread seemed pointless.
How come when I use the "Distribute evenly" buttons it will distribute the icons horizontaly much farther out than my window actually expands, and then when i ask it to do it vertically it makes a sweet diagonal line of them... Hopefully somebody else has experienced something similar and knows the absolute awesome reasoning behind it.

[Kosmos]

Originally Posted by Anakreon

I figured I could throw this into here as it deals with these and creating another thread seemed pointless.
How come when I use the "Distribute evenly" buttons it will distribute the icons horizontaly much farther out than my window actually expands, and then when i ask it to do it vertically it makes a sweet diagonal line of them... Hopefully somebody else has experienced something similar and knows the absolute awesome reasoning behind it.

I've not used them much, but it's probably going to wind up being the setting for the parent window, or some other property that is causing them to do that.

[Anakreon]

The parent window would be groupmembers, and the window within that i'm trying to distribute values throughout is the same width as the group window... so that doesn't really make too awful much sense. Plus the diagonal thing is just wacky.

[ger]

Originally Posted by Anakreon

The parent window would be groupmembers, and the window within that i'm trying to distribute values throughout is the same width as the group window... so that doesn't really make too awful much sense. Plus the diagonal thing is just wacky.

The diagonal makes sense. All distribute does is tell UIBuilder to make the space between the selected objects the same, but to retain the left and right/top and bottom points as closely as possible (you'll lose a couple pixels if the total space to be distributed isn't divisible by the number of elements.)

So, say I have 5 elements A-E each 10x10. A is at 0,0 E is at 100,100. I tell UIBuilder to space them evenly horizontally, and it does. I now have 5 elements with exactly 10 pixels between them horizontally.

Next I tell UIBuilder to distribute them vertically. Again it equalizes the space between each element. So I now have 5 elements with 10 pixels between them vertically as well as horizontally.

Since UIBuilder is keeping the top/left and bottom/right points the same, that spacing ends up forcing the items into a diagonal slope. Usually you'll only want to distribute elements along one axis, along the other you'll want to use align-to-top/bottom/right/left/center. (Unless, I suppose, you're trying to make a grid, in which case I could see using distribute to get the top row and the left row spaced right, then use align-to-left/top to get the other rows to fall into place.)

[Anakreon]

Thanks a ton Ger. That was extremely enlightening... just one more question(I hope):
So you're saying that it will distribute them evenly to the best of its abilities between the first and the last one that I selected? So I would have to put point A at the far left of the window, and then point E at the far right, then align horizontally to achieve the desired effect? Also, will this still work if the items have different sizes?

[ger]

Originally Posted by Anakreon

Thanks a ton Ger. That was extremely enlightening... just one more question(I hope):
So you're saying that it will distribute them evenly to the best of its abilities between the first and the last one that I selected? So I would have to put point A at the far left of the window, and then point E at the far right, then align horizontally to achieve the desired effect? Also, will this still work if the items have different sizes?

I haven't tested it by selecting items out of order, so I'm not sure about that. As far as spacing elements of different sizes goes, it should work, but again, I've never tried it.

[Zonx]

Objects are positioned left to right and top to bottom in the order selected. If, for instance, you select the following objects

A B C D

in revers alpha order and hit distribute horizontal, it will revers their order during the alignment, resulting in:

D C B A

Selection order can be altered by re-clicking an already selected item. For example if you select the following:

A B C D B

and hit distribute horizontal, you get

A C D B
By re-clicking "B", you moved it forward in the selection order, telling distribute to place it last.

Same deal for vertical distribution, with earliest object selected moved to the top, last selected moved to bottom.

Edit: UIBuilder's ditribute is based off neighboring edges. Objects of differing sizes will have the space between them equalized. The space between their center points will vary depending on their sizes.

There doesn't appear to be any way to get centerpoint distribution.

[Kosmos]

Originally Posted by Zonx

Objects are positioned left to right and top to bottom in the order selected. If, for instance, you select the following objects

A B C D

in revers alpha order and hit distribute horizontal, it will revers their order during the alignment, resulting in:

D C B A

Selection order can be altered by re-clicking an already selected item. For example if you select the following:

A B C D B

and hit distribute horizontal, you get

A C D B
By re-clicking "B", you moved it forward in the selection order, telling distribute to place it last.

Same deal for vertical distribution, with earliest object selected moved to the top, last selected moved to bottom.

Edit: UIBuilder's ditribute is based off neighboring edges. Objects of differing sizes will have the space between them equalized. The space between their center points will vary depending on their sizes.

There doesn't appear to be any way to get centerpoint distribution.

Zonx that is exellent, can you post that in the 'things I wish I had know earlier' post for the UI Buidler? So it can be put in the FAQs