I have to be truthful — I’m not always super-precise as a crafter. I don’t typically find that spending an extra 30 minutes to affect a change of .001% is worth it. If I’m moving my images around on the Design area in the Silhouette Studio software, I normally click and drag because “close enough” usually works. But there are times when I’m selling something or needing things symmetrical or making a project where precision really matters. It’s good to know how to move an image by a set amount or to a very specific place on my page. That’s today’s topic.
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Move with alignment tools
The first way is very quick, but it’s one I’m not sure many folks know. It’s using the alignment tools. Normally, we use these to align 2 or more shapes. But when you have just one shape and use these, it aligns that object relative to the page itself.
You can find the alignment tools in the Quick Access Toolbar (QAT).
Click the arrow at the lower right of the icon to show all your options.
The aligment tools are also in the first tab of the Transform panel.
If you’re working with a text box, then you won’t see the alignment options in the QAT — just in the Transform panel. That’s why it’s good to know both.
HINT: If you’re working with text, you also need to know that the size of the text box is NOT the size of the word or letter. It’s the text box itself that’s aligned. For more about why, see my series on Text Myths.
Here’s how it works. You select your shape and choose something like Align Top. The software moves the top of the bounding box of the shape at the top of the defined page size. Select Align Left and it moves the shape all the way at the left edge of the page.
What if you want to use this option to move a set of shapes? Just group them together temporarily. The software then treats the whole set as a single piece and you can use the same method.
Cut border makes a difference
There’s just one detail you need to know to use this method to move the shape. If you are cutting without the mat, you select None on cutting mat. That changes your cut border, as you can see when I have Show Cut Border checked. The red line on the inside of the mat area is the cut border.
The software takes that into account when it moves the shape. In this picture, I’ve got that cut border showing. When I choose Align Right, notice that the shape moves to where its right edge is along that cut border.
But if I do NOT have Show Cut Border checked and do the same, it moves the right side all the way to the edge of the page.
Center to page
You can move a shape right to the very middle of your page by selecting Align Middle and Align Center. That’s 2 steps. But let’s cut that in half (I’m all about saving time). You can do it in 1 step instead with Center to Page. The Center to Page icon looks like this:
In the QAT, it’s right next to that Align icon. In the Transform panel, it’s the top row in the Align portion (first tab). Just select your shape and then click the icon. The software moves the shape smack dab in the middle of the defined page area. This one isn’t affected by the cut border we talked about in the previous section. And, as before, if you’re working with a text box you’ll only find it in the Transform panel.
Move by a set amount
Move By allows you to move a shape by a set amount. So let’s say you’ve got 2 hearts you’re cutting from HTV. You’ve got them touching like this:
You know you want to have them 2″ apart in your design so you that can put a 1″ flower in between them. You can use Move By to move the right one exactly 2″ to the right, creating the gap you need.
As with the alignment options, for shapes you can do this in both the Quick Access Toolbar and the Transform panel. For text boxes, you’ll need to use the panel. The icon for Move looks like this:
In the QAT, hover over the arrow at the right bottom corner of the icon. That opens your Move By menu. In the Transform panel, Move is the 4th tab and Move By is the top section.
Select your shape. Then set the distance using the arrow keys at the right of the numbers (that goes up in increments of 1/8″ {.125″}) or by typing in your own number and hitting your Enter key on your computer keyboard. Next, select the direction you want to move the shape by clicking on the left, right, up or down arrow.
Here’s my result. You can see by this blue rectangle I drew that the distance between the hearts is now right at 2.”
Here’s another example
Let’s say I want to have 4 of those hearts spaced equally but rotated with the bottom peaks all pointing inward so that it looks kinda like a 4-leaf clover.
I select the heart, use the keyboard shortcut CTRL/CMD+c to copy, and then CTRL/CMD+f 3 times to paste in front. That puts 3 copies right on top of the original shape. Because they’re all stacked up, it just looks like 1. But trust me — there are 4.
I select the one that’s on top and rotate it 90° clockwise.
Now I move it over 2″ and down 2″.
With the next one down, I rotate it counterclockwise. I move it down 2″ again, but this time move it 2″ left instead of right.
For the next to last one in the stack, I rotate it 180° and move it down only, this time by 4″.
I now have 4 hearts equally spaced because I started with them in the same spot and moved them by specific amounts.
Move to a specific location
Your 3rd option is Move To. This allows you to move the shape to a specific location on the page. Don’t let me scare you off, but this one looks a little like high school Geometry. (EEK!). You move your shape to a specific location based on the X and Y axis. Don’t worry if you don’t remember that far back. Moving left or right means changing the X location, moving up and down is changing the Y location. This one is not affected by the cut border you have showing or not showing.
Select your shape and look at the QAT or in the Transform panel.
Notice that the software shows you the current location for both X and Y. X is the position of the shape side to side on the page; Y is the position top to bottom on the page. But there’s something else you need to notice.
There’s a small grid of white boxes and 1 blue box that looks like this.
The blue box tells you what part of the shape is at those X/Y coordinates. Right now, it’s the upper left corner. That means that for my heart, the upper left corner of the bounding box is at 7.407″ from the left edge of the page (along the X axis) and 4.405″ down from the top of the page (along the Y axis).
Now that we can read that, we can learn how to move it to a specific location.
Step 1: Choose which part of the shape
I’m going to base my location on the center of the bottom edge of my heart — so that bottom peak. I click the white box on the middle lower edge of that grid of boxes to select it. Notice it’s now blue.
That means when I set the X and Y coordinates, I want the middle of the bottom side at that location.
Step 2: Set the X and Y coordinates
We’ve told the software what part of the shape to put at a specific location. Now I tell the software what that location is. Let’s say I want it 3″ in from the left of the page and 1″ up from the bottom.
- X is for the side to side location. So I set the X at 3″ and hit Enter on my computer. (I’m doing it in the panel).
- Y is for the spot relative to up and down on the page. So I set the Y at 11″ and hit Enter on my keyboard.
If you’re working in the QAT, after typing in a number the software moves the shape to the new location as you hit Enter on your computer keyboard.
Step 3: Apply (in panel only)
When you use the Transform panel, you do steps 1 and 2 and then click Apply at the bottom of the panel to tell the software to move the shape.
I’ve turned on the grid so you can see more easily that the bottom peak of the heart is now 3″ in from the left side of the page and 11″ down from the top (1″ up from the bottom).
Now you’re an expert at precision movements
LOL! That makes you sound like a watch! But seriously — knowing how to move a shape by a set amount or to a specific spot takes the guesswork out of it, allowing you to be very precise. I use it most often when I’m welding several copies of the same shape and I want to make sure the spacing is just right. What’s a time you might use it?
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