Align: Using the Align command

Align: Using the Align command

In this short tutorial, we will look at a step-by-step example of the use of the Align command.

You can initiate the Align command from either the Tools drop down menu…

or the Tools toolbar…

The Align command is used to align elements with each other. The elements can be from the same family or from different families. You can only align elements in either a Plan or Elevation view.

Before we actually do some aligning, let’s agree on some basic terminology. The Reference Item is the thing that you are going to align “to”. The selected items are the items that will be aligned to the Reference Item. The Reference Item does not move during the process, only the Selected Items.

Let’s make a start:

First of all let’s align two walls in a plan view. So draw two separate sections of walls. Don’t worry about the specific wall types- it’s not important. Just make sure you have a plan view that looks something like this:-

Now let’s say that we want to align them horizontally- ie so that they are one above the other in our view.

Hit the Align command on the Tools toolbar…

You will notice that the Options Toolbar has changed to reflect that you have now invoked the Align process:-

In our case we don’t need to turn on Multiple Alignment because we only have one wall that we are going to align. The drop down selector lets us choose how we want the Reference Item and the Selected Item to relate to each other. We will just leave it set to Wall Faces. So let’s select the Reference Item, in this case we’ll use the top wall. Before you click on it, just carefully hover over the entire thickness of the top wall and notice how different planes of reference are highlighted- the external face, the centreline and the internal face. Let’s click on the left hand face:-

You see that a reference line now appears on the Reference Item. All you have to do now is hover of the other wall and click on the reference plane that you wish to be aligned with the one currently highlighted. Again, as you hover you notice that you have a choice of either face or the centreline. Let’s choose the centreline…

And there we go. We have aligned the centre line of one wall with the left hand face of another. You will notice that upon alignment that a small open padlock appears. If you wish for these two elements to maintain the relationship (ie the alignment) that we have just undertaken then go ahead and click on the padlock. The symbol will change to a locked padlock and moving either wall will cause the other to follow it accordingly.

OK. That was fairly simple. Let’s look at a different example.

Delete the two walls that you created for the first tutorial and reproduce the following in your view…

So we have a horizontal line, a column below it and a wall (at approximately 30 degrees) above it. Let’s align the both the column and the wall to the line. The column is fairly straightforward.

• Select the Align command from the Tools Toolbar.

• Select the horizontal line to make it the Reference Item.

• Select the “bottom” flange of the column as the selected Item.

The column should move vertically to align with the line…

Again the padlock symbol gives you the option to lock this relationship if you so wish.

Now we come to the wall. This time we have two choices. We can either select one of the two long edges of the wall or one of the two shorter (end) edges of the wall. Which one we select (either a long edge or a short one) will effect how the wall is aligned. Basically (as you may imagine) whichever reference plane you pick on the wall will be rotated (as well as shifted vertically) to align with our Reference Item.

So if we choose the short end of the wall..

It will align to the wall like so….

Whereas, if we choose the top long edge…

It will align like so…

So as has been shown, the Align command is useful for not only horizontal and vertical alignments, but also it rotating items to a common angle.

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