Adjust alignment, rotation, and position

This article will introduce how to adjust layers' alignment, coordinates, size, and rotation angle. You can set these parameters by selecting any layer. These properties can be found in the design panel on the right sidebar. You can directly adjust some properties on the canvas.

Alignment

The alignment feature can adjust the position of a layer relative to other layers. Motiff determines the alignment method based on the selected layer.

• Select a single layer: When selecting a layer with a parent layer, the selected layer will align relative to the parent layer. This logic applies to groups, frames, or the containing frames of a component.

• Select multiple layers: When selecting multiple layers at the same level, the selected layers will align with each other.

Use the alignment options in the right sidebar to achieve alignment relative to the parent layer or among multiple layers, from left to right:

• Align left
• Align horizontal centers
• Align right
• Align top
• Align vertical centers
• Align bottom

You can also use shortcuts for alignment:

Alignment settings

Using snap to settings can help align elements on the canvas during layer resizing. When snap to settings are enabled, a red reference line will appear as a visual indicator when moving layers or vector anchors.

Snap to pixel grid: Align layers with their bottom grid to avoid pixel misalignment errors when exporting layers. The pixel grid does not need to be visible. It will be put into effect once enabled.

You can enable or disable snap to settings in Motiff's toolbar under Main menu - Preferences or zoom/view options on the right.

Distribution

Distribution operations require selecting multiple layers simultaneously to take effect. Choosing a distribution option will evenly space the selected layers. Currently, two distribution methods are supported:

• Distribute horizontal spacing: On the horizontal axis, the positions of the outer left and outer right layers remain unchanged.
• Distribute vertical spacing: On the vertical axis, the positions of the top and bottom layers remain unchanged.

Position

You can adjust the position of layers on the canvas along the horizontal (X-axis) and vertical (Y-axis) directions. In Motiff, the X and Y coordinates represent the position of the layer on the canvas, referring to the coordinates of the top-left corner of the layer.

1. 1.Open the design panel on the right sidebar.
2. 2.You can modify the positions in two ways:
   1. a.Adjust the coordinates in the X and Y fields.
   2. b.Use basic math equations ( + / ^ () ) to quickly adjust the values of X and Y coordinates. You can add a formula before or after the current value or replace it with a new formula entirely.

Use arrows to nudge layers

Motiff supports fine-tuning the X and Y coordinates of layers using arrow keys, with two default adjustment amounts: small and large. By default, small adjustments are set to 1, and large adjustments are set to 10.

After selecting a layer, you can directly adjust the coordinate values of the layer on the canvas using the arrow keys. The arrow keys will use the current small nudge settings you set, and pressing Shift will use the large nudge settings.

• ← Left
• ↓ Down
• ↑ Up
• → Right

Dimensions

Adjust dimensions

Each layer on the canvas has its own size, which can be viewed in the following ways:

1. 1.Select the layer on the canvas or in the layer panel.
2. 2.There are two ways to view the size:
   1. a.View the size parameters in the blue label below the layer's bounding box.
   2. b.View the W and H fields in the design panel.

There are three ways to adjust the dimension of a layer:

• Adjust the width of the layer: Hover the cursor over the left or right boundary of the layer until the resize cursor appears, then click and drag to resize.
• Adjust the height of the layer: Hover the cursor over the top or bottom boundary of the layer until the resize cursor appears, then click and drag to resize.
• Adjust both width and height: Hover the cursor near any corner of the layer's bounding box until the resize cursor appears, then click and drag to resize.
• Directly adjust the values of W and H in the right sidebar.

Constrain proportions

Enabling constrain proportions allows you to maintain the current ratio of a layer's width and height. You can find the lock aspect ratio setting in the right sidebar next to the W and H fields.

When constrain proportions is enabled, Motiff will preserve the original width-to-height ratio when resizing a layer in the sidebar. If you adjust one of the W or H field values, the other will adjust proportionally.

Rotation

When rotating a single layer (such as a frame or group), the horizontal or vertical center of the selected layer is used as the rotation center point.

Layers added to the canvas have a default rotation angle of 0° , and you can rotate the selected layer 180° in each direction.

• When the rotation angle is positive, it rotates clockwise towards 180° .
• When the rotation angle is negative, it rotates counterclockwise towards 180° .

When the rotation angle reaches 180° in either direction, Motiff will start recalculating from 0° in that direction. For example, a layer at 180° rotated clockwise by 15° will result in a layer with a rotation angle of -165° .

Design panel

Find the rotation angle field in the design panel on the right sidebar and follow these steps to adjust:

1. 1.Select the layer to rotate.
2. 2.Enter the target rotation angle value in the field.

Canvas

1. 1.Hover the cursor near any corner of the layer's bounding box until the rotation cursor appears.
2. 2.Click and drag the cursor to rotate:
   • Drag clockwise to adjust towards 180° for positive angles.
   • Drag counterclockwise to adjust towards 180° for negative angles.
3. 3.Press Shift to snap rotation values to increments of 15 .

Flip layers

You can use horizontal and vertical flip on selected layers. You can use the right-click menu to select the corresponding flip option or use shortcuts:

• Flip horizontal: Shift + H
• Flip vertical: Shift + V

Change layer order

Each shape, text, or image added to the canvas has its own layer. This allows you to adjust each layer individually when creating complex design content.

Layer z-axis order

You can adjust the position of the currently selected layer along any of the following three dimensions or axes: horizontal (X-axis), vertical (Y-axis), and depth (Z-axis). Unlike the X and Y axes, which can be adjusted directly in the design panel's corresponding fields, if you want to adjust the depth (Z-axis) or layer order on the canvas, you can directly adjust the order of layers in the Layer panel.

You can move layers to the front or back of the canvas, or move layers out of groups or frames.

The Layer panel on the left sidebar will display all layers on the current page and reflect the hierarchical order of the current layers: the top layer is at the front, and the bottom layer is at the back.

Motiff supports adjusting layer order through the Layer panel, keyboard shortcuts, and right-click menu:

Adjust layer order in the layer panel

You can directly adjust the order by changing the position of layers in the layer panel:

1. 1.

   Open the layer panel on the left sidebar.

2. 2.

   Click and drag the layer to change its position in the layer hierarchy, corresponding as follows:

   • Move the layer up to bring it forward.
   • Move the layer down to send the layer back.
3. 3.

   Release the cursor to complete the adjustment.

Adjust layer order with keyboard shortcuts

Motiff supports adjusting layer order using the following shortcuts:

Adjust layer order with right-click menu

You can adjust layer order by right-clicking on the selected layer and choosing the bring to front or send to back options from the right-click menu.

Adjust numerical values

Equations

The X, Y, W, H, and rotation angle fields in Motiff's design panel support math equations. You can directly use + - * / to resize layers. For more complex equations, you can use parentheses () or ^ for exponentiation in the fields.

Here are some examples, and you can input any numerical value during actual use:

• +10 : Add 10 to the current value
• 15 : Subtract 20 from the current value
• 3 : Multiply the current value by 3
• /2 : Divide the current value by 2
• ^3 : Create a cube of the current value
• (x/2)+4 : Divide the current value by 2 and then add 4 (x represents the current value)
• Multiple values +100 : Add 100 to each selected layer with different current values

Equations also apply to multi-selected layers. Enter mathematical equations in the X, Y, W, H, and rotation angle fields to change the parameter values of all selected layers.

Scrub fields

In addition to entering values as introduced above, you can also adjust by dragging near the field input area in the design panel. The steps are as follows:

1. 1.Select the target layer.
2. 2.Hover the cursor over the input area of the corresponding field until the adjustment cursor appears. You can also hover the mouse inside the input box and hold the modifier key ⌥ Option / Alt to adjust.
3. 3.Click the icon and drag to adjust the value size. Drag the cursor to the left to decrease the value, and drag to the right to increase the value.