Quick Position

Plenty of van layouts are built about the middle of the van: a cupboard on each side, a bed across the back, a walkway down the centre. Quick Position does the placements that come up again and again in one click, so you do not have to drag an object to the far wall or work out a figure for the Inspector.

The Quick Position menu

What it is. A button at the right-hand end of the view strip, the bar along the bottom of the 3D view, beside Focus. It opens a small menu of shortcuts.

What it does. Select one or more objects, open the menu and pick a shortcut. The menu stays open, so you can watch the selection land and press another; click anywhere else to close it. The one exception is Align, which closes the menu and asks you for three clicks.

Options and limits. The button is greyed out with nothing selected, and while you are drawing a route or an opening, shaping a sheet, measuring or aligning. Wiring and water runs and openings are not moved by it: they are drawn in place rather than positioned. On a narrow window the shortcuts move into the strip’s More menu. Quick Position is a desktop control; there is no view strip on a phone. It is not available while a tutorial is running, or in a locked design.

What it affects. Each press moves the selection in your design, as one step you can undo.

Mirror in width

What it is. The first shortcut in the menu.

What it does. Moves the selection to the same spot on the other side of the van, as if reflected in a line down the middle of the van. It only moves, and never turns:

a cupboard against the left wall facing across the van ends up against the right wall, still facing the same way - into that wall. Press Turn around to face it back into the van;
a cupboard facing forward still faces forward on the other side;
several objects move together as one piece, just as a group of them would, so nothing slides out of line: a worktop stays exactly on its cupboard. What is reflected is the middle of all of them together, and each keeps its place in the arrangement, so the one on the left of it is still on the left. Press Turn around afterwards to face the whole arrangement back into the van;
a group moves as one piece, and the objects inside it keep their places within the group. What is reflected is the point the group’s move arrows sit at, which is usually its middle but can drift to one side after you move objects inside it.

Pressed twice, it puts the selection back where it was.

Options and limits. Mirror never turns anything, so what it does is the same for every object, wherever it sits. Turning is always its own press.

Only the placement is mirrored, not the object’s shape. For most things - cabinets, boxes, panels - that makes no difference, because they look the same either way round. A handed part does not flip: a door hinged on its left is still hinged on its left, and an L-shaped unit keeps its L the same way round.

What it affects. Each object’s position across the van, and nothing else.

Turn around (180°)

What it is. The second shortcut in the menu.

What it does. Turns the selection half a turn, so it faces the opposite way:

one object turns where it stands, without moving;
several objects turn together as one piece, just as they would if you had grouped them. They turn about the middle of all of them together - the point their move arrows sit at - so their layout turns with them: the one on the left ends up on the right, and the one at the front ends up at the back;
a group turns as one piece about the point its move arrows sit at (usually its middle).

Pressed twice, it puts things back.

Options and limits. Its main use is after Mirror in width, to face a wall-mounted object, or a whole run of them, back into the van. For several objects the two together put each one opposite where it started, across the van, with the run turned end to end: a sink that was at the front of a kitchen ends up at the back. To turn several objects each in its own place, turn them one at a time.

What it affects. Which way the selection faces, and, for several objects, where each one sits.

Centre in width

What it is. The third shortcut in the menu.

What it does. Slides the selection sideways until its middle sits on the line down the middle of the van. It does not move forwards, backwards, up or down. Several objects move together, keeping their layout, and it is the middle of all of them together that is centred.

What it affects. The selection’s position across the van only.

Align

What it is. The fourth row in the menu: a guided way to line the selection up with another object - a worktop with the cupboard under it, a shelf with the top of a cabinet, two units side by side.

What it does. Pressing it closes the menu and asks for three clicks, one at a time. The panel at the bottom of the 3D view says which one is next:

A face, edge or corner of the selected object’s box. Whichever is under the pointer lights up; near a corner you get the corner, near an edge the edge, otherwise the face. Click to choose it.
The object to line up with. Hovering an object draws its box; click it. You get the object itself, even when it is part of a group, so a worktop lines up with one cupboard rather than the whole kitchen run.
A face, edge or corner of that object’s box. While you hover one, an outline shows where the selection would land. Click, and it moves there.

With a group or several objects selected there is one more click first: the object to line up by. Hover the selected objects to see each one’s box, and click one; the three steps above then use that object’s own box, and the whole selection moves with it - the group as one piece, several objects keeping their layout. While you hover the last pick, every selected object is outlined where it would land.

The selection only ever slides, and only as far as the pair you chose needs:

face to face makes the two faces flush, and moves the selection in that one direction only;
edge to edge lines the two edges up, keeping the selection’s place along them. For a worktop on a cupboard, pick the worktop’s bottom front edge and the cupboard’s top front edge: the worktop sits on the cupboard, flush at the front, wherever it was along the run;
corner to corner puts one corner exactly on the other;
the mixed pairs work too: a corner onto a face, an edge into a face.

Options and limits. Align never turns anything, so two faces can only be lined up if they are already parallel: when they are not, the other object’s faces are not offered, and its corners always are. Only what you can see can be picked - orbit the view to reach a face on the far side. Objects you have hidden are not offered, and neither is the van itself (its walls, floor and ceiling).

Both ends are always a single object’s own box, turned with the object - never the box around a whole group, which is squared up with the van rather than with anything in it. An object inside a group moves within it.

What it affects. The selection’s position, as one step you can undo. Choosing a pair that is already lined up changes nothing and adds no undo step. It is a desktop control, like the rest of the menu.

Back

What it is. A button on the Align panel.

What it does. Undoes the last pick and asks for it again. Esc does the same, and from the first step, Esc leaves Align.

Cancel