How to align path center to anchor point accurately

[John Cuevas]

Shape layers aren’t actually just the size of the shape, like if you made a new solid and it was 80×120 the anchor point would be at the center of that solid. Shape layers are the size of the entire comp size. So the anchor point isn’t for the actual shape, but the full layer size. Imagine you created a full solid, and could place your shape on it somewhere, the anchor point for the full solid is your anchor point. So when you centered that shape, you were moving the full shape layer and it’s anchor point isn’t at the center of your comp. It’s rotating at the 0,0 anchor point, it’s just that the anchor point is at 690.5, 462. You can fix this by rotating from within the shape layers transformations.

Also, you can go into your edit/preferences/general and check “Center Anchor Point in New Shape Layers”. Then it won’t matter where you create the shape layer, the anchor point for the full layer size shape layer will be in the center of the shape you created.

[jess Mah]

Thanks for your reply, I tried your suggestion to turn center anchor on then off – seems like it didnt make any difference – am I missing something?

Off

https://youtu.be/cGymCRz5Xks

On

https://youtu.be/YF1vjA-n9LY

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[John Cuevas]

I’m getting the same result you do when I create lines and I’m not exactly sure why. If I create shapes using the shape tools, the anchor point is centered exactly as it should be, in the center of the shape(when the checked in the preferences). For lines, if you use the Transform tool for the layer, it rotates properly from the anchor point, but not if you rotate like you were within the shape contents transform. If you create a shape like a circle, square, you can use the Shape contents transform or the layer transform.

The issue seems to be related to parametric shapes vs path shapes(created with pen tool).

[jess Mah]

Thanks for your reply anyhow – really appreciate it. I think it might be a bug.

[Theresa de Souza]

If I’m understanding your question correctly … try Ctrl+Alt+Home. The center point should pop to the center of your line/shape.

[jess Mah]

the usual snap-anchor- point-in-place command don’t seem to work when more than one shape nested under the same shape layer

[Nir Vanaskitz]

Hi Jess, when multiple shapes are nested in the same layer, the Snap Anchor Point in Place might not work as expected. Instead, try selecting each shape’s individual Transform properties and manually align their paths to the layer’s anchor point. This should help center them accurately.

— Nir-Vana