Object Alignment

Aligning objects enables you to customize the diagram window and printed materials according to your needs. You can align annotations, drawing objects, entities, tables, and views. For example, if you group all the entities that you work with in a large rectangle, and other members of your team do the same with their entities, you can align all the rectangles to create a neatly printed diagram.

You can align drawing objects, whether or not the drawing objects are the same shape. Each drawing object is anchored by an invisible rectangle. For example, if you align a circle and a triangle, they are aligned based on the upper-left corner of their invisible rectangle.

In addition to aligning the objects, you may also want to adjust the spacing between the objects.

Or, you may want to layer the objects in order to show more information on the diagram window.

In order to preserve the settings you have specified, you may want to group the objects. However, after you group the objects, you must ungroup them in order to adjust alignment, spacing, or any layers within the group.

Alignment, spacing, group, and layer information are stored at the diagram level.

Note: Other commands in the model can affect your customized settings. For example, if you automatically lay out your entire diagram window using the Layout option on the Diagram menu, all of the display settings for grouping, aligning, layering, or spacing objects will be overwritten.

When you align objects, they are not automatically spaced. For instance, if you select several entities on the same horizontal line and click Align Left, the entities will automatically layer on the diagram window.

More information:

Adjust the Spacing of Objects on the Diagram Window

Layering Drawing Objects

Grouping Objects on the Diagram Window