Reversing order of objects
Sometimes it's useful to change order of selected objects, making bottom-most go topmost and vice versa.
I understand possible complications — what would AI do when selected objects have other unselected objects between them (meaning order)?
For example, I have these objects in Layers:
A
1
B
C
2
3
I select 1,2,3 and do proposed 'Reverse order' command.
I expect order to become this:
A
3
B
C
2
1
I see two fitting places for this command: Layers palette menu or Object > Arrange
It's scriptable, but I would like to have it by default.
AdminEgor Chistyakov
(Admin, Adobe Illustrator)
shared this idea
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Meanwhile Rick Johnson developed a free plugin to mitigate this and allow user to flip the order of objects, respecting groups and layers: https://rj-graffix.com/reverse-stacking-order-added-to-toolshed-free/
Here is how this menu looks in the app.Another, somewhat similar functionality, can be found in the paid Art Switcher panel, by Astute Graphics, the part of their plugin pack: https://astutegraphics.com/learn/tutorial/introducing-art-switcher-ag-layer-comps
..but it does a different thing, cycling the order, one item per step or randomly — but not in reverse. -
Margaret Trauth
commented
or maybe "reverse order" in the layers panel's menu should work on objects I've selected in the preview, instead of requiring me to open up the layer, find them in there, and select them again? ah, illustrator.
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Margaret Trauth
commented
Here's a horrible kludge that I currently do.
1. Save.
2. object>blend>make
3. object>blend>reverse front to back
4. object>blend>releaseSaving is not mandatory but strongly suggested, especially if you are reversing some paths with complex appearances - Blend might decide to make a ton more paths and bring Illustrator to its knees, and it's nice to be able to force quit Illustrator in that case and do it manually. This all fits into an action, and is definitely worth taking up of my precious f-key slots.
I sure would love to just do object>arrange>reverse stacking order though. This request just got my vote. :)
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Yes, I found there's already a way to do exactly this in Layets palette menu (I have no idea how I missed it), but it requires me to select objects in Layers again. And AI has no automated way to do it.
