# Object Smart Path

Object Smart Path lets you position drawing objects visually, rather than by entering numbers in the Animation dialog box. This means that you can specify an object's position by dragging it into place rather than trying to determine what the position is in pixels.

Because the Animation dialog box floats on the screen like the toolbox and color palettes, it can remain visible on the screen while you draw or edit objects in the graphic display. Object Smart Path takes advantage of this as described in the following example.

## To define the range of horizontal motion for an object using Object Smart Path

1. With the Animation dialog box open, select the drawing object, then click the Horizontal Position tab.
2. On the Horizontal Position tab, type a tag name or create an expression that returns a value that will determine the object's current horizontal position in the display.
3. Select and drag the object to the position you want it to start from in the graphic display.
4. Click the At Minimum check box under Horizontal Offset in the Animation dialog box.
5. Drag the object to its end position. As you do this, you can see the numbers change in the At Maximum box.
6. Click the At Maximum check box when the object is in the end position, then click the Apply button.

   Tip: | To attach rotation animation, you can use the Rotate tool to determine the start and finish positions for an object, clicking the Minimum and Maximum check boxes as described above for horizontal position.

## See also

Attach animation to graphic objects

Drawing objects

Set up horizontal motion for objects