ZTools Tutorial

ZTools control panel

Open the ZTools panel by going to the Illustrator menu at Window > ZTools.

The control panel has several tools that work with a selection. This allows the tools to act on one or many objects at once. As with the cursor tools, the panel controls treat group objects as a single object. Use isolation mode to arrange objects within a group. Except for Send to Layer, these tools do not move objects into or out of a group.

These arrange buttons are at the top of the ZTools panel. Some tools require a selection of two or more objects. The Send to Key tool requires an alignment key to be set in the selection. (After selecting, click one selected object one time and it becomes the key object.) The Send to Layer tool uses the current layer to send the artwork. You can set the current layer in Illustrator’s Layers Panel after selecting the art objects to process.

Reverse

Select two or more objects and click Reverse. The selected objects exchange depth positions. The top object becomes the bottom and the bottom moves to the top. If there are more than two selected, the next top-most object moves to the position just above the bottom and the previous second to bottom-most object moves to second to the top. Any number of objects may be selected and reversed. Reverse does not change the z-order of the selected objects in relation to other objects in the document. If you select objects in different layers, their position will swap across layers. Grouped objects are treated as a single object. Reverse does not remove objects from a group.

Drawing position

You can use the relative position of objects from left to right (x-axis) or top to bottom (y-axis) to set the new z-order position of selected objects.

Left-to-Right option starts ordering the objects starting with the left-most object. The second left-most object moves to the second depth position and so on. There are options for Top-to-bottom , Right-to-left and Bottom-to-top . Once the sequence is determined by the drawing position option, the Drawing Mode option sets whether the new sequence starts on the top or the bottom of the stack up. There are two buttons that determine the direction of the sequence. The draw above  and draw below  buttons set this behavior. All this means is that whatever order the drawing position sets up, it starts in front and moves backward or starts at the back and moves to the front. Grouped objects are treated as a single object. Drwaing position does not remove objects from a group.

Please see the description of drawing mode controls in the Controls tab for more detail.

Send to key

Select two or more objects and set one of them as the key object. Click the Send to Key button to move all selected objects to the z-position of the key object. The key object is not modified.

Use the drawing mode buttons to determine whether the selection is moved above or below the key object. Draw above moves them above the key and draw below moves them below the key. You may select objects from multiple layers and their reletive positions ar maintained. The top-most object is above all the the moved objects and the next highest is moved to the position below the top-most. Send to key does not move objects into or out of groups.

 Send to layer

Select one or more art objects, set the current layer by clicking on a layer or sublayer in the layers panel and then click the send to layer button. The selection is moved to the layer selected. You control whether the selection moves to the top or bottom of the layer by setting the drawing mode to draw above or draw below respectively. Remember that the drawing mode on the ZTools panel changes Illustrator’s drawing mode.

Objects from different layers may be selected and processed. Even objects in the target layer may be moved. Moved objects retain their relative z-orders. If you select an object while in isolation mode, Send to layer will move that object out of the group to the layer specified. Use care when using Send to Layer while in isolation mode.

Ztools panel move buttons

The panel move buttons work much like the cursor tools but they process a selection rather than just one object at a time. You can arrange a lot of artwork at one time with these tools.

 Layer scope move buttons

Up

The Up button does exactly what the Move Forward menu item does. You may select one or many objects to move. Each time you click the Up button the object(s) move up one position in the z-order. If objects from different layers are selected, each moves up in its own layer. When any object encounters the top of its layer it stops moving but those in other layers continue until they reach the top of their layer.

Down

The Down button does exactly what the Move Backward menu item does. You may select one or many objects to move. Each time you click the Down button the object(s) move down one position in the z-order. If objects from different layers are selected, each moves down in its own layer. When any object encounters the bottom of its layer it stops moving but those in other layers may continue until they reach the bottom of their layer.

Top

The Top button does exactly what the Move to Front menu item does. You may select one or many objects to move. They all move to the top of the layer. If you select objects in different layers, they each move to the top of their own layer. Multiple selected items retain their relative z-order after moving with repect to themselves. Objects positions in different layers are only compared to those in their own layer.

Bottom

The Bottom button does exactly what the Move to Back menu item does. You may select one or many objects to move. They all move to the bottom of the layer. If you select objects in different layers, they each move to the bottom of their own layer. Multiple selected items retain their relative z-order after moving with repect to themselves. Objects in different layers are only compared to those in their own layer.

Document scope move buttons

Document scope allows the tools to move objects across layers in order to make arranging your document easier. You do not have to worry about using other tools to relocate art to another layer to move it up or down across layer boundaries. The move tools will cross layers as you choose.

The purpose of these tools is to arrange your artwork to be visually pleasing to you. If there is a layer or sublayer without artwork, these tools skip to the next available art object to move toward. Moving to an empty layer does not change the visual result of your document so these tools do not do that. If you want to move an object into an empty layer, the Send to Layer tool allows you to do that.

Up

The document scope Up button is similar to the Move Forward menu item but it allows you to cross layers to get the arrangement you need. You may select one or many objects to move. Each time you click the Up button the object(s) move up one position in the z-order. If objects from different layers are selected, each moves up in its own layer. When any object encounters the top of its layer it continues moving as long as there is unlocked artwork above its current position.

Down

The document scope Down button is similar to the Move Backward menu item but it allows you to cross layers to get the arrangement you need. You may select one or many objects to move. Each time you click the Down button the object(s) move down one position in the z-order. If objects from different layers are selected, each moves down in its own layer. When any object encounters the bottom of its layer it continues moving as long as there is unlocked artwork below its current position.

Top

The document scope Top button is similar to the Move to Front menu item but all objects move to the top-most available layer. If the top layer is locked, ZTools asks you if you want to unlock that layer to complete the move. You may unlock the layer or cancel the operation.

You may select one or many objects to move. They all move to the top of the document. If you select objects in different layers, they all move to the top of the document. Multiple selected items retain their relative z-order with repect to each other after the move.

Bottom

The document scope Bottom button is similar to the Move to Back menu item but all objects move to the bottom-most available layer. If the bottom layer is locked, ZTools asks you if you want to unlock that layer to complete the move. You may unlock the layer or cancel the operation.

You may select one or many objects to move. They all move to the bottom of the document. If you select objects in different layers, they all move to the bottom of the document. Multiple selected items retain their relative z-order with repect to each other after the move.

Ztools panel group controls

Most of these group tools are placed here as a convenience for when you are focused on arranging your drawing. Most of them perform the same function as the menu items of the same name. One is available only in ZTools.

Group

This button creates a group from your artwork selection. This does exactly what the Illustrator menu item Group does.

Ungroup

This button removes a the top-level group container from your artwork selection. This does exactly what the Illustrator menu item Ungroup does.

Ungroup All

This button removes all group and subgroup containers from your artwork selection. This does exactly what the Illustrator menu item Ungroup All does.

Regroup

This button performs an Ungroup All and then puts a single top-level group around the selected objects. This can be convenient when you want to clesn up a complex subgrouped object but still want to hold the objects together for repositioning or aligning with other artwork. This is only availabe in ZTools.

ZTools panel controls

Scope controls

The scope control buttons set the scope of movement for the panel move buttons. When you set this to Lyer scope, only the layer scope move buttons are shown in the panel. When you select document scope, you can access the document scope move buttons.

Layer scope

Show the layer scope arrange buttons on the ZTools panel.

Document scope

Show the document scope arrange buttons on the ZTools panel.

Drawing mode buttons

The drawing mode buttons on the ZTools panel and Illustrator’s drawing mode buttons in the toolbar are synchronized. If you set the drawing mode on the ZTools panel, they change in the toolbar. Changing them in the toolbar sets them in the ZTools panel.

If you set Illustrator’s drawing mode to “draw inside,” both mode buttons on the ZTools panel areinactive and tools that need an above or below drawing mode setting are grayed out and disabled. Click one of the modes on the ZTools panel or the Draw Normal [above] or Draw Behind [below] on Illustrator’s toolbar to reenable the ZTools buttons.

These buttons control the behavior of some ZTools operations. For example, draw above causes Send to Key to place the selection above the key object when draw below would move the selection below the key. It also affects the movement of the selection in Send to Layer. Draw above puts the selection at the top of the destination layer while draw below puts them at the bottom of the destination layer.

Draw above

The draw above button sets Illustrator’s drawing mode to Draw Normal (in front).

Draw below

The draw below button sets Illustrator’s drawing mode to Draw Behind (in back).