Custom Anchors give you greater control over the placement of objects in your Workspace than is offered by Origin’s standard nine-point anchor system.
This support article applies to the latest operating system for Origin: Inverness. If your tool isn’t on Inverness, learn how to update its operating system here
Origin’s standard anchor system provides you with nine points which are distributed evenly across the bounding box of your object. Learn more about Origin’s standard anchor system here.
Custom Anchors are ideal in situations where the standard anchor points do not allow you to place your object exactly where you need it in your workspace.
How to add a Custom Anchor to your designs
You can add Custom Anchors to your designs with any vector design software. To add a custom anchor, create a right-angled triangle that's a closed shape and contains a red fill with no stroke. The right angle vertex defines the location of the anchor point. The shorter leg of the right angle defines the X-axis and the longer leg defines the Y-axis.
You'll also find a drag-and-drop SVG for a custom anchor at the bottom of this page.
If your Workspace contains a Grid, then your Custom Anchor’s axes will be aligned to the Grid’s axes.
If your Workspace does not contain a Grid (or if your Grid is hidden), then your Custom Anchor’s axes will be aligned to Origin’s screen. The X axis will be the screen’s horizontal and the Y axis will be the screen’s vertical.
Note that you can only use a single Custom Anchor for an object at any one time. If you would like to move your Custom Anchor, you can return to your design software, place the anchor in a new location, and then re-import your object into your Workspace.
Importing an object with a Custom Anchor
When you import an object which includes a Custom Anchor, Origin will default to that anchor when you are placing or copying the object. The anchor button will show an icon with a red triangle to indicate that the custom anchor is selected.
If you wish to change to a standard anchor point, just click the anchor button and select a new anchor point in the Anchor Selector box. If an object contains a Custom Anchor but it is not the active anchor, you can tap the USE CUSTOM ANCHOR button to return to the Custom Anchor.