Group by Proximity in Adobe Illustrator
3 minute readIf you spend a lot of time in Adobe Illustrator, small inefficiencies quickly add up. QuickOps is a simple panel that gives you powerful one-click tools, including Group By Proximity, which can organize artwork in seconds. It’s part of the SubScribe plugin, and you can try Astute Graphics for free for 7 days.
How to Use Group By Proximity
Select the artwork you want to organise
Open QuickOps (Window > Astute Graphics > QuickOps)
Click the Group By Proximity... button
Adjust the Tolerance value to control grouping distance
Use positive values to group nearby objects
Use negative values to only group overlapping objects
Enable Only Group Art With Same Style if you want to keep styles separated
Turn on Preview to see groups before applying
Adjust preview colour, opacity, and whether it is filled or stroked
Apply the grouping once you are happy with the result
Tips
Configure your QuickOps panel to your liking:
Open the panel flyout menu and click Configure Panel...
Enable, disable, or reorder operations so Distribute to Grid is visible and positioned where you want it for faster access
Objects are measured using tight bounding boxes, so some items may group even if they do not visually touch
Selecting part of an existing group will create nested groups
Selecting part of a compound path treats it as fully selected
Most of the QuickOps may be recorded and played back as actions
This tool is ideal for cleaning up messy files and speeding up repetitive grouping tasks.
You can find the full documentation over on the docs website: https://docs.astutegraphics.com/subscribe/quickops/quickops-panel/group-by-proximity
Or find out more about the QuickOps Panel over on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVuiTl_w4-zAxXvE3IcjjvWa7vTmSjSEF
