Polygon won't mirror horizontally

[st3f]

On Pixelmator Pro 1.0.6:
1) Use Draw Shape to create a polygon (I created a pentagon).
2) Rotate it by 10 degrees
3) Press Arrange followed by the Flip the object horizontally button
A green internal marker within the shape moves but the shape itself doesn't flip.

[Andrius]

This one isn't technically a bug as such. Because resizing/transforming is nondestructive, Pixelmator Pro remembers the orientation of objects and flips them internally. For example, say you add a triangle with one side horizontally parallel, then rotate the side to be perpendicular to the horizon, Pixelmator Pro remembers its internal orientation and flips the original object rather than its current orientation (and the end result with the triangle is that nothing happens). This probably sounds pretty confusing, so here's a quick workaround:

1. Add a shape
2. Rotate it
3. Press the Command-G shortcut to create a group layer
4. Flip the group

With this method, you can then flip both the object internally (by flipping the inner layer) and its new orientation (by flipping the group).

[st3f]

Thanks for the workaround. That does the job.

I've a yearning for a new button now; one that reverses the rotation of a shape.
i.e. if my shape is rotated by 10 degrees, pressing this button will rotate it to 360-10=350 degrees.
That by itself would accomplish at I want if the shape is horizontally symmetrical. That and the press of reflect horizontal would do it for assymetric shapes.

[Andrius]

Hmm, that's an interesting case but sounds a little niche to me personally. Having said that, I'll add it to the feature request list and see what the designers make of it.

[Andrius]

P.S. I've just remembered another thing you can do — Format > Shapes > Reset Shape Handles. That will reset the shape's orientation, letting you flip it the way you'd expect. I personally quite like the group method, but I'll leave this here for posterity.

[st3f]

Format > Shapes > Reset Shape Handles
Perfect. That gives me the option of non-destructive using Group or quick and dirty/simple hierarchy using Reset Shape Handles.
Thanks for your help.