Normalize Lines — User Guide

1Introduction

Normalize Lines is a one-click clean-up tool for Xpedition Layout. When you draw geometry by hand — for example, lines on user layers, draft outlines, or shape boundaries — individual segments often end up at slightly off-axis angles. Normalize Lines straightens that geometry by snapping every segment of each selected item to the nearest multiple of an angle you choose, such as 45° or 90°.

The tool is designed to be fast and unattended. It has no window of its own: you select the items you want to fix, launch the tool, type in a single angle value, and the tool quietly snaps everything to that angle grid and closes. It is a natural companion to Add Shield Walls, where large amounts of hand-drawn line work can easily drift off the standard 45° axes.

Note: Normalize Lines changes the geometry that is currently selected. Nothing happens to items you have not selected, and the tool never touches your routed copper traces.

2Requirements & Setup

Xpedition Layout must be open with your design loaded, and the design must be licensed for automation (the tool handles licensing automatically when it starts).
The items you want to straighten must be selected in the design before you launch the tool.
The tool is normally launched from a hotkey or menu entry set up during installation. If you are not sure how it is bound on your system, see the Hotkeys guide or your installation notes.

Note: If you launch the tool with nothing selected, it simply closes again without making any changes or showing a message.

3How It Works

You give the tool a single value: the angle you want everything to line up with. The tool looks at each segment of every selected item, measures its current angle, and rotates it to the nearest multiple of your chosen angle. If you enter 45, every segment ends up on one of the eight principal axes (0°, 45°, 90°, 135°, and so on). If you enter 90, every segment becomes either horizontal or vertical.

Before and after: a hand-drawn polyline with segments at arbitrary angles, then with each segment snapped to the nearest 45-degree axis — Each segment is rotated to the nearest multiple of the angle you enter, and the corners are recalculated so the segments still meet.

When a selected item is made of several connected segments, the tool snaps each segment individually and then recalculates the corner points where they meet, so a multi-segment shape stays connected after it is straightened. A selected item that is just a single straight segment is simply rotated to the nearest allowed angle.

Tip: Perfectly round shapes (true circles) are left exactly as they are — there is no “angle” to snap on a circle, so the tool skips them automatically.

4What It Affects

Normalize Lines works on the open, drawn geometry in your selection. When you run it, it processes every selected item of the following kinds:

Selected item	What happens
Lines & shapes drawn on user layers	Each segment is snapped to your chosen angle. This is the most common use — hand-drawn line work such as shield-wall outlines and draft graphics.
Obstructs	The outline is snapped to your chosen angle. Filled or unfilled state and the obstruct type are preserved.
Plane shapes	The shape boundary is snapped to your chosen angle. Net, hatch settings, and route-obstruct state are preserved.
Conductive areas	The boundary is snapped to your chosen angle. Net and fix/lock state are preserved.
Rule areas	The boundary is snapped to your chosen angle. The rule-area name and type are preserved.

Important: Routed copper traces are not affected by this tool, and true circles are skipped. If you need to bring the endpoints of separate line objects back together after snapping, use the Join Lines tool — see the next section.

5Typical Workflow

A common reason to use Normalize Lines is to clean up a region that was drawn quickly with many separate line objects — the kind of work produced when adding shield walls. Each line gets snapped to the angle grid, and then Join Lines tidies up the points where separate lines should meet.

Three stages: separate hand-drawn lines slightly off-axis, the same lines after Normalize Lines snaps them to the axes leaving small gaps, then the lines after Join Lines reconnects their endpoints — Normalize Lines puts every segment on-axis; Join Lines then extends or trims the separate lines so their endpoints meet again.

In Xpedition Layout, select the lines, shapes, or areas you want to straighten.
Launch Normalize Lines using its assigned hotkey or menu entry.
When the small prompt appears, type the angle you want everything to snap to — for most work this is 45 or 90 — and confirm.
The tool snaps all selected geometry to that angle and closes on its own.
If you were straightening many separate line objects and their endpoints no longer meet, run the Join Lines tool to extend or trim them back together.

Tip: All of the snapping happens as a single change. If you don’t like the result, a single Undo in Xpedition Layout reverts the whole operation at once.

6The Snap-Angle Prompt

The only thing the tool asks you for is the snap angle. A small prompt appears with the question “What angle do you want to snap to?” Type a number of degrees and confirm.

Enter a positive number of degrees. 45 snaps to the eight principal axes; 90 snaps to horizontal and vertical only.
Other values are allowed. You can enter finer angles such as 30, 22.5, or 15 if your design uses them.
If you type something that isn’t a valid number (or leave it blank), the tool shows “Invalid input. Please try again.” and re-asks. It keeps asking until you enter a usable value.

Warning: Enter a real, positive angle such as 45 or 90. Do not enter 0 — zero is not a valid snap angle and will not produce a usable result. If you decide you don’t want to run the tool after all, enter a normal angle to let it finish and then Undo, since the prompt does not offer a cancel option.

7Tips & Troubleshooting

The tool closed immediately and nothing changed: nothing was selected when you launched it. Select your geometry first, then run the tool again.
The endpoints of separate lines no longer touch: this is expected when several independent line objects are each snapped on their own. Run Join Lines to extend or trim them so their endpoints meet.
A round shape didn’t change: true circles are skipped on purpose, because they have no segment angle to snap.
My copper routing was untouched: that is by design — the tool only straightens drawn lines, shapes, and areas, not routed traces.
The result looks wrong: use a single Undo to revert the entire operation, then re-run with a different angle (for example, switch between 45 and 90).
The prompt keeps reappearing: it only accepts a valid number. Type a plain numeric value such as 45 — no degree symbol or extra text.