Autolayout: Add constraint to superview and not Top Layout Guide?

Question

I have a UIView in my UIViewController in storyboard which I want to add a constraint on to space that view a distance from the top edge.

Now, when I do the usual by ctrl + drag to the ViewController's main view I only get option to set it to top layout guide.

This is a problem for me because at one point in the app Im going to move the main view up around 20-50px and what happens then is that view I have will not move... because its not aligned to superview.

How can I manually do this in storyboard or do I have to add it programatically?

Im using xcode 6.

Solution 1

There is an arrow to the right of the constraint constant value. If you click on it, a menu pops out where you can choose what is it that you want to make your constraint relative to. If you choose 'View', than it will pin it to the top of the view.

Solution 2

You should be able to do it by highlighting the view you want in the storyboard and then selecting Editor > Pin > Top Space to Superview in the top menu.

---

This is outdated in XCode 7, see @PaulGurov's answer instead.

Solution 3

TL;DR: You can constrain to the margin by pressing the Alt key on the keyboard.

---

One can also add that if the view you are trying to pin is not a direct subview of the view that you want to pin it to, the suggested approach is not really valid. Let's say the view hierarchy looks like that and you want to pin the image view (Parallax Image View in this case) to the view controller's view (View in this case).

To do that you just Control + Drag from the Parallax Image View to the View. That presents the default choices where you can see Vertical Spacing to Top Layout Guide to pin the Parallax Image View to the top layout guide.

What you want is to pin it to the top (margin) of the view. To do that you have to switch to the other set of constraints by pressing Alt

Solution 4

I had a whole bunch of constraints already there and I just wanted to change them rather than break them. Turns out if you double click on the constraint to edit, then click on the item that has the ".Margin", you can just turn off the "Relative to Margin" by selecting that item.

Solution 5

Dan's answer works. I just wanted to state that if you set your view in storyBoard at y < 20, and configure constraints through the pin panel, it will set top to superview:

View more solutions

Comments

[Woodstock]

Can you drag and drop to the correct entity in the document outline to the left? - Scene objects in this screenshot: ptgmedia.pearsoncmg.com/images/chap5_9780672335761/elementLi‌​nks/…

[Arbitur]

Ive tried that aswell, same result

[NKorotkov]

Works like a charm - XCode 6.3

[Kyle G]

They've removed 'pin' from the editor menu in Xcode 7. Any new solutions?

[Jeremy Hicks]

Hallelujah! I didn't know what I was going to do when they removed the Editor-->Pin menu.

[zumzum]

can't believe I didn't see that before. Awesome.

[Ryan Pfister]

Just a note for people who are as clueless as me --> you may not be able to make this change unless the view you are adding the constraint to is below the top layout guide. I had a view above the top layout guide and "Top Layout Guide" wasn't an option in the drop down menu. Which is probably a "duh" statement for non-newbs like me :)

[Marchy]

It's about those small Xcode subtleties. That do SO much. :)

[micnguyen]

Just a quick clarification that confused me: despite the image having Top Layout Guide ticked, if you want to pin the view to the TOP of the view like the very top of the device, then select "View".

[netdigger]

This was what I was looking for when I came here! Thanks

[Daniel Wood]

Is this only available in storyboards and not plain nibs? I cannot get this option to appear for love nor money.

[Pavel Gurov]

@DanielWood Well, the 'topLayoutGuide' and 'bottomLayoutGuide' are available anywhere in the IB (storyboard or a xib) as long as what you are editing is a viewController's view, not a regular UIView. If it is a regular UIView you still get the arrow, only the options will be limited to superview and neighbouring views, because plain UIViews don't have layout guides. btw, thanks a lot for Seconds app, its simply the best, I use it almost every day for my boxing workouts!

[Daniel Wood]

@PaulGurov Ha, thanks. I'm glad you like it. Regarding the nibs. I realised I needed to add a view controller in the end. But I couldn't get it to work with UIViewController initWithNib... Are the two not compatible? Look at me, has successful app, still can't code ;-)

[Daniel Wood]

@PaulGurov Thanks for the offer. I'm just prototyping right now so I'll just use Storyboards instead. Or just do it in code like I always have.

[Ryan Chou]

can we see it default to the superview?

[Pavel Gurov]

Even if there is a way to do that, I am not aware of it (

[AnBisw]

Awesome, but I wonder why it sometimes aligns top (and bottom) automatically to Superview and some time it does it to the Top Layout guide. 🤔

[Machado]

Very useful tip. This has actually solved my problem.

[Duc Nguyen]

It works for me, but I don't know how to add multiple constraints at the same time. Now, I have to add one by one, to take time.