I'm looking to make shapes align to a custom path or shape, but currently it appears the only way to do this, plugin or otherwise, is to just align/distribute horizontally or vertically.

Here's a screenshot of what I'm looking to do more efficiently. Imagine being able to distribute or align the circle shapes along this custom path (or shape) without having to just do it manually (which I'm doing now, sigh).

Hope this makes sense, and thanks in advance!