Why does BitmapText need to call setBox before alignment?

I was getting a Bound is not set error when trying to align a BitmapText. With some searching saw that you have to call setBox on the BitmapText first. I don’t understand the need for the setBox. If I Align.Center an BitmapText wouldn’t that assume that the individual quad would be offset would be offset to make the bound even on the X axis? Note that I’m specifically talking about using BitmapText in a 3d context and not being attached to the guiNode.

For example when I call [java]fooText.setAlignment(Align.Center);[/java] I would think something like [java]

Vector3f alignmentOffset = new Vector3f();

BoundingBox bounds = (BoundingBox) fooText.getWorldBound();

bounds.getMax(alignmentOffset );

for (Spatial s : fooText.getChildren())

{

s.move(-store.x, 0, 0);

}

[/java] would be called in the method. Is there something I’m missing here?